Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From SoCal

[Amskeptic]

First up was xyzzy and his request to retrofit his beautiful 1973 Westfalia. Look at this original one-year-only solid color fabric upholstery, perfect for a L90D white vehicle:










But we had work to do:







Let's describe it as "overly thorough bad decisions", like that thoroughly installed fuel pump and the sixteen or so fuel hose and vacuum hose clamps. It was such a pleasure to see the engine slowly revert to factory:






It was also a pleasure to host a visit from vwdreamBayb who went through this very operation with her old 1972 bus, Hans. (RIP, Hans, who was killed by a hit-and-run box truck out on the street).



to be continued! tomorrow morning!

[Amskeptic]

Due to delays regarding the re-positioning of the fuel pump from the engine compartment to the ceiling over the transaxle, and the attendant need for more fuel hose and proper worm clamps that can be easily loosened and tightened at will (instead of those hated one-time crimp clamps), we knocked off and decided to meet up the next morning for the basic initial adjustment and test drive. I was stupidly going to drive to Santa Monica and back, but fatigue told me "exit here", and I crashed out in a parking lot. Woke up to voices. They wouldn't go away. Shimmied out of my sleeping bag and shimmied into The Khakis, holy cats there's eyeballs staring through the curtains, now I am annoyed at this invasion of my parking lot space, wth?? Oh. A car show has sprung up around my Westfalia, a real car show:




I guess I was "performance art" when I staggered out the sliding door with bedhead and a stubble.
" . . . and here is how you pleat the curtains before holding them back with the snaps, and here is how you incorrectly stow the table, yes, that is a poptop with a full bunk for two upstairs, no that is not a pee container, that is real Listerine mouthwash, yes, it is original, yes I was asleep, from? New York, but Pensacola this trip, left on May 21st."
All of it excruciating, I just wanted to awaken slowly and walk around the perimeter of the parking lot to loosen up. Walked past a dowdy (?) middle-aged dumpy sort of dull man loitering against a light post. He sized me up just as poorly as I him, an older pudgy baldish unkempt homeless guy wandering lost at this show. I wondered if his was the 1966 Dodge Coronet. No. We chatted. Turns out that he races Datsun 1600s at Laguna Seca and knows of my uncle and of our own racing moments at the Pebble Beach Concours weekends in the early 80s. A fast intense conversation ensued. Then I had to go to work. He left too. I saw him. He saw me. We waved, me in an immaculate 1977 VW Westfalia, he in a brand new black Porsche with bright red calipers.
The pudgy unkempt fast friends with the dumpy dull. Right on.

California beach boutique, 2018 edition:










xyzzy and I indeed enjoyed a quick light-off of these new carburetors with real chokes:




It truly does feel like a real Volkswagen, beautiful light-off, easy modulability of the accelerator, and I truly have high hopes that it is going to get perfect real soon here, but it has been a little hiccoughy. I left with admonishments to deal with the brake booster vacuum line. Read more here:

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The next call broke my damn heart.
(to be cont.)

[Amskeptic]

Left this promising new dual carb era in San Diego:




... drove past the San Onofre Nuclear Plant glowering there on the shore:




Fourteen lanes of traffic. Build more lanes and they will come . . . :




Lovely refinery to the southwest left of the northbound freeway. Sorry you can't see all the festive nighttime lights:




Yay for advertising all over buildings. If heaven has one stupid vapid ad, I am asking to go to Hell:




The 405 corridor and I-10/405 interchange is one of the busiest in the world:







Mel's Diner in Santa Monica, the city of my birth! Where I would go to lunch with Phil and Ken and Glen when I worked at Hill&Vaughn:




The building where Hill&Vaughn was stationed, getting clobbered by "improvement":




Sad to see Norm's Diner torn down. I knew developers would win over "historical significance". Phil and Ken went there a lot, too:




Phil's house is still in the family, but it is neither respected nor cared-for in the spirit that I remember Phil cared for it, and that is to the good. We need to tear down the old and hope that the new has greater integrity and purpose:










The garage! Here is where I learned a bit more about ultimate quality and Phil's demand that any objet d'Art automobile actually work as intended. You can thank him that I have the full fire within me too:




And here is an objet d'art Type 4 engine, built by tommu from a rusty hunk of a used engine:




He put his all into this engine rebuild:




Said the clock . . . . . :



We were having FUN, taking care of little things carefully, like re-aligning the front tin and using phillips screwdrivers to re-index the pressure plate to the flywheel since the BALANCER GUY only had one of the three dowels inserted:




Look at that damn beautiful thing:




So why did we have to shut it down within ten minutes, it's DONE? I don't yet know. The idle started to slow and the rotation tightened up, and a little deep knock began to occur, and the oil light came on at about 600 rpm, and I think it needs to be carefully investigated.
a) did our installation difficulty cause a jam up between the input shaft and the flywheel?
b) was the endplay actually tighter than the recorded .0035"?

I did not want this result so bad. I still hope that it is something easy.
Colin

[sped372]

Hoping for an easy resolution also. That engine looks beautiful!

[zabo]

ye looks great. Why did you have trouble getting it in?

[Jivermo]

Beautiful engine, and well organized work space, almost as neat as The Barn down here! I hope it’s a simple solution, whatever is up with the power plant. Phil’s shop and home...it really is true, “you can’t go home again.”

[wcfvw69]

That engine looks brand new! Beautiful. Heartbreaking for the owner in that you're finding issues after all that work. I'm hoping it's something easy to resolve!

[Amskeptic]

That engine looks brand new! Beautiful. Heartbreaking for the owner in that you're finding issues after all that work. I'm hoping it's something easy to resolve!

I'll keep you all posted as developments develop. I pray that I get tarred for being just a Nervous Nellie. I had to leave. Engine was still hot. I could not wait for it to cool to do the next diagnostic step.
Colin

[Bleyseng]

What did it sound like? Rod knock? Lifters? Did you run in the cam?

[tommu]

I wouldn't know what that knocking sounded like - other than it wasn't coming from the heads and wasn't high pitched, frequent enough or metallic enough to come from the lifters. we didn't get time to run the cam in.

[Amskeptic]

Split topic 06/22/19 please visit Tommu Re-Re-Rebuild in Engine Forum! ]

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