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Date:         Fri, 5 May 1995 08:35:18 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         eugp@uclink3.berkeley.edu (Eugene C. Palmer)
Subject:      Ongoing engine build, it starts! part 4

78 X 90.5 engine log, part 4.

Saturday April 29, after posting part three.

Hokay, got friend, same guy who helped sell at the VW super sale.

Carry engine out to car. Yow.

Jack up car, slide engine under, attempt to get jack under engine. Realize that attempting this with the manifolds on is silly. Remove manifolds. Good thing I put those 11mm nuts on. I knew that. Get rolling jack under engine, lower car. Get piston jack under trans, raise trans, line it up, shoot too high with both as usual. Get out, look around, try again, lower both, push & shove, OH yeah in it goes, my friend says "that was like hot sex." Maybe so. Get nuts on lower bolts and tighten, loose jacks.

Not having the axles in place was very helpful throughout the operation. Engine bolt through starter was stuck 1/2 way out and I had to loosen the starter to clear it. Several other times I thought "wow, no axles, much better."

Good old two person starter engine bolt operation, piece of cake, me under, friend finding bolt with nut. I tighten with box wrench, easy with no manifolds, even with the pressure regulator right near there.

Pry rear mounts into place with crowbar, install bolts.

Connect FI oil temp sensor, run wires to general location, lots of wires.

Vaccuum out manifolds and spark plug holes in case any gunk got in the holes, even though they were stuffed. Install manifolds, not bad, just the left front nut was pretty tough, the 1/4" drive with a 6" extension and universal joint on the end gets them all though. Carefully refuse to drop any nuts into the spark plug holes.

Connect fuel lines to fuel rail, connect all kinds of wires, FI air temp, throttle position, tach sensors, all the regular stock sensors, O2 and oil temp. Alternator D+ and B+. Wow, lookin good. Go under and connect fuel return line from gas tank to front end of pressure regulator, strap fuel line to starter with tie-wrap so it doesn't rub the axle. Strap fuel lines and wires to ceiling of engine compartment. Clear wires from engine lid hold-up springs, etc.

Install battery, turn key and listen for pump..... it works. Oops, out of gas, other wise there would have been gas coming out of the fuel rail barb I put in to check pressure. Ok clean up, end of day.

The beginning is near.

Sunday, April 30,

Go to work, clean out Oberg filters with compressed air while at work, come home late.

Monday, May 1,

Tuesday, May 2,

Put battery on charge.

Get gas from corner Chevron a couple times with a one gallon can.

Install oil lines with locktight, assemble oil filter. Drill 1/8 npt fitting for pressure sensor in oil filter. Will put a 15 psi pressure switch here someday. Run four wires to oil filter; filter warning, pressure sensor, 15 psi switch and filter ground. Hang filter behind left tire tucked up in behind the wheel well. Remove stock pressure switch as an air bleed for cranking.

Hook up fuel pressure gauge, hang it from ceiling.

Remove rocker arms for cranking.

Bunch more wiring stuff I can't remember now, O2 sensor up front, etc.

Fab friend stops by. Crank for oil at sender location, get it within thirty seconds easy, quick and heavy flowing. Replace stock sensor.

Replace rocker arms and trim valves. Crank for pressure again, get it quick and easy, crank till the battery starts dying, about two minutes. This is a good thing because it means that the double notching I did to the lifters was not especially damaging to the oil pressure.

Install spark plugs. This was not as bad as I had thought with the manifolds in the way. Oops, go get anti-seize for the spark plugs. Extremely important move, I will not ruin these heads with stripped threads. Go for spark plugs again, fronts go in easy with the right extensions. Now the wires. These were tough, they are the fancy aftermarket ones with thick boots and were very hard to push down over the plug. My friend had to do the fronts cause his arms are skinny.

OK wOw, go get laptop, plug in, hook up serial port, start haltech program. All online functions work. Oil temp 19 degrees C, air temp same, engine rpm works, set throttle positions- 0 to full, works, voltage 11.8 vdc.

WHEW nows the time, can't believe it, start this engine. Crank, not so snappy, crank some more, catches a little, battery is way down.

Go get new battery, crank, catches but then dies. Does this a bunch of times, reset some fuel maps and the engine sounds different. Friend has to go. Give up for a while.

Get scared that this exotic machine I have built is beyond me. What if I can't start it? Should I call Berg? Something I avoid if at all possible, the mans got enough fools calling him.

Bring laptop inside and check some files. I think I've got the wrong fuel map here. I think this one is one I've messed with offline, check through Bergs files, they are very different. Take laptop back out and load up Bergs 200 file, engine starts and runs, keep idle high at 2000 rpm + for cam run-in for five minutes, shut down.

YAHOO IT WORKS!!

Fiddle for awhile with manifold adjustments, idle mixture, etc. Move mixture readout to engine compartment temporarily.

Later on I rip into one set of axles and discover bad, dime sized pitting on three of four CV joints. Permanently discolor the basement floor, oops.

End of day.

Wednesday, May 3,

Go to work, discover shows on this weekend are cancelled.

CV joint day, pick up other axles from storage on the bicycle, rip apart.

Clean all that stuff, yech.

Piece up four good CV's on four good boots in favor of buying four new ($250+) Use whats left of the synth grease for the inners, and new moly grease on the outers so I can tell them apart. I also, having been inspired by the list, reverse the outer part of the CV joint so the old wear area is towards the center of the axle. Later I realize that the inside part of the joint is still the same as it was, oh well. All joints go together easy but one is stiffer than the rest, hope it don't break.

Install axles.

Drive the car to the gas station and get some premium, drive to another store that is closed, oops. The exhaust analyser is wild, shows what is going on, and it ain't all good. Some bad dives towards lean when using light pedal in third, into the third rich light in other places, wOw. CV's didn't break, or even complain, forgot all about them.

End of day.

Thursday, May 4,

Drive to work, show off engine.

Power brake booster is not very responsive, gotta work on that.

Get inverter for computer, its cool, is good for 240 watts continous. It works, laptop in the passenger seat, hope I don't crash.

Feeling more confident about the programmable fuel injection. It's not so scary after working with it for a couple days. I've made some improvements in the running already, it's just a matter of time before it's dailed in.

Friday, May 5,

Getting set to drive off for the weekend, pack it up, double check the linkage, posting......


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