Date:         Thu, 3 Jul 2003 06:49:46 -0500
Reply-To:     VWNut Hawk <vwnut@HAWKCOMPUTING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         VWNut Hawk <vwnut@HAWKCOMPUTING.COM>
Subject:      Re: 1.9L long blocks
Comments: To: lauterba@BELLSOUTH.NET
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

John,

Me!  Yes if you're mechanically inclined at all you can do it.
I have an automatic 84 that I did first.  I put a 2.1 in my 1984
manual.
They are from Boston Bob.  He was helpful.

You need a good hydrolic jack, common metric wrenchs and sockets.

Here's sort of an idea of how to do this.
1.) disconnect battery.
2.) Use a strong bench on wheels to hold the engine so you can work on
it to
put the parts on it.
3.) Get several boards to put under the bell housing.  When you let the
engine down
you'll want the transmission to rest above the ground about 6"?
4.) Let the coolant out and collect it in something as it falls under
the engine.
5.) disconnect spark cables, keeping a chart on how they were.
6.) label fuel injectors cables and remove them.  You'll want to know
left-front, left rear,etc.
7.) disconnect accelerator cable at the throttle assembly.
8.) remove air intake before throttle assembly.  Air filter housing
etc. afm
9.) remove throttle assembly
10.) remove intake manifold, (you should get new rubber from Bob or
Vanagain 4 of them)
11.) remove the alternator
12.) remove backets and keep track of where they go.  As you go, clean
the parts, use super clean from
Farm & Fleet, or power clean it's a real strong purple cleaner.  Use a
bench grinder with a steel brush wheel
to clean brackets and metal parts like intake manifold and repaint them
black.  Tape off openings before.
13.) Get a good supply of metric bolts.  The ones I got were grade 8.8
and redish.
14.) Remove the exhaust, muffler and cat together probably.  Remove
braces.
You can lower the engine with the headers on.
15.) You should have the fuel parts off to.  The fuel rails and hoses
should come off around the time you take off the the intake manifold.
Take off the distributor.
16.) At this point you should be ready to lower the engine.
17.) Put the boards under the bell housing.
18.) remove the starter.
19.) Jack up the rear end on some ramps.
20.) Jack under engine on a 1' square 3/4" piece of plywood.  Remove
the bell housing bolts.  Two underneath and one top left (from rear).
21.) remove all the bolts keeping the sheet metal sheilds held to the
van body.
take them out and clean them up.
22.) remove engine support brace.  It's the long black bow shaped brace
that is connected to the frame.  WITH the jack
centered and up under the engine.  Have someone steady the engine by
hand.  Lower it slowly and
pull it off the transmisson.  The transmission should be allowed the
lower some so that the engine will clear the rear
end of the van.  Just add or remove the right amount of boards under
it.
23.) Once you have the engine lowered you can slid it off the jack and
onto a carpet piece or board to
slide it out from under the van.
24.) Follow the vendors instructions on assembling the long block and
breaking it in.
25.) clean and paint the engine bracket, clean up the engine
compartment.  Replace old bolts, nuts, washers with
the new ones.  It will look great when it goes back in.

You should consider the 2.1 lots more power.

>>> lauterba <lauterba@BELLSOUTH.NET> 7/2/2003 10:08:21 PM >>>
Some local air-cooled guys have told me that if they can change out the
engines in their Vanagons w/o help, I should be able to do the same with
the 1.9 WBX in my '84 Vanagon.

Who has gotten a 1.9L long block recently?  Who was the rebuilder?  I
have a Haynes, and a microfiche copy of Bentley.  What else do I need?
This will be a driveway job.

List vendors:  Who wants to take my money?

John Lauterbach
Macon, GA
'84 7-passenger with A/C and auto. transmission