Date:         Tue, 3 Oct 1995 10:41:41 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      DaBoat 2 liter update, junkyards (long)

Volks,
	I've been trying to get my big blue beast back on the road.  As you
may remember, I bought a vanagon engine (2-liter, hydraulic) to put in
the '73 boat.  I decided to take the internals from the vanagon engine
and put them in the '72 case that I got with Jeff Schneiter's bus.   
	Breaking down Schneiter's 1.7 engine which had some 170k miles on
it, I found that everything was basically in good shape, with the
exception of the camshaft.  It had major flat spots worn into the lobes,
and one of the bearings was deformed a little (looked like it had been
that way for quite some time).
	Breaking down the Vanagon engine, I found more interesting things.
All of the bearings seemed good, and the camshaft looks like new.  The
engine was supposed to have been rebuilt 7k miles ago, I think.  One of
the hydraulic lifters had a circle on the face of it, but it was
apparently not etched in deep enough to matter, or so said the machine
shop.  The big deal with the vanagon engine was the scoring in two of
of the cylinders.  The shop honed the cylinders which removed the
scoring from one cylinder, but the other one still has scratches deep
enough to catch my fingernail in.  They said I could use them, but I
might lose a bit of compression.  Personally, I doubt it will be
noticable.  When faced with buying new pistons and liners for $250, I'll
take my chances.  I can always buy them later if the compression is
low.  
	I went ahead and disassembled the crank, had it polished, and bought
new bearings.  Cost about 100 bucks, but at least I'll be sure the short
block is rock solid.
	At the FLAPS where I got the bearings, I asked them for rings as
well.  The guy measures my pistons just to make sure, and guess what?
THEY ARE OVERSIZE.  By about .5 mm.  They don't have the rings in stock.
They can't order them.  I call the dealer, they can't order them either.
I call every VW shop in San Diego, and none of them can get oversize
rings for a 2 liter.  So, I'm stuck.  After doing some soul searching, I
have decided to put the old rings back in and put it all together.  I
know some of you will call me stupid, but that's what I'm going to do.
I have already spent $350 on the project, and I don't have another $250
to throw into it right now.
	On a happier note, I visited the junkyard last weekend.  Found a
Safare Custom camper!!!  An Orange (OJ?  Innocent?  I don't believe it!)
one with yellow interior - deluxe like mine.  Build date 11/73, bubble
top.  Number #744 is no more, and I have the ID plate to add to my
collection.  Several differences between this one and mine, as usual.
The roof vent was much farther forward.  The original roof extended much
farther back into the cab than mine does.  It has good sliding windows
in the top, which I'm going back for next weekend.  It also has a cool
stick on logo on the front of the bubble top that says "Safare' Custom
Camper" with some cool graphics.  I'm going to photograph it and attempt
to make some kind of reproduction.  The logo was in bad shape, and I
assume I have just never seen one because they all rotted away.  This
camper also had a cabinet along the drivers side next to the roof that I
have never seen the likes of before.  It appeared to be an original
Safare piece, but was again in bad shape, so I didn't take it.  I did
make note of how it was made, and I will probably build a replica,
matching the other cabinets that I made for DaBoat, cause you can never
have too much storage in a VW camper.  :)  The 110V electric hookup
thingie was also mounted under the bench seat instead of behind the sink
like mine.  It's like the Safare people just put things wherever
they felt like on that particular day.  When they said Custom, they
weren't kidding!
	There is also a brand new junkyard here!  It's a Pick Your Part,
which is similar to the 3 Ecology junkyards already here, with cheap
parts and $1 admission.  I went in with high hopes.  The place was huge
and spotless, and nicely organized.  They must have had 60 vans, but
only two VWs.  A Water cooled Vanagon (sorry Gerry, no air box) that had
210,000 miles on it(!!), and a 76 Westy.  The cars in this junkyard all
had keys in the ignition and batteries, unlike Ecology which takes out
all that stuff plus drains the gas tanks (by puncturing them with a
pickaxe!).  The Vanagon was so fresh it actually had it's lights on!
Had a new looking interstate battery in it, but I had no need for it.
Motor and drivers seat gone, but otherwise complete.  Dark blue.  Joel,
need any blue Vanagon parts?  The other Westy was absolutely untouched,
with a complete FI 2.0 engine and trans in it.  Bad part was I didn't
*want* to touch this westy cause it had about 10,000 cigarette butts in
it.  No, I'm not kidding.  You know the bench seat in the back?  It was
filled 4" deep with butts.  Same with every orofice in the bus.
Hundreds of butts on the dash, the floor, the engine compartment...
absolutely amazing!  I didn't even want to get near this bus, it
smelled so bad.
	Anyway, This week's project is to assemble and install the 2.0 into
DaBoat and hope for the best.  Hope this all was at least interesting to
someone.

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
San Diego  (Actually La Mesa)      '72 VW Westfalia Camper      (Da Project)
California, USA                    '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com           '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (14.17@99.34)
http://www.teleport.com/~des       '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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