Date:         Mon, 4 Mar 1996 12:07:45 MST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Mike White" <MIKE.WHITE@law.utah.edu>
Subject:      '64 Weekend Addendum!

Oh!  I forget to share the greatest part of the story:

Or also known as:

"Don't trust your mechanic farther than you can throw him/her"

Well Rich's '64 was running crappy.  (No power at full thorottle)  
Burning oil only when going downhill.  So we had another VW guy look 
at it.

He checks the timing, checks the plugs, checks the distributor. 

"Umm, dunno."  

So we blaze.  Rich has a paper air-filter, so I thought I'd check it 
to see if it was clogged causing the poor performance.

I unscrew it, and oil starts dripping on my hand!!!  What???

I take it off, and look inside and the thing is coated with oil.  
Well that explains no power.  Now what is causing oil to come clear 
up the pre-heater tube from the case?

Pull out dipstick.  Oil to TOP of dipstick.  Odd.  Well, let's clean 
it off, and check for real.  Back in and out.  OIL AT TOP OF DIPSTICK!

Wow.  That's a lot of oil in that thar engine.  No wonder why the oil 
filter/carb is full of oil!

So why blame the mechaninc?

Two weeks before this he'd done a tune-up and said:  

"You were two quarts low on oil, so I filled it up fer ya."

Rich thought, "Odd, my oil was about 1/2 way between low line and 
full line last week."

Anyone know what damage having 15 gallons of oil in his engine could 
have done?  (Blow out gaskets?)

So there ya have it!

- Mike White 

[Mail: mike.white@law.utah.edu   -   mwhite@eng.utah.edu]
Visit my '57 23-Window VW BUS at: [http://cloud8.law.utah.edu/]