Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:23:45 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Some other Oiling comments..
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fwiw,
I put an Accusump on an SVX engine in a syncro vanagon once.
the large one ..the 5 qt one.
I like the pre-oiling feature.
What I can not get is how they control oil level in the engine.
the accusump only reads oil pressure, not oil level.
Therefore, I would imagine if there is an oil pressure issue for whatever
reason ...
the system will just pump all 5 qts into the engine ...........overfilling
it horribly if the regular amount of oil is already in there.
The concept is nice..
especially for racing where there may be brief periods of limited oil
pressure,
but again..........
What about oil level ???
the company could not give me a good answer on the phone.
and...
this particular van ...the engine when the customer delviered it was just
super clean and fresh looking ..
didn't even do much in the way of timing belt etc the engine looked so
fresh.
And it ran perfectly from the first time I turned the key.
That was really a super sweet engine conversion ..
I drove it all around for a month or so .....that van would go 80 'just
anywhere.'
It was nigh perfect in every way.
5 months later they guy says it's smoking and low on power.
I drive from Oregon down to Reno to check it out ..
running on 5 cyls and the left bank was packed with oil.....the cylinders,
the exhaust system etc.
The van was towed here ...
taking things apart ... I find one piston ..the top inch of it just laying
against the cylinder head ....just sitting there. There is no evidence of
any other parts really ..the wrist pin and rod are all tiny pieces.
Never could figure out why. I considered liquid lock .....could not
determine that happened from coolant or some other liquid.
We bought a new factory short block and new heads..
had the old valves can cams installed into the new heads...
I was afraid to use the old heads over, though couldn't find anything wrong
with them.
I showed the piston to my machine shop at the time..
they had no explanation either - 'maybe it was hot rodded really hard by the
orignal owner or his teenage son' is what they said.
I was afraid to put the accusump back on too.
the engine without that is still running fine today, a few years later.
so I 'dont' know' .....because the accusump is not level-senstive ..
and we all know very overfull oil is a bad, bad thing.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
I'll be offline for about a week.
aloha !
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2010 8:56 PM
Subject: Some other Oiling comments..
> Many performance vehicles use the Accusump Oil pressure accumulator
> system. If I had an expensive motor in my van, one that was noisy on
> start
> up, I'd be using the Accusump. I've had them in other vehicles. They are
> a
> basic pressure reservoir connected to the oiling system. I had the 5qt
> capacity one that stored 5 qts of oil at whatever pressure the oiling
> system
> was under at the time the ignition is shut off.
>
> When the ignition key is turned, it activates a relay and valve that
> releases the 5 qts of Accusump oil into the motor, pre-oiling everything
> before the motor is started up... Also useful for cars that have problems
> with the sump pickup 'sucking air' during hard cornering or steep rock
> crawling....if the oil pump loses pressure, the Accusump takes over and
> supplies up to it's capacity to 'take up the slack' while the pump pickup
> might be uncovered.
>
> Accusumps are available at most of the racer supply houses for not too
> much $...A good thing if you have lots of money sunk in your motor or it's
> getting unusual use..
>
> http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/category/Canton_Accusumps
>
> Don Hanson
