Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2011 14:24:38 -0800
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: It's back together and it runs.
In-Reply-To: <4EBAF1BC.5070402@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Thanks. The poor van has been parked since spring when the house roof work and then the motorcycle accident took me away from it. First thing after inspection (and the requisite joy ride, of course) will be an extensive and well-deserved cleaning.
Stephen
--- On Wed, 11/9/11, Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Rocket J Squirrel <camping.elliott@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: It's back together and it runs.
To: "Stephen Grisanti" <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Wednesday, November 9, 2011, 4:33 PM
Stephan,
Somewhere around 2006 I had to pull an overheated engine out of my 1972 baywindow, had to tear it down only to discover that it was un-rebuildable (turned piston sleeve bearing, probably wrong term, poor memory, but it amounted to an engine that could not be trusted), had to purchase a brand-new 1600dp engine from Mexico, had to install that engine into my bus. That was my first, and hopefully last (it was quite a mess, taking up much of my tiny garage's space) experience doing something that ambitious.
And it is beautiful thing when the engine starts and runs beautifully, and the vehicle is drivable again.
Good job, man.
-- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
Bend, Ore.
1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in
San Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.
Sent from my kitchen.
On 11/09/2011 08:19 AM, Stephen Grisanti wrote:
> Well, that was a long month. What began as an exhaust replacement
> turned into something else with a broken head bolt that necessitated
> a trip to the machine shop with the left head after the weldng-a-nut
> trick failed to get out the broken part. I reinstalled the head and
> sundry ancillary parts on Saturday and put the exhaust on yesterday.
> This morning filled with fluids and fired it up.
>
> Looks like I may need to adjust the valves again since one lifter
> won't shut up, and I'm a little concerned about the seal of the
> various exhaust junctions; the metal donuts at either end of the
> J-pipe seem to be letting fumes out, and the two pipes going into the
> collector do not meet it parallel at the flanges so something might
> be getting out there. I'll retighten after things cool down and
> check again.
>
> I was very concerned about bleeding the cooling system after all the
> horror stories I'd read, but with the rear of the van up on wooden
> ramps in an already nose-down position in the sloping driveway, I
> simply removed the bleeder bolt from the radiator and put four tea
> kettles of water into the reservoir and that did it. Topped off once
> after it warmed up. I'll drain again and refill with phosphate-free
> and distilled after flushing this stuff through for a few miles. I
> did not want to leak new coolant if I messed up the reinstall of
> anything. If the only thing leaking is exhaust I'm way ahead of the
> game. First drive will have to be to the inspection station since
> the expire date at the end of August is far behind us and I don't
> want to tempt the constabulary.
>
> After spending a lot more time getting intimate with this van's
> innards than I ever anticipated, I must say my hat is off to those
> who work on 'em regularly. It was educational, frustrating,
> enlightening, maddening, satisfying, occasionally painful, and I
> would not want to do it every day. Now to get this thing inspected
> and go camping.
>
> Stephen
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