Date:         Mon, 12 Jun 1995 20:24:24 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         eugp@uclink3.berkeley.edu (Eugene C. Palmer)
Subject:      Engine log, part 7

Volks,

It's been awhile I suppose, but here I go again....

I believe last you heard, I was off to get some smaller injectors.  After
spending a couple long afternoons  going through every junk yard in the east
bay and finding virtually no '84-'88 model domestic cars that match the
injector I was looking for, I coughed it up and got them new from Small Car
World.  Peter gave me  a good discount, I think it was almost cost for him,
$68 @ for me.  They came with new seals and cool aluminum shroud over the
injector needle that was crimped in place.  I really like this idea since I
came very close to dropping the plastic shroud down the intake a couple
times, and I don't like the idea of one coming loose and getting smashed and
spit out the exhaust.

I tried desperately to get these new injectors to seal and failed, they
always seemed to leak fuel and it drove me crazy, had them in & out about a
dozen times.  Finally, after I had I emery papered the bore some and failed
again, I looked real close at the fuel rail and bore and noticed alot of
pitting in the casting.  The pitting was throughout the material and was
affecting the injector seal.  I sent it back to Berg with a lengthy
explanation and they had the manufacturer send out a new one.  All this took
awhile and I was not about to drive with a high pressure fuel leak.  As my
sweetie and I were heading down to Monterey for a wedding this past weekend
I saw a large banner alongside I-880 in Oakland, "STOP CASTING POROSITY",
imagine my surprise.  This I am familiar with.  The new fuel rail arrived
last week and, though still showing some signs of small pitting, does not leak.

I drove a little last week after getting the injectors in and had some
trouble with the power brake hoses leaking, as evidenced by some light
coughing and intake snapping under load.  As of today I clamped all the
hoses down and tightened everything associated with manifold vacuum and
brakes.  One would think this was obvious, but all these connections were
really tight push-on fits anyway and it was hard to believe they were
leaking, but they were.  I also installed platinum plugs in the hope that
they'll respond better to the intermittent overrich/lean conditions that I
seem to be hacking the engine with.  They advertise better performance under
lean/rich conditions, as well as a wider heat range, just what I need.

I was just about to change the brake booster when I decided to do the plugs
first, tune it and go for a drive.  After fussing with the idle mix for a
couple hours I went out on the streets.  Low and behold, the brakes are
working great, they seem to have full boost at all times.  The reserve
functions the way it should, which didn't before, it just takes a little
time for the reserve to build up.  As I've suspected all along, my problems
with the booster were engine and hose related and the booster itself is just
fine.  

The engine is coming around as well.  The new plugs seem to help alot.  I'm
finding it responds alot better with around 36-38 psi of fuel pressure
rather than 30-32 (which I tried in order to get the idle mix down) when it
stutters and balks under acceleration.  This can be corrected with a higher
pump setting, but its a smoother acceleration with the higher pressure and
lower pump setting.  It still refuses to idle smoothly with anything but at
least the third green light on the O2 sensor.  It falters and becomes uneven
when I try to drop the mix at idle.  I'm finding it is actually going to be
a long process to get it to run in the first green only, yet still
accelerate properly.  It runs really well in the third green, but I'm afraid
the mileage and even the engine itself, will suffer.  I must say it really
doesn't run that much differently than it did with the high HP '201'
injectors I spent so much time and money to replace.  Anybody need Porsche
944 injectors?  How about '73 Volvo's? '71 squarebacks?

Oil pressure is somehow down to 10 psi at idle (900 rpm) and 190 degrees,
still the 20W ND.

It still leaks, but not as bad as before.

It goes really fast, if I let myself do it.

The single muffler and brazed heater fittings are alot quieter than my
other, smaller, engines.

The engine now has just over 500 miles on it.

The dual battery set-up screwed up and I now have both batteries in direct
parallel.  Both batteries went dead.  Apparently the isolater requires that
the exciter (D+) be attached to the iso unit.  It has a long explanation
about how you have to remove the internal regulator from the Vanagon
alternator and do surgery on it to get the iso unit to charge properly.
This I am not ready to do, and since my alternator doesn't really match any
of the drawings they show, not even the Vanagon, I think I'll just wait.  It
is working just dandy now, and I can always disconnect the main battery if
I'm planning to run the lights all night or something.

Hey, don't you wish you were Dave and Shelley?

Eug,
'71