Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 20:01:46 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Mages <wasserbox@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Mages <wasserbox@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Engine Rebuild - week 3
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Mon to Thurs - caught up on neglected work-work and
homework while awaiting some parts
Friday - Reinstalled pistons after facing them towards
the CORRECT flywheel, as opposed to the incorrect
flywheel that is on the other end of the engine :)
After much de-burring of the #1 piston wrist-pin it
went back in smoothly (after heated to 100+ degrees).
A word of advice - save your old piston rings until
you are all done. One of my new ones was chipped
going back in, and luckily I had one correct one left
to replace it with. Went for a short bike ride after
that. Good thing too - dropped 30 deg. and started
snowing today.
Saturday - installed new boston engine cylinder heads.
Installed the first one twice after forgetting the
cylinder to cylinder head gaskets. Hooked up the fuel
lines, H2O pump, oil cooler and a few other things.
Sunday - THE DAY - with the help of my friendly
neighborhood hippie, without whom I probably would
have boxed this all up and taken it to the local shop
long ago, we started at 8am and finished putting the
engine back together. Drained and filled the tranny
while It was lowered, replaced the rear selector arm,
boots and bushing. Both the boots were hashed, and
there was Zero grease in the rear bushing. Just a bit
left in the selector. Around noon we put the engine
back in the van (with much cursing and bleeding) and
eventually hooked up all the sensors and hoses. There
are a LOT of sensors and hoses in that engine.
Somehow we eventually matched up everything. We got
the exhaust in position to bolt up, but ran out of
energy and daylight at about the exact same moment.
In retrospect I should have put the exhaust on BEFORE
putting the engine in, but I was not about to remove
the engine again just to do that.
So - I may actually meet my pre-Easter weekend
deadline. I asked my girlfriend where she wanted to
camp in Sedona during our long weekend to visit her
family, and she just kind of looked at me blankly and
said "Camp? I thought Sedona would be a day trip."
Which makes me ask myself WHY IN THE ^%$@#$# I have
been busting my hump for the last 3 weeks to get this
back together... if we aren't going to camp, then we
will be taking the car that gets 30mpg instead of the
van with a freshly rebuilt (and somewhat suspect)
engine 500 miles away...
But it is all for the best - while the engine has been
out my Sewfine carpet kit showed up... there is never
a lack of projects when you have 2 1980's volkswagens
at home. Then comes the Scirocco's G-Grind cam, and
the sunroof rebuild, and the window rubber, and the
propane system, then the bodywork and paint on the
van, then the psychiatric ward, then some time by
myself in a quiet country cottage by a pond - to
recover from my breakdown, followed by years of
therapy and weird hippie tantric excercises, etc......
:)
Sounds like fun - wanna come?
=====
Mark
84 Rocco
87 Westfalia
96 Rockhopper Comp (commuter)
98 Yeti AS-R XC (freeride)
01 Schwinn Fastback Ltd (in progress)
http://student.fortlewis.edu/~mwmages
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