Date:         Sun, 13 Oct 2002 15:17:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Craig Oda's Personal email <craig@ODA-INC.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Craig Oda's Personal email <craig@ODA-INC.NET>
Subject:      Re: 20 psi oil pressure on freeway.  Worry?
Comments: To: Doktor Tim <doktortim@rockisland.com>
In-Reply-To:  <5.1.0.14.0.20021013140601.009f1b00@pop3.rockisland.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Tim,
thank you for the information.  Also, thanks to Stan Wilder, who sent
me an earlier note.

I've only put about 5,000 miles on the van myself.  The previous owner
was a groovy laid-back guy living in North Beach in San Francisco that
probably didn't keep the engine in that good shape.  For example, when
I bought the van, the radiator fan switch was broken and the previous
owner did not know about it.  This meant, the van engine probably
suffered from overheating a number of times.  At the time I bought the
vehicle, I did not know about this.

Are you suggesting the following:
  1) compression test
  2) engine flush with some engine gunk
  3) straight 40w oil (maybe with some viscosity thickener like ring
seal)

I'm about to go off to Sears to get a compression tester.

Before, I go, I thought I would ask for general comments on what the
chances of the van engine throwing a rod or something with this 20psi
oil pressure.  Is it that bad?  I don't mind buying a new engine,
however, my wife is getting a little tired of being stranded on the
side of the road when I take the family camping.  Since I've starting
camping with the van at the beginning of this year, I've been stranded
with a cracked cylinder head (replaced myself), starter problems
(working okay for now with new hard-start relay), blown transmission
(had to pay $1,500 for this one since I was 400 miles from home and had
no way to get the van to my home garage).

So, I'm thinking of maybe getting a rebuilt engine from
http://www.avp-worldwide.com/engines.htm or from Boston Engine.  The
AVP engine is considerably cheaper and closer to my house in the SF Bay
area.

However, if I can take the van camping for another year with a 75%
chance of returning home without major problems like a rod throwing,
then I would rather take my chances on the road with my van.

Another option is for me to try and replace the main bearings myself.
I have no experience with this.  However, I have a 2 car garage and am
willing to give it a try.

If I buy a rebuilt engine, what else do I have to buy?  Or, is this my
only cost?

Thanks for any advice.

-- Craig


--- Doktor Tim <doktortim@rockisland.com> wrote:
> Give me a run down on that last 70K miles? The way the vehicle was
> used,
> miles per year/month/week, and the maintenance history, fluid and
> filter
> changes, fuel milage figures if you got, the more info the better.
> Then I
> can give you some ideas about where the oil pressure is going. There
> are
> ways to coax a few more miles while you save the bucks for an engine
> rebuilding project. A proper compression test would give you some
> idea of
> general engine health. If that's in spec, then some cleanup and
> straight 40
> weight would verify by the gage an improvement. If it only improves
> sleightly at that point, you will need a rebuild sooner rather than
> later.
> If it jumps you to 7 lbs and 30 lbs hot pressure, you might well get
> another 10 or 30k out of it, or a few more years for a short range
> summer
> driver.
>
> Key source of error is lack of adequate maintenance inspection
> procedures.
> You just cannot substitute "tune-ups" and "quicky-lubes" or rule of
> thumb
> time/milage intervals for empirical data, obtained with sight, feel,
> smell,
> and hearing, pencil and paper.
>
>
> At 01:34 PM 10/13/2002, you wrote:
>
> >I recently installed a wet oil pressure gauge to find out why my oil
> >pressure light keeps flashing.
> >
> >When I first start the engine, 20 psi at idle and 30-50 on the
> freeway.
> >
> >After 3 miles of driving, 5 psi or less at idle and 20 psi on the
> >freeway.
> >
> >I guess about 40-60 psi on the freeway going about 60mph is nice,
> but
> >it's consistently at 20psi.  Driving home on residential streets at
> >30mph, I get about 15psi reading.
> >
> >I'm running 20w50 oil with viscosity thickener.
> >
> >Should I still drive the van around with the family, or is this oil
> >pressure so low that I should be taking apart the engine?  I cleaned
> >the oil relief valve/plunger.  Should I stretch that spring out
> more?
> >
> >1983.5 Westy with a rebuild about 70K miles ago.
> >
> >-- Craig
> >
> >=====
>


=====