Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 20:52:15 +0000
Reply-To: Mike Finkbiner <mike_l_f@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mike Finkbiner <mike_l_f@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Trip Report, Boston Bob Engine Update, AC Problem Resolved
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Volks -
I've been posting about my Boston Bob engine, and getting lots of useful
advice from folks on the list, so I thought I would let you know what's the
latest.
In June I was preparing to take 10 days off, and drive about 1000 miles (My
ideal vacation does not involve driving 400 miles a day!).
Before we left, into the 100+ forecast, I had my AC recharged by a friend of
mine, but the van wouldn't cool down! Turned out to be a dumb move on his
part, and lack of thought on mine. While running the AC to check it, he had
turned on the rear-seat heater. No matter how cold the air from the top
was, the heat from under the seat was winning!
On the trip, the AC did OK. Actually, except for the 103 day in the
Tri-Cities, it wasn't bad. The fan I mounted behind the rear seats to move
air to the front really helps. I still want to check the outlet vent
temperature and see what it is now.
To cut to the chase, the engine ran fine. It scared me once, driving into
Portland on the second day, when the temperature needle moved up 3/4 of the
way. Interestingly, the Temp II sensor on the Digitool never got really
low, so I suspect there may be a sensor problem for the gauge. The rest of
the trip, it stayed closer to the led.
It seems to be running about a needle higher since installing the new
engine, so something is different.
Learned something else interesting. I could feel something cutting in and
out on the engine, and figured it was the AC clutch. One time I had the
Digotool set to Voltage, and saw that it was about 12.8, rather low. When
the clutch released on the AC, it went back up to 13.2. I glad you
generally don't have to run the AC at night, with the lights on!
We had a good time at Powell's Books in Portland, then spent four days at
WesterCon the big regional SF convention, and moved on to Restful Haven, an
AANR resort west of Portland, where the big solar heated pool was really
refreshing.
After that we went to Fort Vancouver, the old Hudson's Bay Company post, a
really well done re-creation, and went camping near Mt St Helens, the
volcano that dumped ash on me back in '81. After that we puttered back
across Washington and home.
Never any problems with starting or running, everything ran well. I haven't
had any recurrence of the engine cutting out problem since switching to my
spare ECU. I'll bet Darrell Boehler is right, and the older T/A unit has a
cracked solder joint that causes problems when it heats up.
We used almost a quart of oil over 1000 miles. I'm keeping it at halfway
between the upper and lower marks on the dipstick, based on some recent
posts here. It's not a lot of oil consumption, but a bit more than I would
like.
It may drop off as everything breaks in more fully down the road.
Totals - - 1053 miles - 58.52 gallons - 17.99 mpg - 1 quart of oil.
Minimum was 14.74 going down the Columbia into the strong wind with the AC
on, maximum 19.5 from Royal City to Moscow, rolling country with the wind at
our back and cool enough to not need the air conditioning.
I was hoping to re-check the compression, fuel pressure and vacuum figures
before posting this, but - maybe in a couple of weeks.
Next stop Alaska? Well, maybe I need to think about better screens first!
- Mike Finkbiner
'87 Westy (with a happier engine)
Moscow, Idaho
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