Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 14:48:56 -0500
Reply-To: "G.M.Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "G.M.Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Organization: Bulley-Hewlett
Subject: Re: Know any good, fast mechanics in Austin Texas?
In-Reply-To: <001301c290bc$024a4b70$38137481@robothefan>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Patrick--
Sounds like you dropped a valve or a valve seat. Bad news. I just went
through the same thing on our 1982 Westy this past summer. Expensive
bummer.
Unless money is no object, there is no way in helium that you will be on
the road next Wednesday with this van. By the time the motor is pulled
and stripped, and the heads rebuilt, you are already into next week,
then there's re-assembly, and install... you don't want speed in this
repair, you want it done RIGHT.
If money is no object, I'd suggest completely replacing the motor with a
drop-in from one of the list vendors. If you ordered today one of them
might be able to get one shipped there by Monday, and you *could* be on
the road next week. But even that is pushing it/dreaming. [BTW-- if
money is no object, throw that Weber carburetor straight in the trash
and replace the Bosch EFI. A central carburetor is worthless in Type4
motors due to the long intake runners, and 160 degree turn the fuel
mixture has to make to enter the head; much of the fuel mist settles out
of the airstream and collects on the interior of the runners, entering
the combustion chamber as raw fuel.]
Anywho-- if you have more than 100k on the motor, I'd suggest carefully
weighing your options, as the bottom-end and pistons/cylinders/rings
don't typically last 200k, so just re-doing the heads can mean you are
throwing $$$ into the junkyard in 25k.
G. Matthew Bulley
Creator and Grand Emporer of the
VW Heat, Rust, Noise Web Page
http://www.bulley-hewlett.com/VWindex/
Owner of too many VW's to mention
Mount Olive, NC
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Patrick Kreuzer
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 12:41 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Know any good, fast mechanics in Austin Texas?
Howdy Vanagon aficionados,
Something unfortunate happened to my poor westie last night and I need
to find a mechanic in Austin who is relatively quick, inexpensive and
over-all trustworthy (man, am I dreaming of the perfect mechanic here).
What happened is that I turned off my van and it dieseled for a bit and
died eventually, not too bad I thought, just carbon deposits. Then I go
out to start it about 45minutes later and it shook pretty bad when
trying to start at first, then it started (only after depressing the gas
pedal down a ways) and it would make a loud noise like something in
cylinder 1 was banging around inside (it checked it with a timing
light). For the very short time I tried to run it, the shaking went away
but it was still banging loudly from around cylinder 1, and it quieted a
bit when the RPM's increased, but I let it go to idle and it died
quickly. So now it sits in from of the video store parking garage on
29th and Guadalupe waiting for help. Sorry about not including my van
specs in my previous e-mail, but I have a 1983 Air Cooled (CV engine
code) Vanagon Westfalia with the Weber dual progressive carb. Also a
matter about the urgency, the only reason I need a mechanic that is
semi-quick is that I need it done by Wednesday of next week so some
friends and I (who are all down here attending UT Austin) can go home
for thanksgiving (In El Paso).
Thanks in advanced,
Patrick
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