Date:         Sun, 26 May 2002 13:50:18 -0700
Reply-To:     Matt Ratto <mratto@WEBER.UCSD.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Matt Ratto <mratto@WEBER.UCSD.EDU>
Subject:      update on diesel-gas conversion
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Well,

like everyone else I got distracted by life for a few weeks. I went down to
the garage for the first time in a while today and tried to get some stuff
done. The first order of business was to cut the hole to make the intake
manifold fit. Unfortunately, my little dremel with cut-off wheels was taking
way too long so I had to put that aside until I buy an angle grinder or
something. Fine. On to getting the alternator installed and the belts put
back on. I decided to use the mounting bracket from the diesel and the two
belt arrangement I had on it. I would have used the existing arrangement on
the gas motor, but the car I pulled it from had air conditioning and the
belts didn't line up. I wish I had done this before installing the new motor
but I was paying money on a hoist and in a hurry. No problem until I found
that the head on one of the bolts on the vibration damper was totally
stripped.

But this made me rethink my decision to go with the double belt arrangement.
How do other people have the v-belt set up? Can I use just one belt? If I
can then I don't need to switch the water pump pully and the vibration
damper.

I next moved on to the fuel delivery system. I got a fuel pump from Stan a
few weeks ago, complete with bracket. But then I couldn't remember where to
put the filter. I was thinking it goes between the tank and the pump rather
than after, in order to ensure that the pressure stays high. Can someone
remind me? So I didn't want to cut fuel lines until I had that settled.

At this point I realized that I wasn't going to get anything done today. So,
just to make a bad work day even worse, I started to try and figure out the
electrics. What a nightmare. I have no idea how I'm going to make sense of
that mess. Worse, I think I missed some control boxes from the donor Golf. I
was thinking that the CIS didn't use any electronics, other than the
ignition unit so I didn't grab anything from under the dash other than the
relays and the harness. But looking at the Bentley I see that some sort of
computer is connected to the oxygen sensor and some other things. Is that
true? I still can't figure out what it actually does. Maybe its not to late
to put all the wiring in a box and ship it off to David Marshall...

Anyway, as you might be able to tell, I'm at that part of a project where
you think you'll never be done. All of my friends think I'm crazy.

Matt

-----------------------------------
Matt Ratto
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0503
mratto@ucsd.edu
-----------------------------------