Itinerant Air-Cooled Farewell Oregon
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:40 am
I had an even better time this year than last in Oregon. Good good good people and plenty of beer and my annual perfect cup of coffee (thanks Brent!) at the DeschutesRiverRendezVW:
Starting with beetle brakes in Maupin with Mark capped with drunken revelry at the Quimby Lab, the next call was the mysterious Oregon72 anomaly, a smooth-running engine with low compression that spontaneously improved 30 psi (update me at your next test). I moved on to Westy78 where we did front wheel bearings the better which to steer that Raby engine through our highway acceleration runs (and a drama-free quick 50-60 in 3rd gear in what was it, 5 seconds?). Next anomaly was a hydraulic lifter on justgimmecoffee's Westy that succumbed to our sidewalk surgery with a test lamp probe, that bus drove nicely, and then off to jmiller's fresh '79 Beetle Cabriolet and Champagne Westy. Dhoch14's engine gave us the next compression anomaly but the very finest kickdown shift I have experienced, and petrohemorrhaging aside, that engine sounded gooooood. Then I took a day off . . .
. . . to drive to Bellingham WA for a day with Microbusdeluxe before heading back to Portland for more VW resuscitation with Khargis in the blessed summery sunshine:
Misszora was another "let's put the engine back in the bus" day which ended with an eye-opening trip to the pizza joint in Gorgerunner's intercooled turbo Subaru-powered Vanagon. What a concert of sound, and a very very nicely done installation. The induction moan/turbo spool-up was an audiophile's gourmet garnish on who knows what gear/sprocket noise, but it all sure sounded good as that Vanagon displayed evidence of serious acceleration potential.
Fancypants was my last Portland appointment, and we gave it a day of cleaning and replacing pushrod tubes to help locate and eradicate oil leaks. So far, the new pushrod tubes are out of the leak equation, but we still have some mysterious oil, and I hope the Portland contingent is called upon to help a brother out in tracking this thing down. Heavy oil leakage at the fan housing after running only (so gallery plug like), and the fan seal does not appear to be the culprit. There is an o-ring inside the lip of the fan hub . . .
I enjoyed visiting all of youse and look forward to another where maybe I can space things out for a more sociable time. Ya know?
Colin
Starting with beetle brakes in Maupin with Mark capped with drunken revelry at the Quimby Lab, the next call was the mysterious Oregon72 anomaly, a smooth-running engine with low compression that spontaneously improved 30 psi (update me at your next test). I moved on to Westy78 where we did front wheel bearings the better which to steer that Raby engine through our highway acceleration runs (and a drama-free quick 50-60 in 3rd gear in what was it, 5 seconds?). Next anomaly was a hydraulic lifter on justgimmecoffee's Westy that succumbed to our sidewalk surgery with a test lamp probe, that bus drove nicely, and then off to jmiller's fresh '79 Beetle Cabriolet and Champagne Westy. Dhoch14's engine gave us the next compression anomaly but the very finest kickdown shift I have experienced, and petrohemorrhaging aside, that engine sounded gooooood. Then I took a day off . . .
. . . to drive to Bellingham WA for a day with Microbusdeluxe before heading back to Portland for more VW resuscitation with Khargis in the blessed summery sunshine:
Misszora was another "let's put the engine back in the bus" day which ended with an eye-opening trip to the pizza joint in Gorgerunner's intercooled turbo Subaru-powered Vanagon. What a concert of sound, and a very very nicely done installation. The induction moan/turbo spool-up was an audiophile's gourmet garnish on who knows what gear/sprocket noise, but it all sure sounded good as that Vanagon displayed evidence of serious acceleration potential.
Fancypants was my last Portland appointment, and we gave it a day of cleaning and replacing pushrod tubes to help locate and eradicate oil leaks. So far, the new pushrod tubes are out of the leak equation, but we still have some mysterious oil, and I hope the Portland contingent is called upon to help a brother out in tracking this thing down. Heavy oil leakage at the fan housing after running only (so gallery plug like), and the fan seal does not appear to be the culprit. There is an o-ring inside the lip of the fan hub . . .
I enjoyed visiting all of youse and look forward to another where maybe I can space things out for a more sociable time. Ya know?
Colin