Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:35:15 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Johnston <inmytree1@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Johnston <inmytree1@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Introductions
In-Reply-To: <COL109-DS1413B96E8E91C9F0F1B0CEEEA30@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Hi Matt,
May I suggest you check out this forum: http://www.vwdieselparts.com/forum/
There is a Vanagon specific category in forum. Jack, the owner of the site,
has good prices for diesel parts.
There is lots of good info there, as I fear you'll be looking at pulling the
Injection Pump to address the leak, which means you'll have to learn set the
timing. Fun stuff...
I hope your leak is just a fuel line or an injector, as an IP rebuild can
get costly. I know, as I had do this in my 90 Jetta Diesel.
Good luck,
Jim
Wilmington, NC
On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Matt Thyer <matt_thyer@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Howdy Folks,
>
> I wanted to take a moment to make your online acquaintances' as well as
> introduce myself and my new Vanagon (as yet unnamed). Last weekend I made
> my way down to southern California to pick-up a 1983 L Diesel. I took
> delivery after looking the vehicle over and then drove it about 2000 miles
> back up to central Washington State. For the most part the vehicle is in
> pretty good shape. It's been through about 50% of a Westfakia conversion
> and my plans are to strip it down and then complete a custom camper
> conversion.
>
> Presently I have three persistent problems that I need to address:
>
> Minor Diesel leak from near the fuel pump: There appears to be a slight
> leak somewhere near the fuel pump/injector unit. Right now this means that
> a small amount of fuel is being spilled on the engine. For obvious reasons
> I'm going to take care of this one pretty soon.
>
> Shift box and bushing are crappy: The biggest and most annoying problem
> here
> is that you have to hold the stick in 4th gear when traveling at speed.
> Otherwise the stick shift pops out of 4th. I'm pretty certain this is
> caused by wear on the bushing, but feel free to offer up advice as you feel
> necessary. Additionally, reverse is a pain in the rear end to find. This
> is most likely the result of worn shift box parts as there's some play in
> the stick, but once you find it the gear works great.
>
> Poorly designed air intake for the added diesel turbo: The last owner
> installed a turbo blower on the engine. It's really nice, it turned a
> diesel slug into something with a little more oomph behind it. That said
> the aspiration requirements of the turbo exceed those of the engine before
> the turbo. With the turbo he installed a large cone filter right above,
> drum roll please, the exhaust. The solution here is going to require
> customization. I figure I can take one of three options:
> 1) Figure out a way to cover/protect the cone and get it to draw
> from the air channel up the left side of the bus.
> 2) Run a snorkel channel up the left side of the bus and put the
> filter at the end of it.
> 3) Replace the 1.6 L diesel turbo with a 1.9 L diesel.
>
> The last is the most expensive and while it has certain advantages, I'm not
> convinced I want to incur the downtime or cost of the conversion. No
> strike
> that, all things considered that's a lot of money and time. I'm pretty
> sure
> I don't want to do it that way. The first and second solutions are nice
> but
> will probably require me to figure out a customized solution for
> aspiration.
> I'm a can do kind of guy, and if you have any suggestions please feel free
> to offer them up.
>
> Rough calculation on the way up from SoCal is that I was getting around 31
> MPG. That's freakin amazing in my book. Tuned and running without a fuel
> leak who knows what I'll get on the highway? I don't think I've been this
> excited about a vehicle for a very long time. Once I've got the mechanical
> under control I'm going to spend some time in the garage carving out a
> light
> weight pad of comfort and organization. I'm still looking for a good name
> for it too.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Matt Thyer
> Ellensburg, WA
>
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