Gather 'round kiddies

...before shipping it off, check the valves and confirm that the adjustment hasn't tightened....also I wonder....you have gotten pulling the engine down to such a timely manor.....it really isn't very much time from there to pull the head off..

..>Gareth

DON'T DO IT ROCKY! You have half a usenet novel already! Finish the Vunderbuss!

On Sun, 23 May 2004 16:53:46 -0700, "Mike Rocket J. Squirrel Elliott" ran around screaming and yelling:

not a glitch, not a problem, just a change of direction....keep on keeping on....and shit like that...heh JT

Don't ya wanna get to the next level?

Squirrel Elliott"

around

glitch

direction....keep on

On 24 May 2004 00:41:13 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnojunk (Braukuche) ran around screaming and yelling:

am i reading this right?...you would go through all that trouble to get the "stock reliability" yet you won't run a wire from the front of the car to the starter? you would rather put a bandaid on *that* problem....sheesh JT

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Roger that.

All new parts for a VW engine cost more than a crate engine from VW's plant in Mexico. Then they have to be balanced and assembled.

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Like lobster? Seems to me your wife deserves a lobster dinner for being inflicted with a VW bus :-)

Why not drive down to Ensenada, treat her to a lobster dinner, a little dancing... mini overnight vacation just two hours from home. While you're there, drop by the VW dealer, find out what he wants to install a new engine in your bus -- and do the thermostat mod to the crate engine. Make sure he understands you want a Puebla-built engine. (If you insist on a juicer it makes it a bit harder to pass-off a locally assembled long-block.)

Or just arrange to buy the engine, plan to haul it home and install it yourself.

In any case, it wasn't your wife's fault. Driving on the freeway, any good driver devotes more attention to staying alive than watching a warning light buried in the speedo. Even so, she probably feels pretty bad about it.

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Before you go off the deep end, find out why you've got zero compression. If it's just a warped or stuck valve, drop the engine and repair it.

-Bob Hoover

The whole car is "bandaided" together, The front and rear clips were cut and welded back on, all the various half asses Baja mods were welded shut and its '60 on a '68 pan. The wiring was cut int eh process of the POs Baja mods so all the wiring was spliced in and so far has worked well except for the starter as of late. Running a wire from the switch to the solenoid may be a 15 minute job with the interior tore out, but my carpet is glued in and it aint' coming out. And unless you know of some way of running a wire from the front to the back without pulling the fore bulkhead carpeting out I would like to be edified, if that's a word.

--Dan E

TK? Maybe TJ?

Wasn't planning to quite so soon!

Veeduber wrote

You kidding me, Bob? My wife deserves more than a lobster dinner just for having me as a husband!

Interesting idea, very interesting. I doubt the Wonderbus would make it, but maybe, just maybe . . .

Both less and more interesting. Less interesting in that I would have to do all the work myself, with parts all over the driveway and a couple days working on the darn Wonderbus instead of doing something more productive. More interesting in that I would have chance to do the work myself and learn more.

She does. The thought never crossed my mind for a moment that I would have done anything different, nor did I say or imply it. But she did feel bad.

Hah! Easy for /you/ to say. How does one diagnose the presence of a warped or stuck valve?

By that I mean I know how to get to the valves . . . is the rest just poking, prodding and visual inspection?

On 24 May 2004 05:19:14 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.comnojunk (Braukuche) ran around screaming and yelling:

nope...its easy but obviously not as easy as you want it to be...you would have to peel back the first 2-3 inches of that carpet...i was not bashing you(really) i just found it odd that you were telling another that you *would* do all the stuff to bring the vehicle in question(Rocky's bus) back into stock configuration, while wanting to take the easy way out on your own..)...but you have yet to realize that if your wire from ignition to starter solenoid is indeed broken, you will not get a "hardstart" relay to work without a trigger wire...so you have two choices...one being run a wire from the ignition switch to the relay(which would be exactly what has to be done to properly fix your problem), or two being mount the relay and put in a remote start button....(easiest spot would be under rear seat in the "trim" that covers the battery and empty space..)i can tell you which one i would do, if nothing else for the convenience of not having to reach back into the rear of the car to start it....but i guess thats just me....i'll back off now.. JT

Yep. Sloppy typing strikes again.

--Dan E

Ah. That's good. My rodent forehead was furrowed in deep thought trying to figure out where "TK" was.

It's been suggested in this thread, and in private e-mails I've received (thanks guys for all your good thoughts) that I should not shy away from just pulling the darn engine again and replacing valves/pistons as needed.

But what about special tools? Bentleys' bus book shows a pretty substantial valve spring compression tool being used on this type of engine (dual-port 1600). How much does one of those things set a fellow back? Is there a Simple Simon workaround?

The book sez to check the valve seat and facings -- how? That Prussian Blue technique mentioned in Bentley's?

And if necessary, recondition (grind) them. Uh . . .

I'll check the valve adjustment a bit later today, in case #4's is too tight and that's what is causing my lack of compression.

But I have an appointment at the shop for Wednesday morning and before then I hope to have figured out whether I need to replace a valve or two or not, and whether I'll tackle it myself or not. That way I can be polite and cancel the appointment rather than no-show.

BTW, I am tempted to just do what needs to be done to repair the engine and get it running and then save my King Corn stamps for a new engine.

All I could think of was BJ.

Meh. Dis-a-pointed.

;)

Jan