Date:         Fri, 20 Jan 1995 08:30:13 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "lumpy" <Richard.Lamoreaux@seagull.rtd.com>
Subject:      Re: compression data

David Carment says:

> > bentley sez:
> > 
> > for air-cooled vanagon engines:
> >  nominal ........... 85-131 psi
> >  minimum ........... 73 psi
> >  max diff .......... 44 psi between any two cylinders
> These figures do not seem to be supported by fact. The engine I have has a
> compression ratio of 145 psi(air-cooled). The engine that I junked had
> cylinders with a compression ratio of 90, 110, 120 and 110 and ran poorly.
> A difference of 44 psi seems far too great, usually 10 % is the norm...DC

My '78 ran for years with compression in the range 90-115, and ran 
reasonably well. Three years ago it started getting worse (at about 
110kmiles) and cylinder two dropped to ~75psi. It still ran ok, but I 
had trouble passing emissions (high hydrocarbons). Then last year (at 
125kmiles) it dropped to ~50psi; still ran reasonably, but there was 
no way to pass emissions. So, I retired it to chicken coop status
until I can yank and rebuild. Anyway, it was leaking a lot of oil 
from the oil cooler.

Rich

Richard Lamoreaux
lumpy@rtd.com

'78 Chicken Coop
'87 Weekender