Itinerant Air-Cooled

We left off with a repaired NaranjaWesty at the end of my appointment with Ronin10, touched upon in the Freezing Donkey thread:

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=13118&start=30#p221940

Before we go up the hill (Snoqualmie Pass), however, I must show you the
Ronin10 682A Super Fuel Injector Test Stand sans the mayonnaise jar viewing glass:



That's my #3 injector right there. Sprayed so beautifully that it hit the sides of the glass all the way around. It probably liked the clean fuel we tested it with. There's the back side of the Ronin10 682A Super Fuel Injector Test Stand just before its due upgrade to a real smoke detector 9 volt battery plug instead of the current alligator clips. As importantly, you can see that we had to fool around with starters. His starter was whirring energetically but forgetting to bring the engine along for the ride. After a disassembly that included some persuasive taps and a serious Hook The Plunger To The Lever, the starter returned to duty:




I got to drive this gorgeous Karmann Ghia:




You know, Bleyseng, we could make a day polishing the Authentic Volkswagen Experience.
Here is Bleyseng thinking about it while Ronin10 works most diligently:




So I made it to exit 38 off I-90, Ronin10, but I made it only as far as the parking lot where 97 4,497 lb concrete barriers were stacked. Then the screaming fuel pump demanded a rest, and we rested. In the morning, I dissected the offending spark plug connector:







The resistor checked out! The ends checked out! The press fit between the resistor and the end did not . . .




Then the weather checked out. A big pile of filthy clouds jumped over the horizon and plagued my Desperately Needed Maintenance Day with new pellets of rain as I re-torqued the exhaust nuts and cleaned the lower tins. Buttoned up the shop and hit the road eastbound to Roslyn WA for my appointment with Bukidbus the next morning. Disembarked at the Safeway in Cle Elum WA. Poised over the fresh broccoli in the produce section in my tatty cut-offs and gasoline-spattered tank top, I was accosted by a guy.
"Hey Colin!"
Who? What? When? My mind crashed its memory file drawers all over the floor of my cranium.
"It's Bukidbus, we have an appointment tomorrow."
We chatted briefly. I still did not have a picture of what the car in question was about, and I did not know what we would accomplish, but it was something like, start an engine in the bus, if we like it, take it out and stick in the other engine . . . ?
Did I get that right?







That is what we did and the rains came and the chill descended, and the puddles formed and the gutters trickled and the cardboard soddened, and the sand and the dirt dispersed and the nuts disappeared and reappeared and the centermount Weber ran like crap and ran like crap and we timed it under the stumbling and he found that the brake booster nipple was sucking air in front of the intake manifold. Once we got it running nicely, we yanked the engine.

We installed the other engine. It was a fuel injected engine. We made it through most of the details, and I abandoned him with a list of things to do. And I enjoyed his company and conversation, bacon and eggs for lunch, coffeeinthecold! and music. I think he is going to have a very fine bus, a Neptune blue Kombi when he is done.




Drove to Yakima. Passed out dead tired in the rest area off US-97. Awoke to three volcanos.
ColinInTheDalles

My mission statement for the day to Colin was to "get the 79 running." It actually didn't take much beyond sorting out the self-induced starter issue (a misunderstanding of how the solenoid engages the starter motor lever) and correcting the adjustment of the fuel pump cutoff switch in the AFM we were able to get it running by about 1:00pm or so without much difficulty. We refined the engine operation a bit, adjusting the timing, AFM wiper position, and replacing a bad spark plug cable. So over the course of four or so hours, we took my $500 pulled-from-the-weeds rescue to something worth a couple grand at least. I'll be test driving it once I get back in town to get the lifters to fully pump up and make sure the brakes are in good working order.

The afternoon was spent shaking down my new 76 Westy, but nothing too profound done there. All in all, a much less intensive day IAC day than in years past, but still worthwhile. Thanks Colin!

The engine with the Weber has a catalytic converter ???

vwlover77 wrote:The engine with the Weber has a catalytic converter ???

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing myself.

Is that a big whoop that an aftermarket-carbed engine would have a catalytic converter? What are the operational implications? Quick death for the converter?

whc03grady wrote:Is that a big whoop that an aftermarket-carbed engine would have a catalytic converter? What are the operational implications? Quick death for the converter?

Well, pretty much, yeah, or slow death for the motor. The carburetor isn't going to be able to provide anywhere near the mixture control that will keep a 3-way cat happy. The cat will just not be able to do its job of cleaning up the exhaust and will only provide an unnecessary restriction, likely one that will get worse as it progressively plugs up. Ask The Miz about constipated cats.

The puzzlement here is that we see two meticulously-detailed, enviably spotless engines here: one fuel injected and one carbureted. The FI engine has a much greater chance of keeping a cat happy than the carbureted one, yet the FI engine has what appears to be an old '72-74 muffler, while the carb-equipped engine has the cat and muffler.

It may be that that is how the exhaust components naturally fell together, what with port and flange changes over the years, but it's still a puzzlement.

SlowLane wrote:

whc03grady wrote:Is that a big whoop that an aftermarket-carbed engine would have a catalytic converter? What are the operational implications? Quick death for the converter?

Well, pretty much, yeah, or slow death for the motor. The carburetor isn't going to be able to provide anywhere near the mixture control that will keep a 3-way cat happy. The cat will just not be able to do its job of cleaning up the exhaust and will only provide an unnecessary restriction, likely one that will get worse as it progressively plugs up. Ask The Miz about constipated cats.

The puzzlement here is that we see two meticulously-detailed, enviably spotless engines here: one fuel injected and one carbureted. The FI engine has a much greater chance of keeping a cat happy than the carbureted one, yet the FI engine has what appears to be an old '72-74 muffler, while the carb-equipped engine has the cat and muffler.

It may be that that is how the exhaust components naturally fell together, what with port and flange changes over the years, but it's still a puzzlement.

Aww you worriers . . . that ain't a cadillac converter, it is a "spacer"!
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: Aww you worriers . . . that ain't a cadillac converter, it is a "spacer"!
Colin

Oh, you mean a "resonance chamber". The genuine replacement exhaust on my old Volvo 240 had one of those. Put a flat spot in the acceleration accompanied with the most annoying thrum, compared to the original straight pipe section that it replaced.