Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 20:11:16 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Need inspiration. Lacking motivation on my engine conversion
(Warning! Severe Whining Within! --- ;^)
In-Reply-To: <c4e7c5f90804041929m5b04d327ta3861fff6699e666@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I hear you.
Discouraged temporally - that's normal.
They do take a LOT of time and effort don't they !
Just take a break.
Think about something else for a while.
Also.......look at is as enjoying the process itself, rather than only being
interested in it being done.
Besides, they are never really 'done' to me. They are only at stages of
competition. There are forever ways they could be more refined, or more
elegantly finished, or more features added on, etc. I view them as works or
art.
Well, a time deadline never helps. I always advise against that. I see
vanagon people wanting to pull off some conversion in a given amount of
time, like say 6 weeks, and it's their only car ( big mistake ) or there is
a time deadline, or financial pressure, or partner/spouse pressure- all ways
to NOT do it.
I don't regard it as whining as in 'oh poor me' but as sharing your process,
which you have done all along, the ups and the downs, the advances and
setbacks - very touching actually and so wonderful we have this opportunity
and resource.
But ......yeah, It'll never be worth beans anyway. I'll take it off your
hands for 300 dollars, and you deliver it ! or just ship me the engine and
what you have done so far. Then you won't have to worry about it anymore.
;-)
I just advised a guy today to not start with an air-cooled vanagon for a
water-cooled engine conversion. That adds considerably, plus....the 'first'
anything is always a lot harder.
Heck, even after they are done I've spent 40 hours sorting and fine tuning.
Which......btw.......is why I advocate moving toward having it running in
the most direct way.....
Several reasons for this ......and it might include firing it up before I
do an exahsut system, for example.
First I want to see the engine mounted to the trans and in the van.
Then I want to see the clutch working, the shifter working, and the starter
working. ( at that point I have a van that can move around on it's starter
even )
Next I want to see the engine run.
I go for that directly - get the wiring harness and fuel system hooked up
and working.
I run it before even mounting the ECU under the back seat or anyting, just
in case I have to pull out the whole wiring harness to check it over. I
just lay the ECU and wring next to the engine for example. I don't have an
air filter or an exahsut system at that pont, but I have confirmed that much
of my basic work is correct, like the wiring harness, and that the engine
gets oil pressure and so forth.
What's really good about this is it keeps up the energy of the project.
I'm not done yet, but I have a van that can move under its own power, and
I've confirmed work up until that point is good.
THEN......it's only embellishments after that really. I do the exhaust
system next.
Then air filter system next after that.
If the oil pan is to be shortened, I do that very last, and sometimes only
after a few weeks of driving around.
In your case of converting a air-cooled, I'd barely have the main pipes and
radiator hooked to it. Each step of the way, do as little as is practical to
move directly to a van that fires up and can move under it's own power.
I don't even do alternator until after I know the engine runs. Always in
order of priority, as long as I'm not making more work, like take something
back apart to do something that should have been done at an earlier step.
Heck, I might even run the engine in the van with the main coolant hoses
going to and from a large bucket......you want to get to that first
......rrr, rrr VROOOMMM !! ...... and then settle to a steady noisy idle, as
directly as possible. It SURE RAISES THE ENERGY OF THE PROJECT !
Had you done that, and were at that point now, knowing all you needed to do
was finish 8 major areas say......you'd feel a lot better right now.
You'd at least have something that runs, but right now.....you don't even
know what that might take yet, so I don't blame you for being discouraged.
( another tip, is stop on the exhaust say, for now, and work on the wiring
harness for a while, if that's still needed. In other words, if you get too
burnt on one area, work on another . )
Several times I've done things not in this 'primal' order, and regretted
it. Last time I final-installed an ECU wiring harness, it had to come back
out for a wiring work correction.
I let one guy talk me into doing head gaskets first on a Subaru engine -
that engine turned out to have a knock in it. Always move directly to 'it
fires up and runs' first, THEN do embellishments like exhaust system and air
filter, and charging system etc. When I first fire off an engine
conversion....half the systems aren't hooked up yet, charging, power
steering, tachometer, air fitter, etc. They are a lot easier to do too,
knowing that they are details that need to get wrapped up on an already
running engine conversion.
It keeps the energy of the project up too, and gets you the closest to
'running and done' the most direct way the soonest. It's applying energy
where it will do the most good the soonest.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
neil N
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 7:29 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Need inspiration. Lacking motivation on my engine conversion
(Warning! Severe Whining Within! --- ;^)
Hi all.
I'm sure others have gone through this, but I've never done a project
like this before and I'm just kind of, well, mentally stalled.
I don't know why, but it's all just hitting me now. Even though the
engine is in place, the learning curves I've been through, and more to
the point, will go through on all this, combined with the thought of
just how much stuff there is left to do, seems a little daunting.
I swear it's not so much the work left to do. It's the running around
gathering parts, returning parts, studying up and redoing things (more
than a few times in certain cases) that is un-inspiring me. Maybe
discouraged is the word. Plus it's such an "all consuming" project
that seems like it will never get done!
And my hopes of getting it finished in time (end of March. Ha!
Beginning of April. Double Ha!) to do more than just a few days of
camping before my gig begins, were a little unrealistic and likely
won't happen. I thought I had left enough time. Still, I am unhappy to
know that in all reality, it may be a couple more weeks before it's
running with major bugs worked out.
I'm trying to see "the journey" angle with all this, which I see from
time to time, but frankly I just feel a little overwhelmed and really
just want to get it done.
Oh yes. I know. "Boo hoo". Enough whining! --- ;^)
Any inspiration, advice, stories, mental slaps up-side my head, or
humour to motivate me to get this thing done are more than welcome!
--- :^)
Cheers,
Neil.
--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia - "Jaco"
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
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