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Date:         Wed, 18 Jun 1997 00:25:27 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         oldvolkshome1@juno.com (Old Volks Home)
Subject:      IT LIVES! 84 Westy 2.1 Conversion Finally Completed!

IT LIVES! IT LIVES!

After 13 months of sitting in the driveway, 2 1/2 months of which was spent in bucks and time to put together a 2.1 the 84 Westy 2.1 Project LIVES!

Originally purchased for the outlandish/ridiculous price of 1000 clams, it's 1.9 at 81,967 miles grenaded on the inside with a hole as big as your fist on the top of the case, I was looking at spending some serious bucks either for a rebuilt long block or finding a good used engine for replacement. A little bit of both happened in this instance.

The OLD (1.9):

**GIANT hole in top of case - thrown rod suspected. **Pulled right bank cylinder head - #2 piston TOTALLY gone. Just a pin frozen on a rod that was "S" shaped. **Split the case - Remnants of #2 piston and the camshaft in 4 pieces found inside. Amazingly, the crankshaft and 3 rods were re-useable and in very good shape considering the other damage present.

The NEW (2.1)

**Found an '86 2.1 core engine (minus heads) at the Kelly Park Show for $85 **Had my machinist split the case on this one and found that it had to be LOW mileage because of very little wear. Case didn't even need align-boring, crank only needed polishing and minor honing of the rod bushings. **Purchased and traded my 1.9 heads (which were OK, minor cracks between the seats and some pitting) for Rebuilt 2.1 style from AVP - Damn good work too. **New Water Pump, Thermostat, Thermotime Sensor, Temp Gauge Sensor, Oil Pressure Sensor, Expansion Tank Cap, Expansion Tank LED Sensor. **New Cat Converter, Muffler and Tailpipe. Rest of Exhaust in relatively good shape. **New Fuel Pump (Old one was frozen after 1 1/2 years of sitting - raunchy gas) Note: Purchased from the importer one made in Germany by A.P. Pierburg, the OE mfr of the mechanical pumps. A little better pricing than the Bosch, but not by much. One neat thing about the Pierburg is that it is in-cased in rubber to even further deaden any sound and vibration. Have to change the connectors to "loop" style as it uses studs not push-ons (appropriate parts, hardware and weather boots are provided with the pump). Further note: Decided to check with every FLAPS in the Redding area just to see what the going price for a FI fuel pump was. Average retail price quoted was $275.00!!!!!! And none of them had it in stock - most said it would take 1 to 4 days to get one. Can't believe it as during this time of year, there are FI Buses, Vanagons and Westys everywhere in this town - kinda like the VW RV capital of the world with Shasta Lake, Whiskytown Lake and Trinity Lake Nat'l Rec Areas surrounding the place. (Of course, I knew Bus Boys had one and at a price much, much less than the other FLAPS, but I chose instead to buy it direct from the importer of course). I just can't believe the prices I was quoted for this pump here in Redding from the others (BTW, I have these pumps for resale at about $182, Bosch [without the rubber insulation] is a little higher). **Rebuilt the fuel injectors - raunchy gas from sitting really screwed with the "cone of spray" - Rebuilt locally by some fine people that know these inside and out - about $25 each (rebuild and return). **New Fuel Filter **New Belt **New Plugs (W7CC0 as per spec in fiche), Cap (85 style), Rotor and Wires (Bosch 09272 - these have the suppressors at both the distributor cap and metal shielded suppressors at the plugs).

QUESTION: Are the W7DTC/WR7DTC Tri-Electrode Optional Plugs that much better, or are we splitting hairs here? Inquiring minds wanna know.

**Used Distributor w/good vacuum can (Old one was really trashed, dunno why) **Cleaned and Re-painted a lot of ancillary stuff **Some new coolant hoses (expensive - even at my cost) **New Bypass/Bleeder Assy in engine compartment - blasted thing's made of plastic and promptly fell apart when trying to replace the 8mm ID Bypass Hose to the X-Over Heater Pipe. Dealer only (oh well).

Moment of truth came when firing it up. After a few coughs it sprang to life and settled into a smooth (very smooth) idle just like it had been in there for years. Bleeding the cooling system as per Bentley went without a hitch (in fact so well, that I feared that something else more drastic would happen). Then I re-set the timing as per spec. Gee this thing sure runs quiet. The lifters were only noisy for the first 15 sections it ran and settled down right away. Temp Gauge was doing it's thing and the fan came on right at about the 3/4 mark (on the right) on the gauge. As I let it idle for about 25 minutes, the gauge would meander between 1/2 and 3/4, so the bleeding must have been right on the money. Didn't figure to be that lucky, especially in 100+ degree heat today. After dutifully checking for the requisite leaks and other potential problems that could have surfaced (there were none, amazingly enough), I shut it down for a little while to go inside and get out of the heat for an hour. Then I went outside fired it up again and took it on it's first road test - 4.1 miles. First thing I did was had my left foot looking for the clutch pedal. OOPS! This is an Automatic, gonna take some getting used to. Performed flawlessly, transmission shifted very smoothly and at what I felt were the proper points in speed. Little bit of a slug, but I've been told that when reaching freeway speeds, not to worry (we'll try that tomorrow). Pulled it back into the driveway, parked it and proceeded to clean up the tools and get most of everything else put away. Before locking down the garage, checked underneath again for leaks (NONE). Never felt better. Now all it needs is a nice bath to get rid of the driveway dust and grime. Slapped a Type2.Com sticker on the Rear Window and a Too Slow? Too Bad! sticker next to it too (well.....it is an Automatic). Waiting for the new (soon to be obsolete) V@L sticker to arrive from Poor Richard to complete it.

Now for a shower and some dinner. Quite a day. Felt like I got something accomplished for once.

But I am by no means an expert yet at Wasserboxers.

Thanks to all who contributed to the V@L archives relating to performing this adventure. Without them and the Bentley Book I think I may have gotten lost. I'm glad I took my time to read, do and LEARN.

Now for the dreaded SMOG test, insurance and updating the registration coming soon this week (oh joy).

Jim Sherwood Automotive * The Old Volks Home PO Box 176 * Palo Cedro, CA 96073-0176 * (916) 221-5342 (Voice & Fax) oldvolkshome1@juno.com


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