Date:         Tue, 07 May 1996 20:38:56 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         thorsland@bigvax.alfred.edu
Subject:      One more question before the rebuild.

As I've mentioned in the past my '77 westy lost all power last Dec and was
taken off the road.  A compression test revealed compression of 130# in the
number 1 and 2 cylinders and 0# in the 3 and 4 cylinders.  I finally got
around to doing my first valve adjustment (which was much easier than I had
imagined).  The bus started right up and had "lots" of power.  A compression
test showed that the 1 and 2 cylindes still had 130# but the 3 and 4 both
shot up to a wopping 60#.  I squirted some oil in the sparkplug holes and
there was no compression increase.  Well, I guess it is time to start
rebuilding.  Does it seem reasonable from this information that the problem
is in the left side heads?  I would like to also change the pistons and
cylinders but I don't want to do a lot of extra work if it is not needed.
>From these results, what would you all do?
Buy the way, the bus always starts right up.  It is amazing.  It hadn't been
started in 3 weeks, it was running with 0# compression in the 3 and 4 cylinders,it was cold and rainny, but it started in only a few cranks.  I'm impressed.
It sure was good to drive it again even if it was only around the block.
Thanks for your help,
Brett

PS  On valve adjustments:  The Bently manual says to turn the engine 90 degrees
counter-clockwise after adjusting the 1st cylinder to get the 2nd cylinder at 
TDC.  My Idiot Book, How to rebuild you aircool VW book, and my Claymer? Book
all say to turn the engine 180 degress counter clockwise.  The 180 degress
makes more sense to me.  Is Bently a missprint or am I reading something
wrong?