Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

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airkooledchris
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Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by airkooledchris » Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:52 am

This was my 4th year and 5th visit (one with BobD one with Chloe last year)

The morning coffee and conversation revolved around fuel mixtures/maps, max torque Vs max HP - as well as distributor weights/springs (this will come back!) and drawings on how/which to adjust. We also talked a bit about why the drivers side rear wheel seems to be dipped down lower to the ground than the passenger side.

Work started and we tackled the ride height issue first. The drivers side only seems to be slightly lower than the passenger in part due to the skewed bumper - but we adjusted what we could. Pulled the spring plate housing off and rotated the bushing, dusted it with talc and reinstalled.

Next was both a brake and clutch cable adjustment (I thought my clutch was slowly going out) - both showed instant improvements (and for the time it took I should have done this myself already.)

Second half of the day was spent with the LM-1 and the local testing facility (big uphill climb.) We chased the mixture all over the place trying to find happy CHT's while trying not to be too obscenely rich. The 79 CA computer does some interesting things to the mixture at interesting places on the road - (full rich on overrun?) - but we found a happy (enough) place by days's end and were overall happy with the performance.

I kept stuttering the clutch after the adjustment took it's engage position further away from the floor, but otherwise it drove wonderfully.

At this point Colin paid ME $80 for the pleasure of working on my bus(?) and took off for the evening in the hopes of finding WiFi and (probably) someplace warm/dry for the evening since there was another appointment here in the cold/wet coast before getting to jettison for warmer climates.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Image


This is a very delayed report back from me, in part because this is never REALLY the end of the visit is it?

You re-gain this sense of 'i can do it'ness' and keep on working on the things you know should be addressed. Each year I try to ride this wave as long as I can before the second guessing and nancypantsing kicks in and you start putting it off thinking 'it's probably nothing' or 'I dont even know where to start.'

it's not nothing and you DO know where to start. by getting off your arse and troubleshooting what you know.

Colin didn't want to have anything to do with my hair brained idea of replacing my FPR with an adjustable one "to help with CHT's" - but I know better so I started looking into it.

First step was testing the current fuel pressure after getting my gauge setup. Fuel pressure was inconsistent at both idle and through the RPM range. Not grossly off, but always around 5 PSI too little. "AHA" says I - I WILL tackle that stupid FPR that I KNEW was the problem before.
Not so fast. Let's double check a few other things just in case.
Decel valve? OK
Residual Fuel Pressure Test?
FAIL

The moment I turn off the ignition the fuel pressure drops to zero.
After ten minutes it should be showing 14-21 PSI (not that residual fuel pressure would matter, that I can fathom)

Ok, it may not be a big deal, but it's wrong so let's see what happens when I address it.
Replaced the fuel pump, which turned out to be a rebuilt unit from Python, with a new German Bosch unit. It had these screw on terminals instead of the stock push-on style, but this was $80 and the German Bosch with the push on ones were over $200 from my FLAPS. Oh well.

Residual fuel pressure test is now perfect. Holds max fuel pressure even 20 minutes after turning off ignition.
Side effects - fuel pressure at idle and across RPM range is now within spec. (FPR was fine all along)

I re-set the idle and timing/etc, and it starts giving me fits again. I adjust it warm to 950 RPM and later im idling at 750 RPM. Reset it again at 950 and later it'll start idling at 1250 RPM's. WHAT THE HELL?

Remove distributor and bend the weight spring post (for the non-elongated one) this seems to help, but im still getting erratic timing now and occasionally bad idle RPM again.

TEST RETARD LINE ON VACUUM CAN = FAIL FAIL FAIL

I had done the suck on vacuum line test for the advance before, but had never bothered to check the retard can.
Plug both the signal from the throttle body and the port on the distributor, then set timing to 7.5 BTDC instead of 5* ATDC.
DAMNIT. I have no idea how long it's been this way, but this has been royally screwing up my ability to tune it properly.


Hill climb test numbers before and after things were fixed.
base of hill, halfway point, and crest of hill are all recorded. I floored it the whole way to see what the 'worst case scenario' numbers would be.

after fuel pump replacement, before distributor fixes:
406/427/438
same, but with fuel pressure at 40 PSI
404/418/428

with higher fuel pressure it certainly did lower the temps, but it was still pretty easy to get higher temps than I knew was possible previously with this setup.

after fuel pump AND distributor fixes
398/406/409 (this was done later at night than the other tests - up to 10* cooler temps outside)
same, but done mid-day with a slight headwind
400/407/411
411? I couldn't get it hotter than this when climbing and driving extended distances at 65 MPH.

On the drive home I held it to a steady 70-75 MPH and it finally hit 413 when it maxed out it's CHT's.
Oil was still climbing at around 220* after 15 minutes at this speed, but perhaps was close to maxing out as well.

That brings us up to date now. I did these last tests just two days ago, so ill keep on tracking this data but am VERY hopeful that ive found the best tune for this setup since I initially acquired the bus 2+ years ago.

I kept 'meaning' to write up my visit, but it hadn't really finished yet.

no pics again. :geek:
1979 California Transporter

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airkooledchris
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by airkooledchris » Sun Aug 26, 2012 8:35 pm

all those test drives and everything seemed so perfect - but I would get a little chuggy/stutter sensation at times and thought it was related to cold/rich running as it would even out quickly and id be fine the rest of the drive.

earlier this evening I was driving me and my daughter to a friends place in Trinidad and it would suddenly lose power for a second and then kick back in again.
it was randomly doing this on and off, and then id get the sensation that im losing power gradually, then whoosh back to normal again.

we got it back home no problem so it didn't leave us stranded, but "something" is up. The head temps never got above 403 after cruzing at 70 for about ten minutes, but once it started stuttering I slowed down and took it easy.

im thinking it's maybe a connection for the fuel pump since that's one of the items ive recently touched/replaced. it has those screw on terminals I mentioned above (and gloated about how it was so much cheaper, doh) and maybe one of those connections wasn't as solid as I had hoped.

that said, this is a new chapter and a new problem. visit still complete and I couldn't be happier with those results. ill gladly tackle this issue instead...
1979 California Transporter

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ruckman101
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by ruckman101 » Sun Aug 26, 2012 8:44 pm

I thought carbs were bad. I also thought your bus was running really well when I rode in it this past June. Ride the wave.

I'm embarrassed at the number of times I have revisited to find connections loosened.


neal
The slipper has no teeth.

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airkooledchris
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by airkooledchris » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:30 am

ruckman101 wrote:I thought carbs were bad. I also thought your bus was running really well when I rode in it this past June. Ride the wave.

I'm embarrassed at the number of times I have revisited to find connections loosened.


neal

.... and once I tackle this recent little hiccup it will again. The engine rather enjoys the lean mixtures and performs very happily setup that way, but watching gauges then gives me grief so I had to do something. im hoping now that re-doing the fuel pump wiring/connections will get me to 110% now that everything else is so well dialed in.
then because I can't leave well enough alone - im putting my O2 bung back into place and hooking up the O2 sensor to the computer. in town ill let it adjust itself lean and then toggle/switch the signal off when I hit the highway where I really want that rich mixture.
1979 California Transporter

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whc03grady
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by whc03grady » Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:04 pm

airkooledchris wrote:At this point Colin paid ME $80 for the pleasure of working on my bus(?) ....
I'm curious about this part.
Ludwig--1974 Westfalia, 2.0L (GD035193), Solex 34PDSIT-2/3 carburetors.
Gertie--1971 Squareback, 1600cc with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection from a '72 (E brain).
Read about their adventures:
http://www.ludwigandgertie.blogspot.com

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Amskeptic
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:36 pm

whc03grady wrote:
airkooledchris wrote:At this point Colin paid ME $80 for the pleasure of working on my bus(?) ....
I'm curious about this part.

I bet you are . . .
Colin
(he bought a brand-new Type 4 crankcase for me, and I had to work it off plus cash . . . that is what is in the big box in the back of Chloe)
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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airkooledchris
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by airkooledchris » Tue Sep 11, 2012 10:35 am

Amskeptic wrote:
whc03grady wrote:
airkooledchris wrote:At this point Colin paid ME $80 for the pleasure of working on my bus(?) ....
I'm curious about this part.

I bet you are . . .
Colin
(he bought a brand-new Type 4 crankcase for me, and I had to work it off plus cash . . . that is what is in the big box in the back of Chloe)

Image

not a lot of em still floating around out there.
1979 California Transporter

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yondermtn
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by yondermtn » Tue Sep 11, 2012 11:03 am

And what is the plan for that case? Where'd it come from?
1977 Westy 2.0FI
1990 Vanagon MV 2.1 Auto

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drober23
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by drober23 » Tue Sep 11, 2012 1:33 pm

Shiny!
DJ

'75 Westfalia, '79 Deluxe
(plus more busses than sense)

In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

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Amskeptic
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:16 pm

yondermtn wrote:And what is the plan for that case? Where'd it come from?
I am planning on building a short-stroke big-displacement engine for the BobD so I can preserve the original German 2.0 a while longer, and experiment with Ultimate Smoothness. That means a 66mm crank with maybe 96 Nickies and excellent breathing heads for real horsepower up the rpm range. I want to drive 75-80 with turbine smoothness.
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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glasseye
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by glasseye » Thu Sep 13, 2012 8:13 pm

Amskeptic wrote: I want to drive 75-80 with turbine smoothness.
Colin
Thass easy. Just get a Sprinter. :cheers:

Turbo smoothness, too. :salute:

Plus, you have actual room to sleep. :thumbleft:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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satchmo
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by satchmo » Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:21 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
yondermtn wrote:And what is the plan for that case? Where'd it come from?
I am planning on building a short-stroke big-displacement engine for the BobD so I can preserve the original German 2.0 a while longer, and experiment with Ultimate Smoothness. That means a 66mm crank with maybe 96 Nickies and excellent breathing heads for real horsepower up the rpm range. I want to drive 75-80 with turbine smoothness.
Colin
Oh, my. What has become of you? Another stock savant corrupted by power. What a world. What a world.

Tim
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by immitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is bitterest. -Confucius

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Amskeptic
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Re: Colins visits Eureka, CA - and pays ME for the visit!

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Sep 15, 2012 7:03 am

satchmo wrote:
Amskeptic wrote:
yondermtn wrote:And what is the plan for that case? Where'd it come from?
I am planning on building a short-stroke big-displacement engine for the BobD so I can preserve the original German 2.0 a while longer, and experiment with Ultimate Smoothness. That means a 66mm crank with maybe 96 Nickies and excellent breathing heads for real horsepower up the rpm range. I want to drive 75-80 with turbine smoothness.
Colin
Oh, my. What has become of you? Another stock savant corrupted by power. What a world. What a world.

Tim
Ha HAHAHAA, today the driveway! Tomorrow the ENTRANCE RAMP!
:cyclopsani:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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