Itinerant Air-Cooled

It is with nostalgia that I post this bucolic photograph of US 7 northbound in Vermont where once upon a time, long ago, the skies had blue:




Was I really complaining about the chilly wind? Yes, I was. And the Universe was likely chuckling to itself, you ain't seen nothing yet. So, I was driving up US 7 and the engine was doing its bellowing thing back there on the uphills and it was doing its super-smooth generator whine on the downhills, and the CHTs were 330* on the uphills and the CHTs were 299* on the downhills, and I was trying to allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief that this engine maybe will hang together:







By and by, I arrived in Manchester, that irritatingly tidy little town in that irritatingly tidy little state of Vermont. I ducked into Manchester's irritatingly decorated (early American clapboard) McDonalds, and had an intestinally-irritating McLunch as I attempted to figure out how I was going to register the new Lexus now that the NYS DMV refused the bill-of-sale and the signed-off Texas title as not being sufficient proof that the person who sold it to me was in fact the owner. Aopisa found me sitting there. We chatted about the next day's visit and held off on our political observations of the current irritating administration as best we could. He bounded off to find rust-catalyzing paint and I went forth into the grey day to find a compression test parking lot. It rained on and off irritatingly as it has been raining on and off for the past couple of weeks.

Aw, look at that pretty little engine . . . now at 4,000 miles since it was heaved out of NaranjaWesty's sliding door and into Chloe. The latest compression readings were 120/122/112/120, that is good enough:




Arrived at 9:12 AM because I am nothing if not punctual when I am on time. Aopisa, AopisaSon, and I, tore into the current political maelstrom as we belted down some good coffee. We are aghast, but we still like VWs anyway. AopisaSon gravely pointed out that he was to film us. I gravely responded, "go ahead, but we are not going to vamp for the camera" . . . :




After vamping for the camera, we conducted a review of the lifter pre-loads, the breaker points, the dwell, the timing, and we did conduct a "test drive" upon the local roadways. I had a pang of NaranjaWesty Nostalgia, as apopisa's Westy gave us a nice quiet Type 4 performance with real power disc brake stops. Came back to do the oil change:



Huge vermiculite shards of aluminum flakeage greeted us.
"Remember when I ran out of oil?"
"Why no."
"Yeah, we ran out of oil (something about a trip and a drain plug)."




Those sure are huge shards of aluminum flakeage:




"Did we address any potential engine damage?"
"It runs fine."
"Did we do any subsequent oil changes to assess damage?"
"I don't think so, I think we added oil and have been driving it."
"Did we drop the strainer plate to read the sediment?"
"I don't like (dorking?) (dealing with?) the strainer bolt."
"Oh"




Anyway, there sure are a lot of huge vermiculite shards of aluminum flakeage:




And frankly, I am too discrete, too polite, too pleasant to lash anyone for their lapses of judgment:





We installed a Dakota Digital CHT gauge, we, aopisa, AopisaSon, and I, running wire through bulkheads and frame rails and belly pans and bicycle mounts and kickboards and netherregions of dashboard wiring knots, until I plumb ran out of time at dark. I was briefly interviewed by AopisaSon and pretty much rambled, he might be doing a documentary on the collapse of coherence in the elderly.

Enjoyed our day, aopisa, that's a beautiful Westy . . . if you can keep it running:




And now, the Universe has unleashed its punishment upon my whiny little self, rain and more rain, wind, and biting cold damp temperatures and more rain still and windshield leaks as the seal contracts in the cold and rain and scuttling clouds that endlessly scuttle their loads of more water still across the sky and dump it all over the dripping landscape, a beautiful landscape of hills and farms and mountains, but I am skulking in my poor soggy VW that has one great redeeming flaw that I am eternally grateful for. The rear heater outlets do not and cannot shut off. Therefore, after a day of driving with the heat on, I get to unroll this beautifully pre-heated floor mat/sleeping bag/comforter, and nestle in 130* bliss.
Colin

Nice write up as always.

However, I'm not feeling any compassion or sympathy for your weather situation. 108* yesterday in the valley of the sun. Four months of hell has arrived.

As I write this it is 45 degrees with a cold, cold rain. I broke down and now have the wood stove burning. Welcome to Summer in Vermont! Today I had planned on finishing up the gauge installation and putting things back together. There is no way I will be found outside a 5 foot radius of the wood stove.

We did quite a bit more than partially install a DD cylinder head temp gauge and marvel at how my engine seems unfazed after shedding a lot of glittery confetti.

-Analyzed, complained and commiserated on current political climate over coffee
- Valve adjustment - slight wear on 3 & 4, not much movement on 1 & 2
- Torqued exhaust studs to 17 ft/lbs
-Discovered that the left side fresh air pipe and the right side heater pipe were loose and reinstalled both
-Adjusted right side heater cable to open and close fully
-Removed EGR filter and blocked off the filter pipe
-Filed and adjusted breaker points. Dwell 43 degrees
-Timing adjusted (statically!) to 28 degrees @3,400 RPM
-Changed oil and filter. Discovered many metal flakes as hopefully residual due to complete oil loss during road trip of 2015
-Pulled and inspected spark plugs. Number 4 slightly black compared to 1-3
-Compression test 120 125 130 142. Cylinder 4 high ( and rising) due to possible carbon build up. *Note compression gauge is different from tests previously performed on this engine
-Adjusted rear brakes
-Installed left fresh windshield air duct that was found lying behind kick panel
-reinstalled loose headlight switch to proper orientation
-mostly installed and programmed Dakota Digital cylinder head temperature gauge
-Test drive revealed shifter still rattling. Origin unknown but seems to be isolated to shifter itself and not down stream components
-Discovered positive camber on left front wheel. Will attempt adjustment soon
-Front disc brakes pulsing. Turn rotors or replace

I promise to change the oil in 1,000 miles and inspect the screen.
Will adjust parking brake cable.

It was a great day. Long and exhausting and a blur as usual when reviewing at the end of the day and yet much too short spending quality time with Amskeptic.

Next visit we will most likely repack the front wheel bearings. Also need to install missing cooling flaps and thermostat.

Owen spent the day filming Colin. He is lamenting the fact that he was not ready every time Colin launched into a story about some adventure, tool or specific part. Still, I have seen the in progress editing and he has captured some quintessential Colin moments. I will post the finished product once he completes editing and color grading the film.

After the aopisa visit, I had to go visit mumsie and poppa in Essex NY.
See, last time was this old house built in 1836 or so. They have lived here for just about twenty years, but my mom's failing mobility and health forced their hand:




THIS time was a brand new house built to help my mother wheel around in her wheelchair, and it used many of the colors and motifs of the old house and barn:




I saw it last spring when it was a just a concrete box with plastic radiant heat tubes snaked across the floor. I saw architectural drawings all over the table at the old house, and I was unable to envision what this new house would look like just from those drawings. I was in a state of suspended trepidation, trying to gracefully accept how time and new life chapters demand changes whether you want to go along with them or not.

The frame was made from an old barn. It went up June 8, 2016:






I was sent this photograph July 18th.




And this one October 7th:




OK, so it was easier to envision as it came into being, but I still had a grumpy assumption that we would have some horrid modern drywall sterile perpendicular new house with ugly new windows and ugly new Lowe's "Antique Oak Floor Veneer" or somesuch, and it would be the very first time since I have known my parents that they would be in a modern housebox (you know what, Colin? you are a snob).

The day before yesterday, I drove up and got to go inside for the first time:




This is looking onto the main floor from the inside balcony:




Looking at the fireplace from the inside balcony and from main floor level:







I love being wrong:




This is looking across the months-old house from beneath the balcony at the kitchen:




This is looking across the months-old house from beneath the balcony at the kitchen/upstairs office:




I love being so gloriously wrong. This house is a masterpiece of visual whimsy and arresting light:



May they enjoy many years here.
Colin

Wow, thanks for sharing Colin! That is a beautiful house.

While I'm bummed that the IAC schedule didn't work out for me this year, I always look forward to these road updates. In fact, checking IAC.com is the first thing I do in the morning when I get to work. (Shhhh, don't tell management )

Safe travels to all this summer.

Wow, beautiful house with the old floor planks, beams etc. Colin, get some sleep as you can barely hold the camera steady!

beautiful house.

THall wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:18 am

Wow, thanks for sharing Colin! That is a beautiful house.

While I'm bummed that the IAC schedule didn't work out for me this year, I always look forward to these road updates. In fact, checking IAC.com is the first thing I do in the morning when I get to work. (Shhhh, don't tell management )

Safe travels to all this summer.

Agreed. Amazing house and blown away that this is a new build.

btw, I also spend my work morning freetime here getting caught up on the happenings.

THall wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:18 am

Wow, thanks for sharing Colin! That is a beautiful house.

While I'm bummed that the IAC schedule didn't work out for me this year, I always look forward to these road updates. In fact, checking IAC.com is the first thing I do in the morning when I get to work. (Shhhh, don't tell management )

Safe travels to all this summer.

It was part of my morning routine....until it got blocked. Now I wait until I get home.

Swung by NH after hitting up Maine. Great to finally meet the legend! We worked to cool down my CHT's on a fresh rebuild. Got deep into the dizzy and AFM eventually making it run a little richer, since it's pretty lean. I will work to break her in, loosen things up and hope they come down even more. Thanks again!

Looking good down there Gregg!

Far out!

Before I could get to Gregg's, I had to drive some 300+ miles in rainy windy truck spray country roads from up upstate NY to Portland Maine. Poor Chloe just batted through the squalls with aplomb and a hard-working generator trying to shove electrons through those H-4s.

Only on the morning of the appointment with foxmon did the weather finally break. I was sorely tempted to call in sick just so I could have a moment of sunshine off the clock. See, every "free day" since Maryland has been rainy. Every one. But I am so dependable, so reliable, so so, that there I was at 9:00AM, we have a windshield to remove:




I was pretty sure that the water leak was actually from the left wiper shaft seal. This automatic Westy had some "body work" like so many other buses I have seen. This bus had belt line metal work where the dood didn't realize that the wiper shaft holes are offset vertically from the surface. Remember Naranja? Where I had to rescue those little wiper shaft crescent protrusions from the blobbed-on fiberglass? I do:




So, here is the classic pulled seal look of a windshield not fully seated:




Here is the classic ohmygod look of an owner attacking the seal with a matknife:




Look at whut we dun before lunch even. That windshield was gluuuuuueeeeeeed in place:




See the wiper shaft coming out of a curved surface that was ground down so the grommet can't seat?




The owner ponders deeply, "what have we unleashed here?" It was a big pia to clean the aperture and the windshield:




Way much later, way too much later, we have a sh**ty layer of Rustoleum white primer on the channel. If you see a can of Rustoleum with that stupid advertised "you can paint upside down!" blather, please know that it is a one-use can. You can't clean out the nozzle or the internal straw! No! You can't! In the old days, you turned the can upside down and cleared the straw/nozzle until just propellant escapes. Not now! You just get paint paint paint. So you put the can away, and the next time you need to use it, it clogs. Stupid, I bet they like this new "planned clog" so you have to buy a new can. You cannot clear these things, I have tried. No, we finally blasted a nail into the side of the can in a Motel6 bucket with a towel to prevent hideous spray escape, then painted with a brush:




We didn't give it half enough time to dry, and we carefully nudged the windshield and new seal into place. Foxmon SAYS it looks better, but let's see what he says after the water test. Great car, good company, good visit (RandyInMaine stopped by!) but I was stressed just by the magnitude of executing this operation in one day.

Next day was Gregg of glorious unremarked-upon New Hampshah accent and his lovely entrepreneurial wife and two spirited children and another automatic transmission Westy. Hot and lean he says. Well, we spend the day doing a basic tune-up, valve adjustment (two valve cover leak events) a retro-fit of factory wavy washers and spacers on the rocker assembly for cylinder #4, in lieu of the Gary LeBlanc Big Bushing No Washers Too Much Side Float Between The Rockers. We discovered that the timing was a bit advanced. I hoped (pleasepleaseplease) that it was the sole cause of high head temps.

We test drove with the older child (a sharp little lad) and pulled a 446* CHT in a local lap. Oh well. Did a compression test upon our return (what were the readings, Gregg, 120 125 120 140something?), and nothing THERE to cause such high readings. Checked the ring terminal that was nicely installed, nothing THERE to cause high readings, so I demanded a new spark plug with a crush washer still on it to make sure and stuff. Richened the mixture (write these down, Gregg) a full 1/2 tooth on the wiper and three teeth on the cog, and we set out and did the test lap again. I believe we did not get above 404*. I say "good enough" for a fresh Gary LeBlanc build for now.

Exceptionally excellent to meet this family and I hope they get out and travel.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 09, 2017 5:58 pm

If you see a can of Rustoleum with that stupid advertised "you can paint upside down!" blather, please know that it is a one-use can. You can't clean out the nozzle or the internal straw! No! You can't! In the old days, you turned the can upside down and cleared the straw/nozzle until just propellant escapes. Not now! You just get paint paint paint. So you put the can away, and the next time you need to use it, it clogs. Stupid, I bet they like this new "planned clog" so you have to buy a new can. You cannot clear these things, I have tried. No, we finally blasted a nail into the side of the can in a Motel6 bucket with a towel to prevent hideous spray escape, then painted with a brush

Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one driving sharp instruments into those new Rust-Oleum cans to get the paint that we pay for!

…At least you did it in the sunshine! Tulsa, OK greeted me with sunshine, so I took the windows out and had immediately to take cover under an Arby's. Got kicked out of Arby's and finished at an HVAC shop that made me promise to be out by opening time the next day…



I put a tiny drill bit down the nozzle. All the propellent sprayed out, and left me with a little bottle of white paint that I could pour into the cap…




The things we do for these cars…
Robbie

So, instead of going to my 40th Reunion, I went to the Littleton MA law, financial planning, and dentistry, strip mall's back parking lot and performed my own novocaine-free extraction:




I had had enough of this miserable crap Brazilian pressure plate shuddering and chattering, especially on 3rd to 2nd downshifts, damn crap new Brazilian crap tearing up my car, beating up the engine mounts, beating up the release bearing circlips and clutch operating shaft and cable, and exercising the damper springs in the Japanese clutch disk, phooey. I had to choose either the Pensacola Don's Commemorative Fastback Luk or the Appetite Commemorative Original 1600 Fitchel&Sachs that was working hard in New Jersey just twelve days ago:




Which one do you suppose I used?




That's right, the Fitchel&Sachs. Mounted up and centered itself perfectly. Here's the miserable crap Brazilian pressure plate crap that was tearing up my car, beating up the engine mounts, beating up the release bearing circlips and clutch operating shaft and cable, and exercising the damper springs in the Japanese clutch disk. See how it doesn't even reach the flywheel edge? I can't either, but it doesn't. I should know, I had to "center" it with three .009" feeler blades when I put it on 4,500 miles ago in Pensacola:




Look at how the crap cover edge is a full ten pixels thinner than the original Fitchel&Sachs cover (hey appetite, your pressure plate cleaned up beautifully, by the way):




All that chattering and nonsense, you can't see a damn thing wrong, except maybe that the clutch disk linings weren't fully broken in, and invisible to all is the fact that I believe that the miserable crap Brazilian pressure plate diaphragm spring is distorted:




So, we were all buttoned up by 12:45 PM today, and it is a real pleasure to have a normal clutch once more. I was sick of having to execute Anti-Chatter Tricks in Massachusetts traffic:




Did I mention that the secondary roads in the northeast are a National Disgrace, a disgrace I tell ya . . . :




I refused to go faster than 22 mph on this road, which made the Massachusetts commuters a tad annoyed. Too bad, folks. This car came from a time when we had a national infrastructure.
Colin