Date:         Thu, 04 Jul 1996 17:14:07 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dieter Dworkin Muller <dworkin@village.org>
Subject:      Gerbil engine replacement, part II


:  Our story so far:
:  
:  After five years of making a misadjusted valve noise that couldn't be
:  adjusted out, the Gerbil ('66 camper with a '71 engine of unknown
:  parentage) ate a piston (see
:  http://www.village.org/villagers/dworkin/gerbil.html; eventually the
:  full story with pictures, right now it's just some shots of the
:  piston).  Rebuilding from scratch was deemed impractical due to time
:  constraints, so a long block from Scat was ordered.
:  
:  The old engine has been stripped of all the relevant-looking bits
:  that don't come with a long block.  We ended with the burning
:  question of whether or not the pulley's woodruff key is one of
:  those bits, as it is difficult to remove.


Today's episode:

The new engine has a woodruff key installed for the pulley.  This is a
good thing.

Got the old engine down off of the work table, and the new engine up
on it instead.  I then proceeded to spend multiple hours trying to
figure out how the various non-long-block bits go on.

The first confusion is the dual-port intake manifold from Scat.  It
comes in five pieces: two end-pieces that bolt to the heads, two heat
riser tubes, and one center piece that connects all the others and the
carburetor.  It all makes a fair amount of sense except for a couple
of minor nits.  Nit the first is the threaded hole in the left side of
the tube that goes up to the carb.  I thought it might be for an
electro-magnetic cutoff valve, but that mounts onto the carb itself.
So, I need to find something to fill that hole with.  Nit the second
is how to get the heat riser tubes firmly attached to the center
piece.  It's chromed iron, they're something brass-like.  There aren't
any seals to fit between them, and relying on a friction seems wrong.
Scat did include the seals that go between the center and end pieces,
so if such a thing is supposed to be used, I'd expect to find it.

In the interest of getting back on the road, I pirated the center
piece from one of the two carcasses.  I don't like doing this, because
that engine should just need some tweaking to get it running.  The
true carcass, the one that ate the piston, was a single-port, so it
can't be a donor in this situation.

Next I turned to figuring out how to mount the thermostat, oil cooler,
etc.  This was made much more difficult than it needed to be by the
fact that none of the studs had ever actually had nuts threaded onto
them.  Combine this with the nuts that I was using off of the
carcasses, and you get the situation where it is almost impossible to
thread the nuts onto the studs.  I played around with the tap&die set,
making sure everything was to spec, but it didn't help.

I managed to convince myself that the mounting stud for the thermostat
is 9mm (14mm if measuring by wrench size), which was truly
frustrating, since nothing else is that size, and thus there aren't
any nuts like that nesting in the parts box.  I bailed on the
thermostat, and proceed to mounting the oil cooler.

Surprise, surprise, the oil cooler studs are behaving pretty much the
same way as the thermostat stud.  I pull a nut off of the old engine's
oil cooler mount, and it really doesn't want to go on.  Visual
inspection leads me to believe that it should, however, so I take a
socket and see what I can get it to do.  Lo and behold, it goes on,
albeit reluctantly.  Pulling it back off shows shiny threads on both
nut and stud, but neither looks like it's actually been re-threaded.
Fine, says I, and proceed to bolt down the doghouse cooler adaptor
(remembering the seals!).  Amusing data point:  Scat included a
complete engine gasket kit, plus the oil cooler had a set of oil seals
(the cooler comes with the engine as part of the package).  I've got a
lot of oil seals running around....

Next it's time to put the oil cooler onto the adaptor.  The first
problem I notice is that there is no depression in the cooler for the
seals.  This makes it seem like it's designed to leak.  I suppose I
can always pull it and reseat things if I need to.  At least the
adaptor has depressions for the seals.  The second problem is that you
can't get the doghouse cooler onto the adaptor, if the latter has
already been mounted onto engine.  *sigh* Unmount the adaptor, bolt
the cooler to it (trying to get the seals lined up right), and remount
the adaptor (don't forget to check those seals again).

At this point, I have to conclude that the various studs that came in
the engine were slightly oversize, with the intention that the wear
that occurs when the various nuts are put on helps to hold them in
place.  It's an interesting theory, but hardly one I'd like to count
on myself.

Given the experience with the oil cooler, I try to persuade one of my
13mm-headed bolts to fit onto the thermostat mount stud.  I must be
getting better at it, as it goes on this time (not without a
struggle).  Cool.  I take the thermostat, bracket, and control rod I
got from Recycle Auto Parts, chase appropriate spots with the tap&die
to clear off the rust, and put it together.  I'm not completely
convinced that the rod won't hang up where it goes through the head,
but I have to break out the propane torch for testing that (I don't
own a hair dryer), so that can wait for a bit; at least until I'm
ready to put on the cooling tin.

The above took about three hours.  I am convinced that most problems
that come up while trying to solve a problem (particularly mechanical
ones) result from tiredness, impatience, or ignorance.  I am purposely
taking my time, applying logic to each situation.  If I find myself
getting impatient or frustrated, I turn to another part of the job, or
take a break (given the local weather conditions, avoiding dehydration
is definitely in order).  The whole thing's going to take longer, but
I suspect I'm going to get hurt less, and the engine will be more
correctly assembled this way.

It's time to feed the out-of-town friends' cats, and then start on the
fuel pump and distributor.  The distributor drive gear ought to be
interesting....

	Dworkin