Busaholic Dave just dropped me a note, wondering where the heck I've been. He expressed concern about my long silence, fearing the worst: that I've switched over to watercooled V8's. I have been silent on this group and his note acted as a reminder that there is a community of totally odd people out in the world, nearly as odd as I, who deserve better treatment than this. So, to all RAMVA-ites who are feeling the pain of my absence, I offer my apology. I am NOT seeing another car. The Wonderbus is still my only love. I lust after Inge, that delectable morsel of northern European beauty is even more estrogen-saturated than ever, and I keep her in lab coats two sizes too small. But the Wonderbus has my deepest affection. No, it is not due to a lack of love for the beast, but lack of parts to tinker with and get myself into trouble with. John at Aircooled has apparently had the darnedest time getting some tool necessary to mount the vacuum port in the Kadron throttle body that I ordered along with the SVDA distributor. The guys over at BustedBus.com promised me a cooling kit for the bus, but no sign of that yet. It's not even quite time for me to magically break the engine when I perform the 6,000 mile valve adjust -- my first ever.
But no worries -- the parts from Aircooled arrived yesterday. I opened the box and looked at the mysterious bits and pieces within. Gaskets. Some vacuum hose. A throttle body with a tube sticking out the side. A distributor so hefty that it could be used to coldcock someone. Yessir, these are the implements that can get a fellow like me into plenty of trouble. I figure that if I can install this kit, then even the most pathetic testosterone-challenged concave-chested wuss of a timid pasty-white accountant could install the kit.
Which means, of course, that I will shortly be peppering this NG with innocent questions like: why does my engine run backwards? And, these extra parts I have -- are they important? And, there seems to be a large body of oil accumulating under the engine now, how can I stop it?
Stuff like that.
Heck, I don't even want to think about how I'll probably do something dreadful when I do the valve adjustment. Probably leave the feeler gauge in there.
And then, if I can get those cooling bits broken loose from Bustedbus.com and in my possession, I'll be pulling the engine.
/Then/ the questions are gonna fly.
And it's going to be ugly. Oh yeah.