Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 19:23:10 -0700
Reply-To: Coby Smolens <cobys5@HOME.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Coby Smolens <cobys5@HOME.COM>
Subject: Re: seizure
In-Reply-To: <17297609.1000687756251.JavaMail.imail@patti.excite.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Did you check the oil before this last ill-fated drive? Was it diluted then?
My guess is that it was, which may account for the way it ran. Maybe not,
though. Could be that fuel dilution of the oil caused critical viscosity
breakdown, rendering main bearings vulnerable to friction, hence the
stiffness when turning by hand. If this is happening with the plugs out,
there's not much doubt that the main/rod bearings are toast. Might be worth
checking the injector pulse and spray. I've seen a single bad injector
(shorted windings) cause all four to dump gas non-stop. A quick test might
be to hook up a fuel gauge, crank the engine and see if the thing holds
pressure with key on/engine off.
Coby Smolens
Valley Wagonworks
VW Bus and Vanagon Specialists
"Intimately acquainted with VW Vans since 1959"
1535 SF Drake Blvd, San Anselmo, CA 94960
415-457-5628
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Seth Bruggeman
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 5:49 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: seizure
hey list--
on the verge of selling my chronically ill westy for
scrap...just installed a new (new used) wiring harness
in hopes of curing a mysterious fuel consumption
problem...(also having just installed two new heads
immediately before a 1200 mile drive completed a mere
week ago; the trip completed without any problems aside
from the standard 9mpg)...after installing the new
harness, took the van for a test drive...ran perfectly,
best ever while in my possession...for about 10 miles,
that is...after some time--crusing around 45 mph--the
van began to stutter then evened out again...i ignored
it...then more stuttering followed my complete shut
down of engine while running...pushed the thing to the
side of the road where i found four leaking push rod
tubes and an exhaust system full of fuel...(cannot
express how fortunate i feel for the thing not to have
exploded)...pulled the plugs and gas poured out of
#3...#4 wet, #1 and #2 fine...the van will not start
although it will turn over very slowly with ignition
and with great difficulty by hand...this is the
problem...
as for the diagnosis, my sense is that i suffered from
serious hydrolock--one or two cylinders filled with
fuel, extremely high cylinder pressure forced a bent
something internally, and now the thing more-or-less
seized...does this sound reasonable and, if so, why
would this happen...valves stuck open?...bad
injector?...a combination of both???...at the time of
the breakdown, there was no noticable "bang" or cloud
of smoke except slight whisps from fuel drips hitting
the exhaust pipe...
am confused, irritated, frustrated and so on...any
ideas would be appreciated...
seth
'84 westy
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