Date:         Mon, 3 Mar 2003 18:09:32 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: What's wrong with my VW? Friday
In-Reply-To:  <005a01c2e0b4$0894cda0$040200c0@lagos>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

>  >>Shame the kit wasn't the best quality, and it had a piston which was
>perforated... eventually burned badly
>
>Never heard of a perforated piston before - what in the dickens was this kit
>you bought?
>
>... basically, I can agree with Stans overall sentiments, with all the
>ancillaries functioning ideally, there isn't much in the basic engine to go
>far wrong,
>driven sensibly.

Don't know what brand... it was in the van when I bought it. I
wondered why, every time I fixed an oil leak, another would spring up
elsewhere. In retrospect it's obvious the leakage was pressurizing
the crankcase, BLOWING oil past the gaskets.

I had it for a bit over a year... took it on quite a few trips. It
went REALLY well, that Bay. But on a trip, about 160km from home, the
geologists in the back commented that it was "getting a bit smoky in
here"... and I looked in my mirror... couldn't see the road behind
me! Complete whiteout, though it was still sitting happily on 110kmh.
Pulled over and its idling dropped to 3 cylinders. Noitced that the
smoke wasn't coming from the exhaust. Opened the hatch and saw that
it was coming from the breather hose, which I'd detached from the
airbox because it had been oiling up the filter (another clue). Well,
I wasn't going to let this ruin my trip, so we carried on up the
river to do our fossicking, and had to pushstart it afterward, as the
engine was a bit tight. Got home with the engine acting as a 1600
triple, keeping speed down to 80kmh (it would still happily do over
100). When it was eventually pulled the only damage was the scored
bore and the piston had a decent-sized hole burned through the
compression ring-land. Don't ask me about the Toyota V8 conversion
that followed...

Anyway, the kit didn't fail because of bore warpage, which is common
in thinwalled slip-in kits.
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut