Date:         Fri, 22 Dec 1995 23:53:06 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David Schwarze <des@teleport.com>
Subject:      DaBoat runs, but slowly

Volks,
	Today I worked the kinks out of the new motor.  At least some of
them.  I had a major exhaust leak where the left heat exchanger bolted
to the head, and several oil leaks.
	First, I fixed the heat exchanger leak.  Dropped the muffler and
the heat exchanger and sure enough, both copper ring gaskets had gotten
scrunched in wierd off-center ways.  Oh, one of the exhaust studs came
right out of the head with very little force applied, despite my having
used anti-sieze on the nuts.  I coated the stud with loctite and
tightened it in again as best I could.  Rebuilt GEX heads.  Hmmm...
	There was a big leak in the rear of the engine - turned out that I
had forgotten to reattach the little rubber bellows to the dipstick
tube.  I installed the bellows, noticing that the fit was not tight.
Hmm.  Pulled both valve covers, which appeared to be leaking.  Both
looked alright, so I just wiped them off, turned them upside down, and
reinstalled them.  A couple of the pushrod tubes appeared to be leaking
too, but it was hard to tell.  Gave them a twist, to hopefully seat the
seals differently.  Wiped all of the oil off and took 'er for a test
drive.
	Engine is real quiet with no exhaust leaks.  Sounds much throatier
than the 1800 did, and very smooth.  I attribute this to the hydraulic
lifters, and if they hold up I'm never going back to solid lifters.  I
actually had trouble hearing the engine in third and fourth gears.  Good
excuse to get that tach I've been wanting.  
	Two other things... the fan was wobbling a little.  I checked the
bolts and they were nice and tight.  Hmmm.  Removed the fan to see if
I'd caught a piece of junk behind it or something.  Cleaned all the
parts and reinstalled it.  Still tweaked.  This is the same fan I had on
the 1800, so I know it's not warped.  Must be the fan hub, which came
off of the vanagon motor.  I would replace it with the one from
Schneiter's, but I know what a bear it would be to get the one off the
engine, so I just leave it and let the fan wobble.  Also, the
accelerator linkage crossbar was apparently too short to fit the mounts
on the carbuerators.  I assume it is because of the longer stroke of the
two-liter.  Take the mounting brackets off, bend them, reinstall.  End
of problem.
	Now the biggie.  The bus bogs horribly when more than part throttle
is used.  Feels like it isn't getting any gas.  I know it is getting
gas, though.  These are the same carbs I had been using on the 1800 with
no problems, so I suspect something in the electrical system.  Tomorrow
I'm going to go over the points and timing and make sure they are set
properly.  I twisted the distributor every which way and it didn't make
much difference.  Ran best with lots of advance, but still had trouble
holding 65 on the freeway.  I bought a rebuild kit for the right carb
and rebuilt it, just in case, but it didn't help.  I just did the right
carb cause I had suspected it had problems when on the 1800.  The bus
idles nice and smooth, hitting on all four, and when you blip the
throttle, it sounds perfect.  But driving it, it does not respond to
full throttle.  It just kind of groans, sometimes sputters a little, and
slowly goes.  Sometimes after it has been idling a while, I can take off
in first, floor it, and it feels like it gets full power, but as soon as
I hit second gear it feels like it is starving again.
	My opinions are:

1.  The added displacement has thrown off the carbs, and they need to be
		rejetted.  Or...

2.  There is something wrong with the electrical system.


Anyone wanna take a stab at solving the mystery?

-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)
============================================================================