Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:56:15 -0800
Reply-To: Angus Gordon <birdworks@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Angus Gordon <birdworks@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Frozen engine
In-Reply-To: <825804.26764.qm@web33505.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Here's the story of how I dealt with a similar situation many years ago -
It all started when I gave my friend Dave the 1600 air-cooled out of my
terminally biodegraded bug. It was a good, strong, low mileage rebuild, so I
kind of expected he'd at least put some preservative oil in it and stash it
away in his garage for future use in his own Beetle. Instead he apparently
stored it under his front porch (he was building an airplane in the garage),
where it sat. For five brutal Canadian winters.
When the connecting rod let go in his Tremclad orange bug we dug the engine
out of the mud under his porch and hauled the car and my former engine out
to the shop. The engine of course was locked solid with rust. We pulled the
plugs and filled the cylinders and crankcase with a mixture of every type of
penetrating oil and lube we could find on my shelf. After several days of
soaking we could barely get a fraction of a turn using a breaker bar on the
flywheel. A full week of soaking and we could just turn the engine over with
a lot of muscle on said breaker bar.
Leaving the plugs out we installed the engine and hitched a tow rope up to
my Vanagon (mandatory vanagon content!). I pulled Dave's Beetle, in gear,
all around the airport my shop was located on for a good thirty minutes.
Then we added spark plugs, turned the key, and it fired right up! He drove
the car for another two years before selling it and the only engine problem
in that time was a broken valve spring. Replacing the spring I noticed the
one that broke had a small spot of corrosion on it, right at the break.
...oh, and he got four hundred bucks for the Bug...with my engine.
Angus
On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 4:10 PM, Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@yahoo.com>wrote:
> Well I finally soved one problem just to end up with another- isn't that
> just the way it is with a Vanagon?
> The battery went out in my other '82 Vanagon inline-four engine. Not my
> Westy, but one I got in '06 that has a Scirocco engine . It ran fine for
> three days, then stopped running. I spent time here and time there trying to
> figure it out.
> Finally, I gave up on the CIS system that was so hacked anyway by the PO
> that I ripped it all out and replaced it with Digifant 2.
>
> Ok, so next ,the battery went out. I get a good battery. Now the starter
> craps out. I get a good starter which took several months to accomplish.
> Now the engine will not turn . Not even with a breaker bar and cheater
> pipe.
>
> It's not hydro-locked, but it has sat for 2 years in the driveway. SO of
> course this means the rings rusted to the cylinder walls.
> So I sprayed LPS in every cylinder .
> How long does that take to work- any better ideas?
> We are normally 60-100% humidity here in the PNW so I am not surprised it
> froze.
> Just that on other engines that froze I was able to break them free with a
> breaker bar. This one seems that I would break the bar if I could stand on
> it.
> Could I attach the towbar and break it free by towing? Anybody done that
> before?
>
> Robert
> 1982 Vanagon inline four
>
>
>
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