Irvine Adventure Part II
Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:17 pm
After meeting Colin for a brief time around this time last year, when he was out in Irvine working on Lanval's 82 air-cooled, I pretty much decided that I NEEDED to book an itinerant air-cooled appointment for the following summer. I was immediately impressed by Colin's knowledge, his general enthusiasm about VW's, and, of course, his absolutely amazing and impressive work of art that is his book-in-progress. After checking out this website and seeing the great community of people here--and how much everybody appreciated Colin's work--my decision was made.
I woke up on Thursday morning at 8am excited to meet Colin again, and excited to dig into my 80 air-cooled as I had a number of projects I wanted to work on, including a tune-up and general check-up of a new engine that I got put in the van about 8,000 miles ago by Europro in Costa Mesa, but was concerned was running too hot. I awaited Colin's arrival with some trepidation, due to general nervousness, and also due to the fact that we had a party at my house the night before for my new roommate, and, honestly, I was a little hung-over at 9am still.
I prepared the van with Diet Coke, tools, and tune-up parts, and awaited Colin's arrival, who was already in the general area since he had worked with Lanval the day before in the miraculous effort to get Lanval's new-to-him 85 with a 2.1 engine up and running. For the record, Lanval showed me the new 85 a couple of weeks ago, which had been sitting for years and had become somewhat infested by rats. I was impressed by the general condition of the van though, and deemed it a solid project to get going (and I was a little jealous of that water-cooled power potential!) I predicted that Colin's visit would SURELY result in getting that engine running, but Lanval didn't seem as certain as I was. In any case, I digress, but as you already know, Colin and Lanval did manage to get that thing running. These vans are tough and don't want to die, apparently.
Upon Colin's arrival we started off with a brief tutorial about valve adjustments--which is something that I have never done on my van before. After some conversation and lessons, Colin show's me what to do, and I go at the valve adjustment while he busily works away on the engine lid--which was falling apart and shedding insulation into the engine compartment. The valve adjustment went smoothly, aside from some difficulty getting the left side valve cover back into place, since it was nearly blocked by the catalytic converter. Colin fought with it a little and got it in place though.
Next, we moved on to timing the engine--something that should be a relatively simple task, but my engine set-up would prove to be somewhat less than optimal, due to ridiculously crappy wiring and possible issues with the idle stabilizer and/or ignition control module. In any case, we started out timing the engine, and realized that the van seemed to have a mind of its own. Even with the idle stabilizer disconnected, the engine would attempt to change the timing settings itself, making our task truly difficult. In addition, my distributor set-up seemed to refuse to provide enough advance at high RPMs.
We dove into the wiring, thinking that maybe something was amiss, miss-wired, or just generally worn out or broken. We replaced a couple of wires that were in terrible shape, hoping that would solve the problem, but no matter what we tried, the engine wanted to time itself. At about this time, Lanval stopped by with a large box of Vanagon goodies for us, that he didn't need anymore for his 82. He had to run off to teach a class, but promised to return later in the evening to help us sort through all of the stuff.
In the meantime, Colin and I took a couple of test-drives with the engine timed as best as we could figure out, and Colin immediately realized that the engine was anemic in terms of power delivery, and was also running somewhat hot. After disconnected the oxygen sensor, the temps came down about 20 degrees, and the engine actually seemed to run a little better too. In any case, we took a trip to the gas station to put some air in the rear tires, and in the parking lot Colin attempted to time the engine completely by ear--something that he claimed he had never done before with a VW engine due to the potential for possible damage. Of course, Colin's years of experience served him well, and the timing ended up being at least as good as using the timing light.
We went back to my place and dove into a few smaller projects as we awaited for Lanval to return with a new distributor, which we sort of narrowed down as the most likely problem with the timing situation. Either way, Colin reasoned that putting in the older-style distributor with points (I have a CA spec van with electronic distributor) would be a good test to see what the problem could be, since doing so would also bypass the ignition control unit and the idle stabilizer. As we waited, we lubed up the gearbox, which was woefully squeaky, and Colin also adjusted the shifter itself, since the positioning of the gears had been slightly wonky since I got the new engine put in.
With that done, Lanval arrived again, and I realized that I had misunderstood him earlier. He didn't actually have another distributor for us to try in the van, which we had been waiting to throw in to see if that would solve the timing problem. But, being the kind and experimental person that he is, Lanval said that we could pull the distributor and coil out of his 82, and put it in my van to see if that fixed the problem. After a little bit of thinking on Colin's part, we figured out how to switch over some of the wiring to get the older style distributor working, and we got it into my van and set about timing it. And, low and behold, the mysterious electrical gremlins immediately disappeared, and the engine started acting like it should and actually let us time the damn thing! Excited about our progress, we took the van on another test drive, and the difference was immediately noticeable. The van actually had POWER (well, as much power as 67 horses can provide), and it was also running much cooler than before. Success!!
On our test drive, I discussed with Colin how I might be able to keep Lanval's distributor, since I wasn't too excited about the prospect of going back to my crappy set-up, which was the only option available for now, until I can find another distributor. I briefly considered hitting Lanval on the head and running for the hills with my awesome new engine set-up, but reasoned that it might not be the best thing for me to do! We get back to my place, and started on the process of changing back the distributors and coils, much to my dismay. Of course, I am already thinking, "there is no way I will be able to do this myself without Colin's help", and was wishing that a distributor would magically appear in front of me, ready to install, as I wasn't too excited about the prospect of trying to do it myself. Alas, no distributor appeared, and I was soon back to my old, anemic and weird set-up. In Lanval's box of random parts, we miraculously found a different ignition control module, and decided to try that in my van on the off chance that that unit was causing all of the mystery problems we were encountering. I was hopeful, but in the end, it proved to cause the same problems as before. However, the test wasn't completely useless, as it narrowed down the list of potential problems to pretty much just the wiring or the distributor itself. We timed it as best we could again, and by this time in the day it was getting late and we decided to wrap things up.
As it was getting dark, Colin, Lanval and I decided to head down to the local pizza place for some much needed food and beer. While there, Colin drew me some more diagrams, and helped show me what to do when I got a new points style distributor to put into the van. I was feeling good about the progress of the day, even though I was also terrified of the prospect of facing this task without the master himself there to guide me along. I learned a lot about the van though, and was feeling more confident about my mechanical abilities and about my knowledge of the Type IV engine. We had a long discussion about various other topics, and I was thinking how much I appreciate Colin's general thoughtfulness about the world in general. It is clear that we share some of the same viewpoints about political and social issues, which made me appreciate Colin's visit all the more. At about 10pm all three of us went our separate ways, and I vowed to book another visit next summer. All-in-all, a successful and productive day, even with the setbacks that we encountered. And, hopefully in the near future I will have a new distributor set-up that will allow the van to run at its full potential, and will be better on my new (and expensive!) engine.
--Nathanael
I woke up on Thursday morning at 8am excited to meet Colin again, and excited to dig into my 80 air-cooled as I had a number of projects I wanted to work on, including a tune-up and general check-up of a new engine that I got put in the van about 8,000 miles ago by Europro in Costa Mesa, but was concerned was running too hot. I awaited Colin's arrival with some trepidation, due to general nervousness, and also due to the fact that we had a party at my house the night before for my new roommate, and, honestly, I was a little hung-over at 9am still.
I prepared the van with Diet Coke, tools, and tune-up parts, and awaited Colin's arrival, who was already in the general area since he had worked with Lanval the day before in the miraculous effort to get Lanval's new-to-him 85 with a 2.1 engine up and running. For the record, Lanval showed me the new 85 a couple of weeks ago, which had been sitting for years and had become somewhat infested by rats. I was impressed by the general condition of the van though, and deemed it a solid project to get going (and I was a little jealous of that water-cooled power potential!) I predicted that Colin's visit would SURELY result in getting that engine running, but Lanval didn't seem as certain as I was. In any case, I digress, but as you already know, Colin and Lanval did manage to get that thing running. These vans are tough and don't want to die, apparently.
Upon Colin's arrival we started off with a brief tutorial about valve adjustments--which is something that I have never done on my van before. After some conversation and lessons, Colin show's me what to do, and I go at the valve adjustment while he busily works away on the engine lid--which was falling apart and shedding insulation into the engine compartment. The valve adjustment went smoothly, aside from some difficulty getting the left side valve cover back into place, since it was nearly blocked by the catalytic converter. Colin fought with it a little and got it in place though.
Next, we moved on to timing the engine--something that should be a relatively simple task, but my engine set-up would prove to be somewhat less than optimal, due to ridiculously crappy wiring and possible issues with the idle stabilizer and/or ignition control module. In any case, we started out timing the engine, and realized that the van seemed to have a mind of its own. Even with the idle stabilizer disconnected, the engine would attempt to change the timing settings itself, making our task truly difficult. In addition, my distributor set-up seemed to refuse to provide enough advance at high RPMs.
We dove into the wiring, thinking that maybe something was amiss, miss-wired, or just generally worn out or broken. We replaced a couple of wires that were in terrible shape, hoping that would solve the problem, but no matter what we tried, the engine wanted to time itself. At about this time, Lanval stopped by with a large box of Vanagon goodies for us, that he didn't need anymore for his 82. He had to run off to teach a class, but promised to return later in the evening to help us sort through all of the stuff.
In the meantime, Colin and I took a couple of test-drives with the engine timed as best as we could figure out, and Colin immediately realized that the engine was anemic in terms of power delivery, and was also running somewhat hot. After disconnected the oxygen sensor, the temps came down about 20 degrees, and the engine actually seemed to run a little better too. In any case, we took a trip to the gas station to put some air in the rear tires, and in the parking lot Colin attempted to time the engine completely by ear--something that he claimed he had never done before with a VW engine due to the potential for possible damage. Of course, Colin's years of experience served him well, and the timing ended up being at least as good as using the timing light.
We went back to my place and dove into a few smaller projects as we awaited for Lanval to return with a new distributor, which we sort of narrowed down as the most likely problem with the timing situation. Either way, Colin reasoned that putting in the older-style distributor with points (I have a CA spec van with electronic distributor) would be a good test to see what the problem could be, since doing so would also bypass the ignition control unit and the idle stabilizer. As we waited, we lubed up the gearbox, which was woefully squeaky, and Colin also adjusted the shifter itself, since the positioning of the gears had been slightly wonky since I got the new engine put in.
With that done, Lanval arrived again, and I realized that I had misunderstood him earlier. He didn't actually have another distributor for us to try in the van, which we had been waiting to throw in to see if that would solve the timing problem. But, being the kind and experimental person that he is, Lanval said that we could pull the distributor and coil out of his 82, and put it in my van to see if that fixed the problem. After a little bit of thinking on Colin's part, we figured out how to switch over some of the wiring to get the older style distributor working, and we got it into my van and set about timing it. And, low and behold, the mysterious electrical gremlins immediately disappeared, and the engine started acting like it should and actually let us time the damn thing! Excited about our progress, we took the van on another test drive, and the difference was immediately noticeable. The van actually had POWER (well, as much power as 67 horses can provide), and it was also running much cooler than before. Success!!
On our test drive, I discussed with Colin how I might be able to keep Lanval's distributor, since I wasn't too excited about the prospect of going back to my crappy set-up, which was the only option available for now, until I can find another distributor. I briefly considered hitting Lanval on the head and running for the hills with my awesome new engine set-up, but reasoned that it might not be the best thing for me to do! We get back to my place, and started on the process of changing back the distributors and coils, much to my dismay. Of course, I am already thinking, "there is no way I will be able to do this myself without Colin's help", and was wishing that a distributor would magically appear in front of me, ready to install, as I wasn't too excited about the prospect of trying to do it myself. Alas, no distributor appeared, and I was soon back to my old, anemic and weird set-up. In Lanval's box of random parts, we miraculously found a different ignition control module, and decided to try that in my van on the off chance that that unit was causing all of the mystery problems we were encountering. I was hopeful, but in the end, it proved to cause the same problems as before. However, the test wasn't completely useless, as it narrowed down the list of potential problems to pretty much just the wiring or the distributor itself. We timed it as best we could again, and by this time in the day it was getting late and we decided to wrap things up.
As it was getting dark, Colin, Lanval and I decided to head down to the local pizza place for some much needed food and beer. While there, Colin drew me some more diagrams, and helped show me what to do when I got a new points style distributor to put into the van. I was feeling good about the progress of the day, even though I was also terrified of the prospect of facing this task without the master himself there to guide me along. I learned a lot about the van though, and was feeling more confident about my mechanical abilities and about my knowledge of the Type IV engine. We had a long discussion about various other topics, and I was thinking how much I appreciate Colin's general thoughtfulness about the world in general. It is clear that we share some of the same viewpoints about political and social issues, which made me appreciate Colin's visit all the more. At about 10pm all three of us went our separate ways, and I vowed to book another visit next summer. All-in-all, a successful and productive day, even with the setbacks that we encountered. And, hopefully in the near future I will have a new distributor set-up that will allow the van to run at its full potential, and will be better on my new (and expensive!) engine.
--Nathanael