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Date:         Fri, 31 Jul 1998 19:17:34 -0700
Reply-To:     "Charles \"Luke\" Lukey" <luke@SEANET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Charles \"Luke\" Lukey" <luke@SEANET.COM>
Subject:      The Earlboiner
Comments: To: Vanagon <vanagon@vanagon.com>, vintagebus@type2.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Rolling across the 520 floating bridge, 4:30 am, doing about 50 mph, notice what appears to be fog blowing around the back of my '67 camper. "How quaint," I thought, "The morning mist is gathering around the stern, much as it did during my seafaring days." Arriving at work, I noticed the engine seemed hotter than usual as I walked by, and, worse, there was OIL all over the back of the bus!

Once I came to, a few moments spent hyperventilating gave me time to think: This is a brand new engine, 1776 cc, Gene Berg damn near everything, machined by the best around, assembled by the best around, scarcely a thousand miles on the clock and it was LEAKING OIL.

Actually, it was sort of dribbling from the little engine tin pourspout under the bottom pulley. Right on to the extractor collector, just inboard of the exhaust flange. Lots of smoke.

In the engine room, everything was well lubed, but the heavy stream of oil that indicates a cooler seal failure was not evident.

Thinking quickly, and since it was too dark to see much, I went in to work.

Later, I called Ken Madson, the guy who assembled the motor, and made arrangements to bring the bus to his shop.

Fast forward to the present. Ken removed the fan shroud and confirmed that the oil cooler seals did not, do not, and likely will not ever leak. The area inside the fan shroud is as clean as the day it was assembled. The Berg Achiever pulley, purchased at a swap meet, checked out perfect on the micrometer. The sand seal, though perfect in appearance, was replaced as it was at least 10 years old. Those ten years were spent on a shelf in Goldendale, WA, and is, at this point, The Prime Suspect.

However, Ken reported that there seemed to be a lot of oil around the generator stand/oil fill tower when he dismantled it.

Since the engine is out, it was decided to mount a set of Kadrons to replace the frankly-too-small Weber 34s. The pressure relief setup on the Webers was simple: A hose ran from the fitting under the oil fill cap to the top of the right air cleaner.

The new setup will use a tee and run to both air cleaners. The alternative is a breather box.

To my questions:

Has anyone ever had this happen? What was leaking? Did the pressure relief valves on the bottom of the engine have anything to do with it? Does anyone have any experience with breather boxes? How is it possible for an engine to develop so much pressure?

Other clues: The day it happened was one of those rare, rare days in Seattle - it was actually HOT outside. It got up to 97 degrees, and was the second of three hellishly hot days. I drive my bus 40 miles every day in a safe and sane manner. The morning 20 is quick, no traffic to speak of - the afternoon 20 can be a killer, stop-n-go all the way sometimes.

Help me somebody - Ken loaned me his Bestelwagen to drive and I'm tired of explaining it to people!

Charles "Luke" Lukey Seattle, WA

Charles "Luke" Lukey Seattle, WA


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