Itinerant Air-Cooled

Tripod really should get a new set of heads, as I've posted before, one side has a broken exhaust stud boss, the other has a heli coil with a death grip on the spark plug that now has 20k miles that I've put on it...Lord only knows how many before me.

But dang, she does run good! I haven't had to touch dwell or timing in at least 3 years... if not four. Mind you, not a lot of miles; maybe 3k, but still. I recently took it camping and did about 400 miles of free way flying, and checked the (remaining) exhaust studs which were for the most part were snugged up tight. Valves are holding there adjustment, or maybe need to be tweaked a little tighter...but never looser. Heck, even the oil consumption appears to have gone down. I loaned it to a good friend to take his kids camping this past weekend, and she ran fine without a hitch.

Was really planning on doing it this fall, but me thinks I can stretch it another year.... Just hate to crack into a good running engine...even if it's a little noisy from exhaust leaks.

Build another engine...then have it ready for the old switcharoo...cost would be about the same, and no rush to get it done.

When the time comes, will probably do just that....but will do it with this block over the winter. Colin and I inspected it, and are pretty confident it's never been cracked open. So the block and the crank are a known quantity - buy a used block, won't know what I'm getting into.

Where's your sense of adventure? I just wish I could justify the cost of building my spare engine for the heck of it.

cegammel wrote:Where's your sense of adventure? I just wish I could justify the cost of building my spare engine for the heck of it.

My sense of adventure comes from, how long can I run this sweet running engine that has obvious deformities. I think it is a bit of a challenge to see how long I can push it. Mind you, wouldn't drive it across country, but camping within 300 miles of homebase, yeah, I will take that challenge.

TrollFromDownBelow wrote: My sense of adventure comes from, how long can I run this sweet running engine that has obvious deformities. I think it is a bit of a challenge to see how long I can push it. Mind you, wouldn't drive it across country, but camping within 300 miles of homebase, yeah, I will take that challenge.

A perfectly worthy goal that the Volkswagen DNA responds to. If it is happy, drive it.
Colin