Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:42:00 -0700
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: My latest Acquisitions....
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ah ..
cam bearings are in the head ..
if you are speaking inline VW fours..
and yes, of course..
all OHC heads can get warped enough that they need a cam bore re-do .
Got a vw diesel 1.9 NA like that right now..
machine shop says 12 thou warped on the bottom..
and they usually find about half that in the cam more.
we got a complete new head.
but cast iron blocks..
cast iron is very good for 'sheer brute strength and durability.'
and ..
'any overheating' .........is not the engine's fault usually.
it's the people that drive it, that don't take care of it, and that work on
it..
it's a people thing factor, overheating is.
rare exceptions..a t-stat that just fails closed...super rare.
all the rest is preventable.
there is a fine, fine 86 GL in a junkyard near me.
Perfect body , no rust ...I have seen it around before.
Now it's a stripped out hulk.
and right above the spare tire ....hoses are ripped at the front of the
plastic main pipes..
don't really know if that was the start of the failure ..
or if something else failed stressing those ..
but ..
pretty much, that was preventable.
or ...whatever overheating was going on 'might' have been caught soon enough
to prevent serious damage.
They fried it ..
by not watching or maintaining or understanding ..
they went to a shop .
the shop said 5 or 6K dollars likley. ..
they sold the van to the junkyard. a Total Waste of a fine, fine vanagon.
Real shame.
that van died becuause ..most likely ..
the owners weren't smart enough about owing and operating it ..
and 'shops' ........don't get me started !
'most shops' ......
might let you bring your van in for service and barely even mention changing
the coolant. .
'of course' ...vanagon savy shops should be 'all over' cooling system
service and maintanence..
but some are not. Once a year is not too often to change the coolant on a
25 year old waterboxer vanagon ..you never get the old out.
( this is too typical..
AAZ 1.9 TD engine from europe ..sold as a good used engine ..
the coolant had NEVER been changed in the 12 to 15 years of the engine's
life.
You normally never see the top of a cast iron block pitted and corroded ..
like that is really hard to do ..but this one ..yup. Just a waste of good
equipment.
and ..
no.........you can not take your van to a typical shop and trust that they
will advise you about what it really, really needs.
they are fantastic world-class vehicles..
very, very worthy of fixing and repairing down to the tiniest detail..
but that understanding..
that 'care and understanding' .....is basically flat not available, and I
don't care how fancy or expensive the shop is. Not commonly anyway.
A typical deal..
intelligent successful person takes their 85 wbxr vanagon into a local fancy
shop because the oil light is on at idle..
they think they find a wiring thing ..
so they spend $ 800 of his money on things he mostly didn't need, including
70 or 80 bucks for 'blue coolant that MUST be used' ..etc.
that was more or less a complete waste of the 800 bucks.
the oil light still comes on ..
I get into it ..
and yes, it's a tired engine. And no one ever even checked the 6 rear
running lights, only one of which was working ..
for 800 bucks !! ...
man ....I just don't know.
I really don't think you can get vanagons really *really* cared for like
they really need.
I spend far more time cleaning, restoring, and treating rust and corrosion
than I do doing 'tune ups' ..
that's a joke.
the spark plugs barely wear.
a bosch cap and rotor lasts so well, I have at least a dozen with years left
in them ..
Most of the time..
a typical 'tune up' ...cap, rotor, plugs, maybe plug wires and air fitler
element .
sure ..sometimes those parts are tired ,
but most to the time..'that's not it.' and putting those in doesn't make
much difference.
it's in the details, the fine tuning, and the treating of corrosion ..a lot
of it is.
and people and shops think 'it's in the parts' ..
it's not.
sometimes the parts are tired yes. But just installing a part is not really,
really taking care of them completely and properly. Changing the part is
incedental to the real process of acutally caring for them very well.
regarding rust and corrosion ... ...a 'whole paint job' ..
that's not even taking care of them really well either..
that is just one area.
I can't tell you the number of corroded like crazy vans I've seen ..with a
few shinny new parts here and there, like a starter....and everything else
is dirty, oil covered, rusty, and so on.
*who* is going to treat that ??
either me......
or when they get a new engine..
and even *then* it's just bolting in a new engine and even that is not
really 'healing' all the things that really need it.
Believe me ...'replacing the part' is really only incidental to the *real*
process of care and understanding of vanagons.
thank goodness there are a few individuals and shops that are really good on
them.
anyway..
aloha !
the vans are SO worth of really good care ..
and it's hard to get in my perception .
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@hotmail.com>
To: "'Scott Daniel - Turbovans'" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>;
<vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 9:40 PM
Subject: RE: My latest Acquisitions....
> The inline 4 heads can twist! The unknowing remachine them to get them to
> seal not realizing that the cam bearings are no longer lined up.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Scott Daniel - Turbovans
> Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:24 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: My latest Acquisitions....
>
> 'possible case twisting' ..............! ! !
>
> that's why I never touch the things.
> can anyone spell " u n d e r b u i l t." ?
> lol.
> "I'm sorry sir ..
> your cases are twisted ....and your engine isn't even good for a core to
> rebuild."
>
> this is the kind of thing I *don't want to know* about in VW's ..and why I
> simply do not touch air-cooled vw's.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 7:56 PM
> Subject: Re: My latest Acquisitions....
>
>
>> The air cooled Vanagon engines do not require head removal to replace
>> the push rod tubes. Remove the rockers and clips and the tubes will come
> out.
>> Just o-rings. However rarely is it the o-rings that leak and if they
>> do it is a sign of the engine overheating. The usual cause of leakage
>> from the cylinder area is a combination of the heads loosening and the
>> cylinder barrels pounding into the case or the case twisting. The oil
>> leaking can be a sign of something more sinister happening.
>>
>> Dennis
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
>> Behalf Of Jason
>> Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 9:59 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: My latest Acquisitions....
>>
>> Ok, so I've been busy the last few months hunting down a Westy. Now I've
>> ended up with two! We purchased them to do an east coast trip with good
>> friends of ours.
>>
>> The first one is an 83 Westy originally from California. We bought that
>> one through Scott (thank you very much for a smooth transaction!) Its
>> a nice clean van that just needed a good buffing and waxing.
>> Everything on board appears to work, including the Behr in-dash a/c!
>> (Huge bonus!) The
>> original plan was to share this one with good family friends. Ben drove
>> it
>> from Oregon back to Ontario back in May. He stopped over at his
>> in-laws in Vancouver and replaced the heads...would have been straight
>> forward except
>> one stud snapped while being torqued. (yes with a torque wrench)
>> Engine
>> back apart out of the van, many hours later the broken stud removed! No
>> more issues, van cruised nicely the rest of the way home. I am very
>> impressed how clean the van is for being all original. I might name
>> it "White Elephant" since a rust free white Vanagon normally doesn't
>> exist here
>> in Southern Ontario! This one will receive a TDI swap when it is taken
>> out
>> of service for the winter.
>>
>> The second is an 82 Westy Aircooled. I am not a fan of the aircooled
>> vans, but this one was priced right and fit the bill... I had never
>> cancelled my Kijiji alert for "Westfalia" and this one came to my
>> inbox. It was about
>> 4
>> hrs from my house, but I just happened to be visiting up at the cottage
>> 15
>> minutes away from it. The family selling it was leaving for a 3 year
>> posting in Germany and had 2 weeks to sell it. We started thinking
>> how nice
>> it would be to travel with a 2nd van with both families. Drove it home
>> yesterday! It felt a bit underpowered but realized when I got home the
>> throttle was out of adjustment. Fixed that. It just needs a heater box
>> and the push tube seals replaced on one side before our trip. I've
>> never owned or worked on an aircooled Westy - can you pull the head
>> with the motor
>> still in the van? I've done it many times on the waterboxers. it's
>> not
>> as nice as the 83 we got from Scott, but its decent. A good buff and
>> wax
>> will have it looking ok. Anyone have a good used driver side heat
>> exchanger?
>>
>> Here's a picture of the 2 vans:
>>
>> http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5924097239_5cf2e474f8_z.jpg
>>
>> I've always had passenger vans, but these are my first Westies! We hope
>> to
>> get some good use and put some miles on them this summer. If anyone on
>> the east coast (Nova Scotia) wants to meet up we'll be that way the
>> first
>> 2
>> weeks of August. Now we just have to argue over who gets to travel with
>> a/c! Happy travels,
>>
>> Jason Ewing
>> 82 & 83 Westies
>
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