Itinerant Air-Cooled

I'd like to change out the charcoal canister pellets in Miss Zora and found this very helpful link on the forum from LiveonJG:

http://itinerant-air-cooled.com/viewtopic.php?t=402

but was curious as to the size of the container. Don't have any of my books handy and couldn't figure out how much charcoal I'd actually need.

Anyone know?
thanks!

Hiya Paige,

If you are running the metal canister (113 201 801A) when you go to refill you will need a little over one half gallon of the pellets. When I bought mine (Coral Life) the stuff came in half gallons.

On the other hand if you are refilling a plastic canister you might want to carefully check the "load". I don't think they were pellets. I believe that a much finer grain of activated charcoal was used in those canisters.

Bookwus wrote:Hiya Paige,

If you are running the metal canister (113 201 801A) when you go to refill you will need a little over one half gallon of the pellets. When I bought mine (Coral Life) the stuff came in half gallons.

On the other hand if you are refilling a plastic canister you might want to carefully check the "load". I don't think they were pellets. I believe that a much finer grain of activated charcoal was used in those canisters.

Looky here!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/260 ... 04b3_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/260 ... 1545_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3109/260 ... 6b69_o.jpg

I hope those pellets will be OK though.

Hiya Paige,

Very interesting.

The original load does look to be somewhat finer than your replacement pellets. Were it me, I bag some of those originals and pay a visit to the aquarium store and see if they had any to match.

Now I'm going to have go out and pry off the lid to my brand new BAA 201 801 and check to see what sort of charcoal its carrying.

It's a continuing education, that's for sure!

Bookwus wrote:Hiya Paige,

Very interesting.

The original load does look to be somewhat finer than your replacement pellets. Were it me, I bag some of those originals and pay a visit to the aquarium store and see if they had any to match.

Now I'm going to have go out and pry off the lid to my brand new BAA 201 801 and check to see what sort of charcoal its carrying.

It's a continuing education, that's for sure!

Pellets went bye-bye. I know what they look like and have the photo to prove it. I think I'm going with the ones I have now. It wasn't cheap to ship them (didn't think I had time to find a fish tank store and look for charcoal) - probably could have picked up a new canister for the same price. You live and learn.

Good luck with yours!

Hiya Piage,

Well activated charcoal is activated charcoal. I'm sure you'll be OK. I tend to be something of a stock Nazi, so don't put a lot of creedence into what I have to say.

The education continues.

Bookwus wrote:Hiya Piage,

Well activated charcoal is activated charcoal. I'm sure you'll be OK. I tend to be something of a stock Nazi, so don't put a lot of creedence into what I have to say.

The education continues.

I take everyone's advice happily. Time is my only enemy at this point. It's been pretty cool figuring stuff out along the way. Pulling off some more oily, oily, oily stuff off the back of the engine. I swear I am absolutely amazed that's she's run this way for so long.

Are you still coming over on Friday?

Hiya Paige,

Unless we hit an emergency (my daughter is currently at home recovering from surgery) I am planning on dropping by. Gotta get some advice from Colin about how to adjust a vent wing window. I need to take a close up gander at Willy's work on Miss Zora. And I do want to take a look at how your clean-up, repair and install is going.

You have come a considerable distance since I was over at your place last time. How's it feel to be a VW veteran?

Bookwus wrote:Hiya Paige,

Unless we hit an emergency (my daughter is currently at home recovering from surgery) I am planning on dropping by. Gotta get some advice from Colin about how to adjust a vent wing window. I need to take a close up gander at Willy's work on Miss Zora. And I do want to take a look at how your clean-up, repair and install is going.

You have come a considerable distance since I was over at your place last time. How's it feel to be a VW veteran?

Just let me know if you need directions again.
I'm not a veteran yet. When I put the engine back in and can drive her, I will consider the title.

How do you know if you should change the charcoal or is there just a standard service interval. I do not think my canister is serviceable on the vanagon.

Hiya art,

VW recommended that these emissions canisters be changed out on a regular basis, much as one would change an air or oil filter. IIRC, VW recommended a change to a new emissions canister at 40,000 miles.

Basically, what happens inside the canister is that contaminants, mostly water vapor, get trapped in the charcoal load. After a bit these contaminants sort of weld all the charcoal (be it pellets or granules) together in a lump. When that happens air cannot flow (readily or at all)through the canister. It's pretty much dead at that point.

To check your canister plug the small inlet port and attempt to blow through the larger port on the same end. If you can do this without effort you can is still in operable condition. If you have to force your breath or simply cannot blow through it, it needs to be replaced.

I can easily blow through it so I guess I am ok for now. Thanks