Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Jacksonville FL
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:45 am
The next visit on my list was white74westy with the '74 soon-to-be L90D white Westy:
This car has a Headflow Masters engine that we had indicted for low oil pressure last year. Adrian at Headflow Masters told white74westy to just box it back up and send it on back, and he'd take care of it. Well, white74westy boxed it back up and sent it on back, and it was determined to need just an oil pump ( "ho no no no," said I )*.
Once again, white74westy had that engine sitting there ready to go, held to a great good standard of excellence, every nut, bolt, screw, wire, engine tin, bracket, everything. We re-installed it on Saturday with that ol' hope springing eternally because we love our buses. Look at the thing:
Look at that tassle on the poptop. Where's mine? When did they stop tassling?
Look at the owner of this car pondering:
We had to ponder.
Took it on an exceptionally breezy test drive. No windows anywhere. Engine pulled pretty well. Oil temps got up to 180* or so. Oil pressure got up to 17 psi @ 2,500 rpm, 30 psi @ 4,000 rpm, real close to 0 psi at idle. Compression readings, 120/80/125/what was the last one? We had #1 playing dead. We had a lake of oil developing under the bell housing. We decided that this engine was to be well-cared-for but driven, come what may.
* Armed with the oil temperature and viscosity and rpm figures that the factory engineers deem necessary for these engines (28-42 psi @ 2,500 rpm), we had a problem and we still have the same problem. Anyone think replacing the oil pump "cures" low oil pressure? I don't. There was nothing white74westy could do but execute the engine rebuilder's suggestion to send it back. There was nothing white74westy could do but listen to the builder on the phone tell him what he was going to do to fix the problem. But the problem really is that there is more leakage in the engine's lubrication system than the pump can stay ahead of, and with this new "sooper-dooper heavy duty" oil pump, the oil pressure problem is the same as before we went through the untold aggravation of removing the engine and sending it to California. We have done our due diligence. We have two gauges reading the same low numbers.
We looked at his original engine, carefully boxed and labelled in a state of disassembly, and it looks like it will be an excellent core for his next rebuild, which he damn well better do himself.
White74westy introduced me to a new member of the tribe, Filthy Dub, with his new Rather Red 1971 high top camper. Filthy Dub and I spent a day getting his new acquisition running and safe to drive. Enjoyed meeting him, enjoyed his intelligence, his career choice, his coffee maker, his dogs, and enjoyed getting the car running and I enjoyed driving it on the streets of Jacksonville without registration or tags right past the cops who materialized out of nowhere.
You have plenty of work ahead of you, youse Jacksonville folks, but we have you driveable, and I strongly suggest that you drive drive drive, let these cars urge you to get them ready for the road, and then take to the road. There are memories to be made.
Colin
This car has a Headflow Masters engine that we had indicted for low oil pressure last year. Adrian at Headflow Masters told white74westy to just box it back up and send it on back, and he'd take care of it. Well, white74westy boxed it back up and sent it on back, and it was determined to need just an oil pump ( "ho no no no," said I )*.
Once again, white74westy had that engine sitting there ready to go, held to a great good standard of excellence, every nut, bolt, screw, wire, engine tin, bracket, everything. We re-installed it on Saturday with that ol' hope springing eternally because we love our buses. Look at the thing:
Look at that tassle on the poptop. Where's mine? When did they stop tassling?
Look at the owner of this car pondering:
We had to ponder.
Took it on an exceptionally breezy test drive. No windows anywhere. Engine pulled pretty well. Oil temps got up to 180* or so. Oil pressure got up to 17 psi @ 2,500 rpm, 30 psi @ 4,000 rpm, real close to 0 psi at idle. Compression readings, 120/80/125/what was the last one? We had #1 playing dead. We had a lake of oil developing under the bell housing. We decided that this engine was to be well-cared-for but driven, come what may.
* Armed with the oil temperature and viscosity and rpm figures that the factory engineers deem necessary for these engines (28-42 psi @ 2,500 rpm), we had a problem and we still have the same problem. Anyone think replacing the oil pump "cures" low oil pressure? I don't. There was nothing white74westy could do but execute the engine rebuilder's suggestion to send it back. There was nothing white74westy could do but listen to the builder on the phone tell him what he was going to do to fix the problem. But the problem really is that there is more leakage in the engine's lubrication system than the pump can stay ahead of, and with this new "sooper-dooper heavy duty" oil pump, the oil pressure problem is the same as before we went through the untold aggravation of removing the engine and sending it to California. We have done our due diligence. We have two gauges reading the same low numbers.
We looked at his original engine, carefully boxed and labelled in a state of disassembly, and it looks like it will be an excellent core for his next rebuild, which he damn well better do himself.
White74westy introduced me to a new member of the tribe, Filthy Dub, with his new Rather Red 1971 high top camper. Filthy Dub and I spent a day getting his new acquisition running and safe to drive. Enjoyed meeting him, enjoyed his intelligence, his career choice, his coffee maker, his dogs, and enjoyed getting the car running and I enjoyed driving it on the streets of Jacksonville without registration or tags right past the cops who materialized out of nowhere.
You have plenty of work ahead of you, youse Jacksonville folks, but we have you driveable, and I strongly suggest that you drive drive drive, let these cars urge you to get them ready for the road, and then take to the road. There are memories to be made.
Colin