Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 08:12:08 +0000
Reply-To: Harry Yates <hyates@BERT.CR.BCIT.BC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Harry Yates <hyates@BERT.CR.BCIT.BC.CA>
Subject: Spring Maintenance...(long)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Hi Folks. I just woke up our '90 Syncro Westy on the weekend, and
thought I'd pass on what I did to the list.
The van had an oil change and was shut down last Nov 10. The battery
was removed, and the van was put on jack stands (with the tires just
barely touching the floor). I put in a can of fuel stabilizer as
well. I also put in some RV antifreeze in the watertank, and
flushed through the water lines. Our van was garaged, well waxed,
and detailed with all hinges, and rubber seals lubricated, and a
Dri-Z-Air container in the van to collect moisture. I had to dump
and replenish the Dri-Z-Air container twice since November. Two
weeks ago I also flushed the brakes and clutch lines, and last
November I had the coolant flushed. All wipers were also removed and
wiper arms wrapped so not to scratch the glass.
A few weeks ago I pulled out the ECU (I posted to the list my
findings and what I did earlier). So, this was it. I put dielectric
grease on the ECU contacts and reinstalled the ECU. I then installed
the battery (charged monthly when in storage) into the freshly waxed
battery box :)
Put the key in the ignition, turned the key, and on the first
tick-over she fired right up:) What a nice sound. I figured the
lifters would be noisy, but they were smooth, and quiet. I let the
engine warm up with the a/c on, as well as all heaters.
I then proceeded to go over all the electrical grounds from the fuel
pump rearward. I cleaned all contacts with emory cloth,
and used dielectric grease on all mating surfaces. Dielectric grease
looks like clear silicone sealer, and feels like it, but it doesn't
setup. It's a waterproof grease that is designed for electrical
contacts.
I did the battery ground strap, fuel pump, transmission ground strap,
and every electrical connector I could find under and in the engine
compartment. My findings were rather good. All connectors were
clean to the eye, but I cleaned them, and greased them anyway. I
gave the blue water temp sensor a little twist to freshen up the
ground on that, and while I was it this, I put some wires in the
plastic conduits you can buy in your local FLAPS to prevent abrasion,
to tidy things up a bit.
There are two grounds I couldn't get to. One is under the cooling
tin under the left head, and the other is a ground located somewhere
by the crankshaft pulley. What are these grounds for?
One interesting note was the two ground points located by the
ignition coil. There are two points that have a 10mm bolt holding
them to the body of the van. One of these had a white powder on the
threads. I wire brushed this off, and cleaned all connectors, and
greased things up and put it back. These bolts poke through the
wheel well, so they are subject to road spray. I even did the two
relays in the little black box above the ignition coil.
From there, I installed new Bosch Platinums (WR7CP), new ignition
wires, distributor cap and rotor. Dielectric grease was put on the
ribs of the spark plugs, and rubber boots of the ignition wires as
well.
I cleaned the entire intake system by removing all hoses, etc, and
reinstalled. Upon restarting, the engine sounded great. I even took
it out down the block (oh boy!).
Conclusion. With 145000 km (90000 miles) and 8 years old, I figured
it was time to do all this given some of the posts to the list. Last
fall I had this violent bucking between 2000 and 3000 rpm that lasted
about an hour. Don't know why this happened, but that's what
prompted me to do all this work. I now know what's been done, and if
it reoccurs, I can go onto other problem sources.
I will be taking in the van next week to my dealer for the 144000 km
service that will include a new oxygen sensor (I jammed out of
changing it myself), and engine basics/timing to be adjusted. That
should hopefully do it for the next few months.
Next to do would be the AFM service that some members have done.
This was a worthwhile excercise to do. I spent about 15 hours doing
this on the weekend, and every wire was inspected, and all hoses were
inspected. I found a couple hoses that needed to be wrapped
up/zip-tied in place to prevent chaffing as well.
Thanks to list members for recommending the checking of all ground
connections.
Harry.
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Harry Yates, Langley, British Columbia Canada
'90 Syncro Westfalia WWW - http://syncro.cr.bcit.bc.ca/hyates
'87 Golf Diesel email: hyates@bcit.bc.ca
'91 Miata (Millie)
