Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 10:43:13 -1000
Reply-To: "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "SDF ( aka ;jim lahey' - Scott )" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Organization: Cosmic Reminders
Subject: Re: My van is HOME!!!!
In-Reply-To: <CAEwp_cTQdXiFaOWzV5ecKeqX+65rhH4bb7eNFacGKe0PyAVfpQ@mail.gmail.com>
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It could smooth out with some driving,
and fresh gas . ..and some SeaFoam fuel addtive.
that's great stuff, I have too many vans and cars, and I often treat the
fuel on my rigs with that stuff...
it's really a great gasoline fuel additive. Mandatory in my opion.
About rings..
I have rebuilt or re-ringed at least 100 engines in 50 + years of full
time car work.
In my experience...
they are either right, from the get go, or not.
I've never had a case where it say , smoked some, or had some oil issue,
and in a 1,000 miles say it cleared up.
They are either right or not, generally speaking.
a great break-in oil addtive you should know about ..
Lucas brand Engine Oil Break-in Additive , with Zinc Plus.
I *always* run that in the oil at first if anything in the engine is
wearing-in.
also ..bearings should have been assembled with Bearing Gaurd. ..by the
bearing company Levite.
My machine shop swears a crankshaft they did ran 400 miles to Sacromento
with no oil pressure with just that stuff on the crankshaft bearings.
on a gasoline enigne how you drive it during breeak-in is important.
Generally ...no excessive load or rpm,
carrying speed ( pulls oil up to the rings ) ,
no lugging of course, no short trips in the winter time.
fwiw ..I have one car that runs ok on unleaded alchohol regular,
and loves alcholic premium and that's what I run. 92 octane.
89 octane alcholhol- free is available ....it's a European model
mercedes ..it hates that fuel, loves to alchoholic premium.
fwiw ..it can take quite some time to sort out an newly installed
rebuilt engine to get it to run exactly perfectly right.
Chasing down minute vacuum leaks, whatever ..
I've EASILY spent 12 hours sorting out a waterboxer engine until it ran
really right after a rebuild.
once in a great while, a newly instlled engine will run perfectly ,
start, idle, and go...really right, from the first turn of the key, but
that is quite rare.
That's probably occured on one out of every 15 to 20 engines I've
installed over the years.
the Hall sender in the distributor ..
I don't seem them fail outright, I see them get iffy and intermittant .
any of those that are original are suspect for sure.
heck ..I was thinking about how many opportunities there are for intake
vacuum leaks on a waterboxer engine .....there's like 10 junctions of
various pieces ...I acutally found about 10 tiiny vaccum leaks on a
waterboxer engine I had one time..
when you go to rev it, you could hear an air moan, like the throttle was
open but fuel wasn't being added to go with the air ..yep, that was it.
Just many tiny air leaks .
The engine management system depends a lot on measuring the air in a
waterboxer ..
that part has to be pretty perfect.
also, if 2.1 ...those Idle Control Units, ..behind the right tail
light.........let's say it's handy to have a few to try.
have fun, take good care of it !
scott
On 2/26/2016 5:04 AM, Marc Perdue wrote:
> After 7.5 MONTHS, I brought my baby back home yesterday!!! The
> engine's been completely rebuilt, with a balance crankshaft and lots
> of other goodies (I don't have the parts list here just now). Because
> of the ridiculous length of time it took, and acknowledging my
> patience, he threw in the trailing arm, some exhaust work, and over
> $900 in other parts at no charge. It's too soon to tell ultimately
> what it's going to be like, but I do have some observations.
>
> 1) He replaced the water pump and thermostat and some cooling hoses
> that I didn't know were near gone until after they came off. It's a
> wonder they hadn't already leaked. My van had NEVER had the correct
> thermostat in it since I owned it. The temperature gauge had always
> stayed at the low end and I thought it was never overheating, except I
> was always blowing out hoses. Now, it gets up to temperature fairly
> quickly and stays there, middle of the gauge. From what I've
> understood from being on this list over the years, this is what it's
> supposed to do.
>
> 2) I had another problem from the time that I have owned the van that
> I have been chasing down. I'll drive the van the 2 miles to work in
> the morning (I know, it's horrible for the van; I'll be changing my
> route to lengthen that) and it drives fine. I start it up in the
> evening to go home and it stalls every time I come to a stop and runs
> rough as a cob. This problem persisted through an engine change. After
> that engine change, I think I changed everything but the throttle body
> and the distributor. Well, now the distributor's been changed and the
> problem appears to be gone!
>
> 3) Having a newly rebuilt and balanced engine, not quite blue-printed,
> ported and polished, I expected it to run smoother than it had
> originally, but it doesn't. I'm hoping the engine builders on the list
> can help me out here, because I don't know. He claims that the rings
> and such need to wear in and that it will smooth out over the next 500
> miles or so, at which point I will take it back for some adjustments.
> I do remember having to do this with my Boston Bob engine, I just
> don't remember it running quite so rough at first.
>
> 4) Since I had his ear, I asked him about oil recommendations.
> Pennzoil 10W-30 in the winter, making good oil pressure. I had never
> been able to run 10W-30 before without setting off the oil buzzer.
>
> 5) I got on the road and realized I was low on gas, but hadn't asked
> him about gas recommendations, so I called him. He recommend
> ethanol-free regular gasoline, said it was easier on the valves or
> some such. I was driving into a massive thunderstorm as he was telling
> me this, so I couldn't catch everything he was saying.
>
> So good to have her home!
> Marc Perdue
>
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