Date:         Thu, 18 Sep 2003 15:01:34 -0400
Reply-To:     David Brodbeck <gull@GULL.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Brodbeck <gull@GULL.US>
Subject:      Re: Introduction and knocking problem on a 82 Diesel vanagon
Comments: To: "Ahlgrim, Kevin L" <kahlgrim@IUSB.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <C636A37544842F429873A2A35AA86215505F0A@iu-mssg-mbx07.exchange.iu.edu>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Ahlgrim, Kevin L wrote:

> Picked it up drove it home 250 miles ran great but is slow like everyone
> says they are.  Family loves it, drive it about another 250 miles and on
> my way to work Tuesday morning it dies at an intersection.  Starts back
> up and I drive to the next insection, it dies.  Can't get it to even
> turn over now so I push it off to the side.  My wife comes to jump start
> it and it starts up but now the engine sounds bad and you can hear a
> loud knocking sound.  Tow it home, change the oil, it's still knocking
> but not as loud.  The other thing I have noticed is that the knocking is
> louder on startup until the oil gets moving around in the engine.

I'll cover the worst scenario first.  The fact that it happened suddenly,
and that you had trouble getting the engine to turn over, makes me wonder
if your engine has jumped time.  There's a toothed timing belt that drives
the camshaft and injector pump.  There is very, very little room to spare
inside this engine and if the belt skips a few teeth you can have pistons
colliding with valves.  You should verify the valve timing is correct, or
at very least turn the engine by hand (clockwise, with a wrench on the
crank pully nut -- you'll need to remove the muffler to get access) and
make sure it turns over smoothly before you try to run it any more.
You'll feel some mushy, springy resistance due to engine compression, but
if you feel a hard stop at any point in the rotation something is very
wrong.  Do two full turns so that all cylinders have had a chance to do a
complete cycle.

If the timing is okay and the engine turns over smoothly, it's possible
you have a bad or dirty injector.  Dirty injectors cause loud knocking
that can sound very ominous.  You can test for this by loosening the union
nuts on the injector lines one at a time with the engine warmed up and
idling.  (Wear eye protection, please.)  What you're doing is eliminating
the fuel to one cylinder at a time.  If loosening one nut eliminates the
knocking, that cylinder has a bad injector.


David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si