Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 16:15:19 -0700
Reply-To: Craig Oda <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Craig Oda <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Subject: CA SMOG, Fred's Garage, and valves
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Hi, Aloha, and Greetings
here's the continuing saga of my battle with CA SMOG and a few
questions. Thanks to everyone for letting me share these events with
you and mucho thanks to the many people that have tried to help me with it.
Last Friday: Picked up van from Fred's garage, paid $85 for SMOG-ready.
John said it should pass SMOG with no-problem. Drive to SMOG station,
immediately fails. Drive van home. It's running bad and then won't
start. I inspect and find out that the throttle adjustment screw is
missing. I have a spare one at home, pop it in, drive to Fred's, but
they're closed.
Saturday: call VolksCafe. Peter is too maxed out with work to take a
look at diagnostics. Bus Labs is closed. I then call Fred's Garage.
They're open and can take a look at it on Monday.
Monday: Talk to John and Tom. They're both pleasant and real nice
people. Tom says that there's no way the van will pass SMOG without a
new catalytic convertor. HC levels are between 500 and 1,000 (max is
around 200). I wonder why they let the van out of the shop on
Friday..... In the interest of encouraging Tom to take a better look
at the engine and find the source of the high HC levels, I talk shop a
bit. He says that he'll also try to find the source of the problem.
Says that the catalytic convertor is just masking the problem.
Estimate for the new cat is $275 including labor. "Yea, I could do it
cheaper," I think. But, I don't have exhaust equipment and I'm running
out of time.
I'm still wondering about the exhaust pulse and if a valve is out of whack.
Since I have spare new cylinder head at home and a new gasket set, I can
swap the head out. However, I have only one spare cylinder head, not
two. I'm wondering how I can isolate the bad valves and just swap out
one side. Or, I could potentially swap out both if I buy a new head.
Compression on the cylinders is okay and generally balanced.
1=120
2=140
3=125
4=130
Any advice? I generally don't harbor any bad feelings about the Fred's
Garage experience. It's a little frustrating and I wish they had taken
a better look at the van on Friday before I picked it up. However, I'll
judge the quality of the service by what the final outcome is. If I can
get the van to pass SMOG for reasonable cost, I'll be moderately satisfied.
-- Craig
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