Date: Wed, 24 Aug 94 13:45:41 PDT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: David Schwarze <schwarze@io.nosc.mil>
Subject: Re: back from summer trip.
jesse lee reynolds writes:
>
> The 4 of us too off from Bloomington, IN on May 22. We'd gone 20 miles when I
> saw the oil light come on at a stoplight. I freaked out a second but tyhen it
> made sense - warm oil, low RPM, low oil pressure. So we went on. BEsides, I
> had a hell of a trip planned. Nobody ever told me what proper oil pressure
> was. ............
Happens to me too. I just upped my idle. :/
> I won't bore you with the details of the trip. Suffice to say we drove a lot.
> All out west. The oil pressure stayed too low (as I know now) at around 20 psi
> on the hiway. It ran hotter than what I think it should - about 350 F head
> temp. (anyone know what it should be?)
Mine usually stays around 250. Up to 300 if I'm lugging it. Saw 350 once,
under extreme conditions. Unless our gauges are exactly the same, though,
who knows?
My pressure was running kinda low this last weekend too. I was driving fully
loaded through the mojave desert in 100 degree temps. I usually don't drive
with pressure below 30, but I couldn't afford to stop, so I just went real
slow and easy. Oil temp went as high as 270 at times, and pressure dropped
to 20@55mph. Of course I have 215/70's on the back now, which drops my rpm
a bit. Gotta get rid of those. Gotta get rid of that 30 weight oil, too.
20-50 provided much higher pressure when hot. The low pressure scared me,
but the bus doesn't seem to be any the worse for it.
I looked in my stack of VW books for info about oil pressure and temp. One said
that oil temp should not be over 230 for very long, but quoted people as saying
270 was often seen in race engines, and 250 was not unacceptable. Apparently,
oil pressure at the bearings is *never* more than 28 psi (vented by 2nd pressure
relief valve) so I think I will feel safe with pressure as low as 25 psi now.
20 still worries me though.
>
> We pulled the van around with a truck to break in the engine, but it wouldn't
> start. we thought and tested for days. When Mr. Hayes pulled off all wires
> but power and condenser from the coil, it started but wouldn't keep running.
> It turned out to be the wire from the coil to the Fuel Injection. Oh shit, I
> thought. My brain is fried. We had an appointment the next morning when I
> decided to give anything a shot. I put in the old distributor and it started
> right up. Turns out 009s are not FI compatible. I traded Mr. Hayes for a new
> 050 he had lying around.
This is true. The FI busses have an additional thingie in the distributor to
synchronize the fuel injection. Anyway, the 009 isn't too streetable anyway.
Never could get mine to idle smoothly. Anyone wanna buy it? $20...
> We broke it in 100 miles, and changed the oil. It got us home with lots of
> power. But it ran HOt - like 400 F on the head.
Sounds a little hot to me...
> Why might it be running hot?
Did you double check that your air flaps are installed correctly and working okay?
> How do you time a 050?
What is it? :)
> Does it take a while for an engine to break in, or did I just do a bad job?
Should be fairly well broken in by 100 miles, but maybe not completely. Give it
a little longer...
-David
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David Schwarze '73 VW Safare Custom Camper (Da Boat)
SAIC Comsystems, San Diego '73 Capri GT 2800 (Da Beast)
schwarze@nosc.mil '87 Mustang Lx 5.0 (Da Bruiser? Soon...)
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