Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 10:19:14 -0600
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: How far is this Vanagon insanity going to go?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Engine test stand results; (Everything is related to type IV Air Cooled
Engines)
My goal in building an engine test stand was to simply run engines in for
20 minutes, retorque everything and then run them in for an hour or two
with fresh oil changes making valve adjustments, recording oil pressures,
recording manifold vacuum readings and eventually checking compression
readings.
I'm finding a few things I didn't expect.
The first thing was simply that the engines will accept retorquing after
they've been warmed a few times.
The most common shrinkage is in the cylinder base / head gaskets.
The deck height can change by reducing .005 / .008 from heads and gaskets
seating in.
One of the other discoveries can relate to both Wasserboxers and Air
Cooled.
When running in the first engine I installed a clear braided crankcase
ventilator hose. (because it was handy, no planning involved)
On first running of the engine there wasn't any thing to report other
than simply an easy start and good running engine.
The second time I ran the engine before an oil change was several days
later after the local temperatures had vacillated from 60 degrees down to
22 degrees (f) over about a one week time frame. (Humidity ranges from 29
to 78% with dew points I didn't think to record. )
On this run (#1 a restart with the first oil) I noticed moisture being
drawn into the clear ventilator crankcase tube (tube had a loop), the
moisture collected in the lowest part of the hose. Since Dad is a
Diabetic and I'm familiar with cc of syringes I'm guessing that I
collected .5 cc of moisture in the tube. I relate this to moisture that
had condensated in the crankcase during the one week of inactivity.
With the second oil change (approximately one hour of running) the engine
had set for another week and when I ran the engine this time I got the
same results of .5 cc of moisture in the crankcase ventilator tube. (.5
cc is about ten drops of water.)
Each morning since about January 5th I've had either dew or frost on my
Vanagon windows, this relates to high humidity at ideal dew point
conditions.
I have no idea whether this moisture was clinging to the crankcase
interior or had drained down into the oil.
Whatever the case is the moisture cooks out of the crankcase and is
sucked up through the ventilator. The volume of moisture isn't sufficient
to render you engine non-functional but could account for engines racing
slightly from water injection in first start of the day.
I haven't run an engine on a daily basis to date to see how much moisture
might be collecting in just an overnight sitting but it will be
interesting to see if it is even present or measurable.
I don't think I'm going to waste my time titrating the water to establish
acid content because I simply think the moisture is benign.
If you've stayed with this posting you deserve to know what its really
about; Here is my take on these results.
#1) If you let your van sit for as long as a week in winter months, run
it for a few minutes before you drive.
#2) You can temporarily install some clear tubing on your crankcase
ventilator and see if your engine is collecting condensation.
#3) I'm going to run this test on my daily driver 83 Westy to see how
much moisture I'm collecting.
#4) Can this moisture be prevented? No I don't think so unless you move
to an area with very low humidity.
#5) I often find rust inside valve covers, I suspect that they collect
the most condensation (hard to tell since I can't see the inside of the
engine).
#6) How this effects me is simply that I will run some STP with the last
run in oil before I drain it and provide filtered ventilation to the
crankcase of stored rebuilt engines. My reasoning: In one gallon glass
pickle jars in my garage with the lids sealed, I get condensation. On one
gallon pickle jars stored in my garage with loosely fitting lids I don't
get condensation moisture. (I use the pickle jars for bolt, gasket, small
parts storage deserving a big container.)
#7) I must ask myself; How far is this Vanagon insanity going to go?
Stan Wilder
83 Air Cooled Westfalia
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