Date:         Tue, 06 Aug 1996 22:47:03 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John Anderson <vwbus@netbiz.net>
Subject:      A good trip story

PWIES@LOYOLA.EDU wrote:
> 
> I guess the '81 is basically up and moving?

(Well this story was for Paul but hell I'll share it with everyone,
it represents the most pure form of VW bus love (stupidity).  As a
bit of background I dove head first into the tragic mistake of buying
a non-running bus over 5 hours from my residence looking at it once
only on a business trip, cause it "seemed a good idea at the time"
cause a Vanagon would be a lot nicer on vacation than the '78 Westy.
The van would not start and had zero compression on no 2, a near new 
head.)

Uh not really, long story.  Bought in NJ, like 1.5 months ago,
weeks later towed to alternate NJ location (friends parents house)
New AVP rebuild arrives (was going to do myself, but hell price not
much better plus at the time thought I needed the van ASAP for vacation
which I have had to put off.  So weekend last and I go up,
intending to install the AVP engine, but more of the engine tin
was missing than I thought, I had bus pieces but there are
differences due to alternator.  I had to meet my roomate (co-owner)
at Newark at 1:00 pm where he had flown in so he could help work
on it after a week on business in Houston, due to delays I got to Newark 
at 2:30 by the time we got to the bus and struggled to get it up a set 
of ramps it was like 5:00 pm.

Anyway prepared to deal with what might be I had brought the 1 good head
from that '79 Steve Dolan gave me (or I swiped as I had the only bus
with an opening, sorry about that I feel you wanted it Paul), well 
pulled the engine Saturday evening, got up early Sunday dissasembled 
found that the PO had indeed replaced the same head less than 5k 
previous with brand spankin new VW head, unfortunately his idiot 
mechanic had butchered the tin and left pieces off resulted in it 
dropping a seat almost instantaneously.  Well anyway bolted used head 
on, reassemble everything improving the tin as much as I could, put it
in only to notice that the engine carrier had been previously installed
backward offseting the engine and tranny in the frame explaining the 
poor compartment air seal fit and fact that you could not get left
driveshaft out.  Decided to ignore the fact duct taped the seal up.
This about 7 pm Sunday night (got to be at work 8 am in the morning and
all)  Struggled for 2.5 hours replacing exhaust (only took 15 minutes
to remove) a story in itself, suffice it to say new exhaust parts a 
must.  At this point fire it for the first time (I had never heard
it run and did not truthly know it would, PO said it did up till I
looked at it and I believed him, problem ended up being that fuel pump
lead at starter corroded nearly though (this I had fixed Saturday but
after the engine was out so I did not know it would run)  Anyway fires
up with a fair exhaust leak, fair compression all round, and a
major oil leak from the near solid right hand valve cover seal running 
onto the heat exchanger generating billowing clouds of smoke when 
stationary, I decide the hell with it, its 10 pm by the time we shower.
It runs, power seems good, smoke I can live with, go fill it up and head
out, this is about a 350 mile trip, my roomate following in the '85, no
runner itself.  But a bonus it was quite cool that weekend so I figured
night was as good as I'd get (60's)  but the return trip was quite
uneventful, engine pinged if I didn't watch but power was good, did 60
mph the whole way except for hills where I had to run 45-50 in 3rd.
On the last big hill something began to make "noise" I ignored it and
in fact now feel certain it was the right outer CV whose boot was torn
badly, didn't seem engine related.  Caught a lot of rain on the return 
trip made it back at 4:30 am slept 2.5 hours got up went to work.

A hell of a weekend.

This proves a couple of things BTW, never let an idiot work on a
VW van air cooled or otherwise, unless you know what you are doing
it might be more harm than good, the poor "surfer guy" PO had sunk
a lot of money in this van, like $1500 beyond his purchase (tranny 
replaced as well as engine work)  I paid $650 a lesson for the 
unsuspecting (me included)

So now it sits as I need a lot of tinware before I install the AVP
rebuild.  A note on AVP BTW I was generally happy with their service
but am slighly dismayed 2 plug holes have inserts (though very nicely
done) and the thing got pretty banged around in shipping with some
of the head fins bent and the studs scraped badly (admittedly not their
fault)  price was a couple hundred better than Stephens though.  They
also used Teflon tape on the pipe plugs on the oil galleries and merely 
peened the rear plugs near the filter.  Still seems OK, we'll see
what its like once in.

John
vwbus@netbiz.net
too many VW's at this point