Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 08:02:48 -0500
Reply-To: wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: [WetWesties] The Misadventures of Vanagon Stan. Long, Long
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Yes Folks!
A an air cooled vanagon will run 85 mph for about ten minutes before it
blows up.
It would be hard pressed to make it twelve minutes though.
Stan
On Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:41:55 -0500 (CDT) CTONLINE@webtv.net (Terry K.)
writes:
> Stanley,
>
> 85 MPH ?
>
> Bwa Ha, Ha, ha, ha, !!!!
>
> And now that you finally have figured out and mastered the air
> cooled VW
> engine, you are bailing out.
>
> No intestinal fortitude.---:>)
>
> Now what you should do, as you have the air boxer figured out----
> it's
> time for new horizons--
> A Wasserboxer--!!
>
> They build men !!
> ( and really empty wallets )---:>)
>
> Later,
>
> Terry--
>
>
>
> E-mail message
>
> From: wilden1@juno.com Date: Wed, Jun 19, 2002, 7:03am To:
> vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Cc: wetwesties@yahoogroups.com Subject:
> [WetWesties] The Misadventures of Vanagon Stan. Long, Long
> The Misadventures of Vanagon Stan.
> Early in 1985 I purchased my first Westy. It was an 83 Air Cooled.
> An
> old time friend went with me to take a look at the Westy and give me
> a
> few pointers on VW's. After some general conversation he warned me
> against Waser Boxers and after a quick trip around the block and
> down
> the freeway I purchased the Air Cooled Westy. I wasn't carrying
> around a
> big wad of cash so I left him a check for a deposit and told him I'd
> be
> back in about three days with the balance of the purchase price.
> Right from the get go I'D had problems with valve noise and hard
> starting.
> I had purchased a Hayes manual and was reading every word with
> great
> interest hoping I'd not see the phrase dropped valve seat in the
> sentence I was reading.
> Ultimately I gave up on adjusting my troubles away and pulled one of
> the
> heads to find out that most of the seats were loose. I took the head
> to
> a friend in the Aircraft cylinder business and he welded up the head
> and
> restored it to like new condition. After slaving through about
> three
> days of "First Time Big Repair" on the Westy I cranked it up. Well
> for
> sure guys the opposite head just dropped out a seat.
> After pulling the head I went back to my friend that had repaired
> the
> last head and he recommended a new head.
> I located sources for the head and got it ordered. Price excepted I
> was
> pleased.
> I installed the new head and meticulously followed the Hayes manual
> to
> the "T" to be sure it was installed right in every way. What Hayes
> failed to mention was that:
> AMCs don't use head gaskets and that you can't run one AMC and one
> VW
> head on opposite sides of the engine. The fact that the deck height
> needed to be reset with base shims was also excluded. I sorted
> through
> this by pulling the heads a couple of times. I'm back on the road
> again.
> Screwed up engine but she's running pretty decent until about six
> months
> later I'm running 85 miles an hour against a head wind being pushed
> by a
> big dodge duly pickup truck about three feet off my rear bumper. I
> know
> the engine is straining and I know I'm straining just to find a way
> to
> get that fool off my ass so I can slow down to my usual 65 –70 mph.
>
> Too late. I'm looking through the rear view mirror at a Dodge hood
> ornament in the center of my rear window and I see a good supply of
> engine oil spotting the rear glass. The duly has backed off about
> this
> time (I wet him down real good with 3 quarts of 20/50 wt.) and I
> pull
> off at the next exit ramp that is immediate. With the engine running
> I
> walk around the back of the Westy and view a well lubricated bumper
> and
> rear hatch and notice the smoke of burning oil coming from the
> muffler.
> By the time I get back to the vehicle central control console the
> oil
> light is flickering and I turn off the engine. After checking the
> oil
> (what oil?) and finding none in the crankcase I get into my
> emergency
> stores and add a quart. Well, I get it to touch the dipstick and
> continue adding oil until it is once again to the full mark. Glad I
> was
> carrying enough oil for an oil change. I restart the engine and it
> seems
> to run OK, I drive it about thirty feet and get out, lay under it to
> see
> If I can see any oil drips …………. I sure can. Its just pouring
> out the valve covers. There isn't much I can do except drive a
> little
> more or call a wrecker and since I'm 250 miles from home I choose
> to
> drive a few more miles to see if I can find a few quarts of engine
> oil.
> I get a case of oil and by chance the Auto Parts store had a set of
> valve cover gaskets. I installed the gaskets, gluing both sides of
> the
> gaskets and taking a thirty-minute break to let the Permatex
> Silicone
> High Temperature Sealer do its work.
> I'm driving on the service roads at about 35 mph by now and I make
> it
> home by adding a quart of oil every 35 miles. The engine teardown
> was a
> gruesome mess until I just laid everything aside and cleaned
> everything
> I could get to with Gunk engine cleaner and let it dry before
> repeating
> the process again. With the driver side head off I found #3 piston
> had
> two broken rings, a scored cylinder but the head appeared to be un
> damaged. I installed a set of Mahle Cylinders and Pistons on the
> engine
> and was back on the road again.
> Since the oil had been self changing for the last 250 miles I opted
> not
> to change the oil with the cylinder installation because I knew it
> would
> need to be changed very soon as the cylinders wore in. I ran a
> decent
> break-in on the engine for about 200 miles and changed the oil,
> filter
> and cleaned the strainer.
> I found a True-Arc clip in the strainer so I pulled the engine down
> again knowing that one of the wrist pins was eating one of my
> cylinders.
> Guess what guys; it was an old clip that had sprung its way into
> the
> crankcase when I was removing the old pistons.
> While into the engine this time I installed a new set of rod
> bearings
> and preloaded the lifters with a hand operated press. In the last
> moments of cleaning up the engine and myself before attempting the
> first
> restart I thought to myself; "that was an interesting 14 hours".
> Several years passed without any events until the engine started
> back
> firing and became very hard to start. I'll shorten this and just
> say
> that one of the clips that hold the lifters together evaporated and
> a
> lifter disassembled itself causing me about three days of list
> queries
> and frustration. This event caused me to start at the front of the
> van
> and test everything associated with fuel, ignition or mechanical
> until I
> finally decided that I had a dead lifter. Expecting to find a
> collapsed
> lifter I found the disassembled lifter.
> To get the dates set, it is now January 2001 and I'm in my sixth
> year
> still running the some old mismatched heads. After checking the
> compression on the engine I decided that I had beaten the old
> engine
> enough and I started collecting all of the parts necessary to
> rebuild my
> engine. I had nursed this engine a full 140,000 miles with my TLC
> and
> about eight hundred dollars in parts. Before I got around to
> rebuilding
> my engine I used my parts collection to build an engine for a
> friend.
> After installing the rebuilt engine in his Vanagon the engine would
> not
> turn over with the starter. I invested several days of queries to
> the
> list before I discovered on my own (after removing the engine) that
> if
> you remove an A/C pulley from behind the fan, you must either put
> it
> back or use a spacer because the fan locks against the fan shroud.
> After
> re-installing the rebuilt engine in his Vanagon I was absolutely
> astounded at the performance of the new engine. The whole rebuild
> process had cost only about a thousand dollars and taken only three
> days. I immediately started acquiring parts to rebuild my engine.
> It
> took about three months of getting the wrong oil pump three times,
> getting shorted on gaskets in kits for me to get my engine rebuilt.
> By
> this time I was fairly well educated on rebuilding the Type IV
> engine
> and had acquired several more manuals that are more complete than
> Hayes
> but still have gaping holes in them for trouble shooting and basic
> tips
> in the rebuild process.
> What Bentley, Hayes, Muir and Tom Wilson tell you is wonderful but
> what
> they don't tell you is disastrous.
> Stan Wilder
> 83 Air Cooled Westfalia
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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