Date:         Tue, 19 Dec 1995 09:25:45 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      DaBoat 2-liter update - it lives! (long)

I thought I sent this out yesterday, but I think something went wrong.
Apologies if it's a repeat...

-David

-------------------------------------------
Volks,

Well, DaBoat is finally back on the road, with two thousand snorting
cubic centimeters of raw performance between the rear wheels.  :)
It was a three week/$300 project that ended up taking three months and
close to $1000.  If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't, but I am sure
happy with the results.

I think the last time I posted to the list about this project, I had
just bought the rebuilt heads from GEX, and was assembling the short
block.  This was around Thanksgiving.  I took a few hours and cleaned up
the pistons, liners, and rings that I was going to re-use from the 81
Vanagon motor which I purchased from Mike Catlin.  They had already been
through the cleaner at the machine shop, but still had some carbon on
them so removed the rings and scrubbed them in soapy water till they
were spotless.  These pistons and liners were oversize 2-liter parts,
and had absolutely NO markings on them, including the arrows that were
supposed to point towards the front of the engine.  I couldn't find
new rings for these pistons, but decided I could use the old ones since
they looked fine and the engine had low mileage on it.  After everything
was clean and dry, I sat down with a ruler and pencil and tried to
determine which way the pistons were supposed to be installed.  I found
an old 1800 piston that had the arrow on the face, and determined how
the pin offset was relative to the arrow.  I then set each 2-liter
piston the same way, and scratched an arrow into the face with a sharp
nail.  The pin bore was just *barely* off center, and I had to measure
several times to make sure I had it right.  I couldn't really tell by
looking.  I oiled up the barrels, installed the rings, and started to
install the pistons.  Unfortunately, my ring compressor was not large
enough to fit around the 94.5mm pistons - DOH!  Fortunately, I found I
was able to compress the rings by hand and fit the pistons in by taking
advantage of the cutouts in the bottom of the barrels.  On the second
piston, I inserted the oil ring and went to push the piston in and met a
little resistance.  I gave the backside of the piston a light tap, and a
small piece of piston ring shot out onto the workbench.  A $300 mistake.
Hint: Try to avoid installing rings.  If you have to do it, go VERY slow
and be VERY careful.  Don't drink beer while you do this.  :(  I had
not been careful enough - one side of the oil ring had slipped back out
before I started to press the piston into the cylinder, and in my haste
I didn't notice.
	So, I decided to bite the bullet and buy new pistons and liners.
One less thing to go wrong, right?  I started calling around to find the
best price.  Most places advertised Cofap pistons in the $260-$300
range, with German (KolbenSchmidt?) being around $400-$450.  Of course,
my issue of VW Trends was a couple of months old, and wouldn't you know
it, Cofap is getting out of the VW piston/cylinder business in the US.
Most places didn't have them anymore, and those that did were asking
close to $400 for a set.  ARRRGH!  I finally found a place that had a
set on the shelf that they were willing to sell to me for their original
price, and $320 later I had my pistons/cylinders.  Hope I never have to
buy any again, though.  Setting the deck height, I found that the little
thin spacers I got with the cylinders only gave .030" of clearance.
Spec was .050 to .080, I think.  I pried some very thick spacers off of
the old oversize jugs and installed them.  They were .060 thick for a
total of around .090 (the thin ones were only about .005).  I figured I
wanted to err on the side of safety/low compression.
	Next, I needed some bolts to plug the air injection holes as I won't
be installing the air injection right now, but wanted the option in case
smog difficulties should arise.  I carried one of the GEX rebuilt heads
down to the hardware store to find bolts to fit.  Tried one in one hole
and it fit nicely.  Put it in the other hole, and it went all the way in
without hitting any threads.  Rebuilt heads, yah whatever.  GEX didn't
bother to fix the (obviously stripped) air injection port.  Fortunately,
there were good threads near the end, and I was able to get a longer
bolt that fit okay.  (Later, when installing the tin, I was tightening
down one of the bolts, and before I got 5 lb/ft on it, it went from
getting tighter to getting looser.  Had to get a longer bolt for that
one too.  Grrr... Never again GEX!  I seriously doubt the air injection
tubes are gonna get tight in these heads!).  I sanded the nicks in the
combustion chambers of the "rebuilt" GEX heads with 320 grit sandpaper
until there were at least no sharp edges, and installed them.  They look
nice, but I don't trust them.  I think I'm going to have Mark Stephens
rebuild my slightly cracked 1700 heads with his famous valve seats and
new TRW valves and swap them out before we go to Inuvik.  Did I mention 
I don't care for GEX?
	Skip ahead to about a week ago.  I finally got some time and started
installing accessories on the long block.  Oil pump, Oil cooler,
cylinder head temp senders.  Oh yeah, there was no fitting to attach the
CHT sender on either head.  Now I remember why - I have two "right"
cylinder heads.  This because I wanted the bigger valved 1800 heads, but
the 1800 heads only have one air injection port on the left head, so
they gave me two right heads (the '73 1700 heads have four air injection
ports, but smaller valves).  That's about the only nice thing GEX did
for me.  They could have been really nice and taken my 1700 heads as
cores, and they were going to until I mentioned that I had vanagon heads
in the car, at which point they told me they wouldn't accept the 1700
heads as cores, but the pristine vanagon heads would be fine,
thankyouverymuch.  I would have used the vanagon heads, except that they
have square exhaust ports and my '73 exhaust will not mate up to them.
Anyway, I bought a new CHT sender because my old one had a broken wire.
It was only $11, but when I got home, I found a perfectly good one in a
box of parts that Jeff Schneiter had given me with his bus.  So now I
had two.  I had wanted to install the sender on a spark plug, but try as
I might, I could NOT bend that sucker in such a way that it would fit
properly under the spark plug.  You see, the spark plug is recessed, and
there is maybe 1/8" of space around the edge of the spark plug.  Not
enough room for the sender.  There are enough problems with spark plugs
in aluminum heads without trying to squeeze a sender in under one.  I gave 
up and drilled a small hole in a part of each head that was close to the 
spark plug hole, and had some metal behind it.  I installed one sender on 
each head with a small sheet metal screw.  If anyone tells you that you 
should install a CHT sender on a spark plug in one of these type IV 
busses, don't believe them.  There is no way the plug will seat properly 
with the sender in there.  There just isn't room for it.  If you have one 
on a spark plug now, well... you're wierd, okay?
	More fun stuff, the hydraulic lifters.  The book (Tom Wilson's "How
to rebuild your air cooled VW") says to bleed them in a quart of oil in
a cake pan.  I find an appropriate pan and pour two quarts of 20-50
Castrol into it.  I try submerging the lifter and pressing on it with a
pushrod like the book says, but no bubbles come out of the li'l hole in
the side.  Hmmm.  The plunger depresses a little bit, easily.  After
pressing, holding, pressing, holding, waiting, pressing some more,
without ever seeing a single bubble, I decide that it must be bled.
Keep in mind that I know nada about hydraulic valves, and have never
even seen one before.  I repeat the process with all of the lifters, set
them on the clean newspaper, and look at them.  Think a while.  Hmmm...
book says after they are bled you should not be able to press them in
*at all*.  That's not the case with these lifters.  Book also says that
there is a hole in the side that you can stick a wire in to hold the
check valve open.  Unless they are aftermarket lifters, in which case
there is no way to press in the check valve.  Uh oh.  The small hole in 
the side of these lifters does not go very far, and does not lead to a 
check valve.  I finally decide to take one apart, even though the book 
warns that there are lots of small parts inside, and that disassembly 
isn't necessary.  Getting them apart was easy - I just pried the little 
clip off with a small flathead screwdriver and pulled the cap off by 
sticking a nail inside the small hole in the middle of the cap, pushing 
sideways and pulling out.  Underneath the cap, there was the plunger, 
which also had a small hole in the middle of it.  Through this hole was 
the check valve.  Not possible to press it in with a wire through the 
small hole in the side of the lifter.  No way.  Underneath the plunger
was a suprisingly strong spring.  I found that there had indeed been air
underneath the plunger, and when I reassembled the lifter (under oil), 
I couldn't push the cap in at all.  Cool!  Oh, wait a minute, I can't
push the cap in at all, but I have to push it in enough to reinstall the
clip that holds it all together!  Now I'm in trouble.  I try and try to
find a way to hold the plunger down and get the cap in before it pops
back up, but there is no way.  I try placing a pushrod on the cap and
leaning on it hard.  After 2 minutes, the cap still hasn't moved in one
bit.  I start to get mad.  Mad that a stupid little device consisting of
a couple pieces of metal could defeat me.  The check valve allows oil to
enter the bottom of the lifter through the hole in the center of the 
plunger, but not go back out, so once the spring has pushed the plunger 
up, it will not go back down.  After thinking for what seemed like an
hour and staring at my hands and the disassembled lifter in the pan of
oil, I decide that the little hole has to be the key.  Even though I
couldn't press the check valve in through the hole in the side of the
lifter, I found that I could hold the check valve open with a nail 
(from the end of the lifter) while pressing down on the plunger and
wedge another nail in through the hole in the side.  By pulling up on
the nail in the side of the lifter, I could hold the piston down, pull
out the nail that was holding the check valve in, install the cap and
clip (just *barely*) and then yank the nail out of the hole in the side.
It took me a few tries to get it to work, but finally I was able to get
the lifter back together with no air in it.  Pressing down on the cap
now produced no noticable movement.  I bled the rest of the lifters the
same way, by disassembling them and using the two-nail trick to
reassemble them.  I can't believe that this is the way they were
designed to be used, though.  
	I cleaned the pushrod tubes, installed new seals, and installed them
in the heads with NO sealent.  I'm 60% convinced this is the right way
to do it, even though Tom Wilson says otherwise.  Installed the fancy-
schmancy Porsche sump plate with the boss for the temp sender that
extends way into the sump.  After seeing how this one is positioned, I'm
convinced that the way I had the old one isn't going to give a very
accurate reading.  The old one was mounted in a hole in the plate,
sticking straight up, towards the rear of the plate.  The new one is
angled inward from the *front* of the plate, towards the front of the
engine, and sticks through a hole in the case into the main part of the
sump.  The plate covers a small separate area of the sump that is
somewhat shrouded from the main sump, which probably produces
artificially low temps in that area. I found this plate on a 914 in a 
junkyard after months of looking (Dave Carment, the next one I find is 
going to you, I'm still looking!).  They are no longer available from 
VDO.  After that, I quit for the night.
	This brings me to yesterday, when I spent about 6 hours installing
the engine.  Tom Wilson says to put on the fan housing, alternator,
thermostat, and other stuff before installing the engine, but I have
found that it is easier (at least with type IV motors) to install the
engine as a long block (i.e. no tin, exhaust, intake, or nuthin!) and
put the accessories on later.  I lifted the long block from the
workbench onto the floor (gotta love these lightweight VW engines!) and
slid it through the house to the front door on a piece of carpet.  When
the engine was at the front door, I installed the fuel pump, clutch,
and pressure plate.  Lined the clutch up by eye, which has always worked
for me.  There are plenty of good references to line it up - I just
sighted through the hub of the clutch to the pilot bearing.  Pushed the
engine out the door and under the bus, which has been parked in my
parking spot immediately in front of my condo for the last three months.
Put the motor roughly in the position it would be if it were installed,
and lined the floor jack up right behind it.  Tilted the motor forward
45 degrees and slid the jack underneath it.  Tipped the motor back onto
the jack.  No problem.  Slid the jack in a little and lifted the engine
to installation height.  Got the bottom studs through the tranny, but
the engine (as usual) didn't mate up easily.  When you're doing engine
installs alone, you don't have a lot of force to apply to the engine
while wiggling, rocking, etc.  So, I have come up with my own method for
easy engine install.  I got two long bolts that I have saved for this
purpose, and put them through the upper mounting holes.  Made sure the
engine was as far in as it was gonna go (within about an inch of mating)
and exactly parallel to the transmission, and tightened the nuts till 
they just touched the engine housing.  Then I let down the jack a little 
and let the weight of the engine pivot itself into position.  A slight 
push on the engine and in it went.  The rest of the install was just
procedure, and was uneventful, that day.  I had to call off the job
around three to get ready for work.  The intake, exhaust, and most
engine tin was still not on, but I had gotten the starter, fan hub, fan
housing, alternator, battery, etc. installed. 
	This morning I decided to take the moring off work and finish the
job.  My neighbors, who are a mostly elderly bunch, are surely at the
brink of blowing up my big ugly bus that has been sitting, keeping watch
over my unit for the last three months.  I'm sure they all consider it
an eyesore, and I'm really suprised they haven't sent me some kind of
warning, but it *is* my parking spot, so I suppose there's not a lot
they can do.  Of course, any kind of auto repair in parking spots is
strictly prohibited, so if one of them were to happen by when I was
putting the engine in, I might have gotten in trouble.  Now that the
engine is in, I can fool them as long as I'm not too dirty, cause most
of them think that all cars are Japanese and have engines in the front,
and that I'm just vacuuming my trunk or something.  
	Anyway, I got started about 8:30.  Took me a coupla hours to install
the tin, because I had to keep searching for pieces that I had removed
several months earlier and not stored carefullly.  Then I was also
cleaning each piece before putting it in.  Began instaling the exhaust,
looked at the clock (noon) and decided I'd better step it up a bit if I
wanted to get *any* time in at work today.  So, I stopped polishing the
hardware and cleaning stuff and just reassembled it.  After installing
the heat exchangers with new copper sealing rings, the muffler didn't
want to go on.  Seemed like the left heat exchanger was sitting 1/2"
low.  I shrugged it off, forced the muffler on and kept going.  Put
generous coatings of anti-sieze on all exhaust hardware.  Installed the
fuel line onto the fuel pump by kinking the hose 180 degrees upstream,
draining the small amount of fuel left in the line, installing it, and
letting go of the kink.  Didn't get a drop on me.  All the horror
stories on this list of spilling fuel in the face must have paid off by
making me extra cautious.  Too bad I wasn't as cautious with the piston
rings.  :(  Filled the engine with oil, installed the intake, brake
vacuum hose, throttle cable, throttle crossbar, fuel lines to carbs,
coil, distributor cap & wires, breather box, thermostat (yes, I put the
flaps back in and hooked up the thermostat!  Let's see how long it is
till my bus overheats!  :)) and other assorted things.  Ready to start!
	Give everything one last check, pull the coil wire, and crank it
over a few times.  Sounds uneven.  My theory is that the hydraulic
lifters, which were installed according to the instructions by turning
the adjusting screws two turns past valve contact, had not fully
settled, and that some of the valves were not closing.  Fortunately,
after a few minutes, I turned it over again and it was nice and even.
Cranked it until oil pressure built up.  Got 50 psi on the gauge just
from cranking, which was encouraging, and when I let go of the key, it
stayed around a long time.  Oil pressure light didn't go on for close to
a minute.  Reattached the coil wire and attempted to start it up.  Lots
of cranking, no firing.  Hmmm... pulled one of the fuel lines, and it
was dry as a bone.  Poured a little gas into a beer bottle and put a
shot in each carb and tried again.  I figured the fuel pump wasn't
primed and that it would take a lot of cranking (or a quick catch of the
engine) to get the gas to the carbs.  The engine coughed but did not
catch.  The battery was getting weak by now, so I pulled the Capri in
next to the camper (good thing my neighbor was at work) and hooked up
the jumper cables.  Lots of juice now!  Engine still won't catch.  I
twist the distributor in vain.  Recheck the timing and try again.
Finally there is gas getting to the carbs.  Why won't the enigne start?
Next time I crank it, it coughs a few times, and backfires through one
of the carbs.  Sounds like a shotgun going off.  My cat probably hit the
ceiling.  Something is really wrong.  Timing must be way off.  180
degrees off maybe?  Possible, I was kinda sloppy checking it earlier.  I
swap the wires across the top of the distributor, and the engine fires
to life.  Yesss!  Hope I didn't blow anything with that backfire.  There
is a major exhaust leak.  I prop the pedal with the club to maintain a
fast idle, and feel around for the leak.  It's the left heat exchanger.
Recheck the nuts, they are all tight.  Back off from the bus a bit and
look at the bumper.  The muffler isn't parallel to the ground - the
right side is a bit higher.  One of those copper sealing rings must have
gotten slightly sideways on install.  That's happened to me before.  I
will be happy when those puppies get stuck up in the heads like they do
after awhile.  It's hard as hell to get them to sit on top of the
manifolds while you shove them onto the heads.  Realize I'll have to
drop the rear tin, muffler, and left heat exchanger to fix it.  Frown.
Well, the bus is real loud, so I decide to get it away from the house
for its initial breakin run.  Lock up the door, hop in, and off we go!
It's so good to drive the bus again!  brakes are sticky, which isn't
suprising.  The engine sounds completely different - while cranking,
while running.  Even with the exhaust leak, I can tell it's a lot quieter.
Smoother too.  More powerful?  Hard to tell.  The timing is probably way
off, and the noise of the exhaust leak makes it sound faster than it is,
but it has plenty of power.  I don't want to floor it just yet.  Drove
around for a few minutes on side streets, pulled over to lower the idle
a bit, which had gotten way to fast, and maybe tweak the timing.  Notice
oil dripping down at an alarming rate, in at least two places.  DOH!
I'm only one block from home, so I high-tail it back to my parking spot
and shut it down.  CHT was at 250, oil barely up to 120.  Oh well, so
much for breakin.  Upon inspection, the oil seems to be coming from two
main places, rear center and front right.  Looking underneath I
immediately see the cause of the rear one - I forgot to install the
small rubber bellows that the dipstick goes through.  Oil belching out
all over the place.  DOH!  The other one seems to be coming from the
right valve cover gasket.  The backfire must have blown out the seal.
Another easy fix - thank goodness!  So, a coupla hours to fix the
exhaust and oil leaks and I think I'm in business!  Unfortunately I
don't have time to do it till Friday, so I will have to leave the bus
sit in it's old spot a few more days.  At least the tires are sitting in
a new spot now.

If you've read this far, you deserve a medal, or a free Big Mac, or
something.  Hope a little of it was interesting...

-David

============================================================================
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)
============================================================================