Southern California Rattus Rattus

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Lanval
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Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by Lanval » Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:37 pm

Owing to difficulties with scheduling, on both my and Colin's parts, we arranged for a half day in the middle of the week. There didn't seem to be any pressing issues, so a lazy half-day setting timing, cleaning this and polishing that seemed in order. The weather cooperated, and was nicely in the high 70s-low 80s.

My primary concern was rough running (surging and stalling), occasional difficult starts and doing the timing from the valves up. A cursory inspection of the engine showed a bit too much wetness on the top of the engine in the general vicinity of the oil tower; so we tightened that up (all four nuts were demonstrably loose) and I was instructed to "keep an eye on it" to see if the dampness returned. However...

The fuel lines run right through there, and you may or may not remember that I had to replace leaky fuel line at the injectors

here: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=12541

a few months ago, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but when we were moving the fuel lines around a bit, significant seepage emerged.

I'm always amazed at how fuel line can look just fine, but even a simple nudge will show that it's completely failed and gas starts seeping out.

Luckily, I had on hand a good length of BMW corded fuel line, enough to do the other injectors (I'd only done the driver's side earlier) and the return lines from the fuel rail. The inbound (inflow? influx? gas-putting-in-direction?) lines seemed OK ~ at least no obvious problems, so those did not get done. I will be acquiring more fuel line shortly, and that will be addressed.

An issue that was new to me, and shows how valuable it is to have Colin (or anyone who knows what they're doing I guess) emerged with the fuel lines to the injectors. When I replaced the fuel lines a few years ago there, I removed clamps on the fuel rail side of the short hoses that go to the fuel injectors, then pulled the old hose off, saving the small metal collar that butted up against the injectors. I carefully replaced them when I installed the new hose.

Because I was now working on the passenger side, I did the same thing, tossing the little collars into the magnetic nut bowl so I could carefully replace them. As I did so, they drew Colin's attention and he looked at me puzzled and asked, "why did you put those on?"

"I didn't," I replied, "they are original to the engine; that is, it came that way to me. It's how the factory does it I guess."

"No." piped Colin. "If they came from the factory, they'd be swedged."

"Swedged. Swejud. Suegued." I turned that over for a moment; I had never heard this word before, and didn't know what it meant, so I did what any 15 year old would do, and pretend like I did know what it meant. "No, they're never 'squeegeed' from the factory..."

Colin: ". . ."

Me: "So, um... what does swedged mean?"*

"It's a kind of crimping," drawled Colin. "See, these collars are supposed to be crimped down to hold the fuel line on the injector side. Right now, there's nothing holding the fuel line on that side, because the collars are just sitting there." He arched his eyebrows at me, and let the implications of that sink in.

Off he went to his van to get more clamps. You will be not be surprised, dear reader, to discover that my clamps were insufficient for Colin's exacting standards. (In fairness: his argument was that the clamps were too large for the application, meaning that in order to get them tight enough to hold, they clamp will be out-of-round such that it won't be able to properly do it's job. Point taken.) He returned with a few clamps of moderately better fit (but lower quality...) and realized we didn't have enough. Not to worry though; I have a bunch. I. Just. Have. To. Find. Them.

See, we recently moved; most everything that isn't immediately needed is in a state of disarray so complete you'd think it'd been achieved with eons and a steady application of entropy. I went off in search of clamps, while Colin enjoyed a diet Coke and a regular smoke. I returned with my clamps (and a plethora of original VW items ~ drain stoppers, outlet plates... I tell you my friends, that stuff is gold. Gold!) and resolved the fuel line issues, putting everything back together.

With only about 1.5 hours left (Mr. Colin was on a schedule) we attacked the original problem of rough running. We assumed the valves are good (set last year) and checked the timing. All looked as it should, so we drove around a bit, got some gas, and gave Colin quite an excellent sense of the running problems. "Surging" was the word of the moment, and well... why? Why should it do that? We made some adjustments at the gas station (now doubt offending some of the nouveau riche in their Lexi and BMWs) and disconnected the oxygen sensor.

It drove much more sedately now, then for a moment returned to it's surging ways. It was as if there were one last gasp of ornery rat stuck in there, the ethereal remnants of the once numerous rodent denizens who made this old van home. A few more adjustments to the idle and the air did the trick. The van is running so sweetly that it shall soon appear in another spot here. I'll be taking a few days off and driving up to see family ~ 1700 miles round trip through lovely western US summer days. If all goes well, then I'll start posting in the camping section, and you can all see just how far a rat can go.

*************************

*Swedge: swedge ‎(third-person singular simple present swedges, present participle swedging, simple past and past participle swedged) To shape metal using a hammer or other force. (colloquial) To leave (a restaurant etc.) without paying.

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asiab3
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by asiab3 » Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:35 pm

All this in a half-day? I need to work on my write-up skills…

Is the oxygen sensor now disconnected indefinitely?

I, for one, am looking forward to a RatVan Road Trip®.
Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

Lanval
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by Lanval » Sat Aug 08, 2015 9:53 am

asiab3 wrote:Is the oxygen sensor now disconnected indefinitely?
It is for now; when I bought my vanagon (I had several breadloaf vans in the 80s), our son was young, and it was called the "Beach Bus" because we were new to So Cal and I had the time. We would go down to the beach, play, swim, whatever and then take a shower using a solar set up. Good times.

I got this one because it was stronger (water cooled) and had good heat (Colin thinks he has a heater; I assure you, he does not. You haven't known VW heat until you have the front AND rear heaters cranked while driving on the freeway) and an AC unit (for the wife). The plan was to see the SW. We haven't done that because I've been busy, got bogged down rehabbing the van, life, etc.

I recently decided that it's either:

1. Get the bus done and ready for real trips ~ reliable, comfortable, wife-approved.
or
2. Get rid of it. Get a more reliable, efficient daily driver.

My brother, who is generally more responsible and successful than I am is militantly in favor of keeping the bus. He argues that it's too cool and irreplaceable in form to get rid of, not to mention the loss of value put into it.

If I choose number 1, then there is now a corollary, which Colin made explicit, since this is the second time in two years that the same symptoms have needed to be resolved in terms of good running.

Colin argued that I need to take the responsibility of figuring out how to tune and run that engine myself. Play around with settings, learn to listen to the inputs that the engine is giving me, and generally look at tuning in this context as a playful exercise in adaptive mechanics designed to allow me to become good enough that I'm not worried if things don't run right, since I'm willing to, and capable of, fixing them.

All of that is the prelude to your answer; the O2 sensor is indeed disconnected, but cannot be permanently so... I live in So Cal the most attentive of areas when it comes to smogging. I have one year (just renewed) to learn how to get things set up and running cleanly on my own. So not permanently, but I will not be using it on the trip next week ~ the engine is running quite smoothly, so it'll be interesting to see how things go, especially when I get into mountains, where one assumes the O2 sensor would be doing some work to adjust for elevation changes.

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SlowLane
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by SlowLane » Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:04 pm

Actually, I believe the more common spelling is "swage", but the dissonance of New-Yawkese pronunciation and SoCal auditory receptors may have mangled the translation.

Anyhoo, I believe the swaged ring clamps you are dealing with are likely Oetiker "ear-clamps". Available from various vendors such as Amazon, for example.

In the same vein of discussion, GoWesty is now selling Cohline 2240.0600 7.3 mm fuel injection hose at $19.95/meter. Why is this important? Well, turns out that the Cohline 2240 line is low-permeation hose equivalent to the SAE R30J9 hose commonly touted as the "must-have" solution to modern fuel formulations, but the Cohline hose is in metric sizes, unlike the common R30J9 Goodyear or Conti hose, which is only available in inch sizes. So no longer do we need to decide between using properly-fitting 7mm hose which might get eaten up by modern fuels in short order, or using sloppily-fitting 5/16" R30J9 hose that requires double-clamping just to ensure a leak-proof seal.

Pelican Parts also sells the Cohline 2240.0600 7.3 mm hose at $19.25/meter, as well as 11.5 mm 2240.1019 hose for $38.00/meter. The larger size would work admirably for the short length of 12mm hose used on the inlet of Vanagon fuel pumps. I'm considering purchasing one meter of this hose, using enough for my Vanagon and offering the rest in correctly-sized chunks for other Vanagon owners. Anyone interested?

Finally, oxygen sensors are comparatively inexpensive. Consider replacing yours if the original one is still in the van, particularly if you've had coolant leaks into the exhaust. You can either get the exact match for your van or the universal type to save a few bucks.
'81 Canadian Westfalia (2.0L, manual), now Californiated

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance."
- Terry Pratchett

Lanval
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by Lanval » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:59 am

So as a follow up to the visit last week, I had some work to do. I tried using Marvel Mystery Oil in my engine (20% by volume) which freaked Colin out. I was just curious to see if it did anything meaningful to how the engine ran (it did not, though I suppose it may have cleaned something, which is what they claim is one effect of their product). Anyway, Colin argued that arbitrarily lowering the viscosity with some iffy "mystery" product is begging for a shelf-life reduction of my pristine "marvel" of Teutonic engineering. Not wanting to be excommunicated from the Church of the Holy Boxer Sepulchre, I opted to remove the mixture before my long trip.

I'm using a Wix filter (verified as acceptable via the Samba ~ I didn't have a Mahle/Mann filter and the oil badly needed changing when I did it last month) which I removed and drained to remove all trace of the offending "oil" and replaced all parts and filled with Castrol GTX 20w-50 for the drive.

However; when I emptied the oil, there was a slice of metal, rounded, about the size of a fingernail lying on the bolt. From it's location and shape, it would appear to be part of the threads. There were two smaller such pieces in the oil pan itself. The oil pan drain bolt does not appear to be cross-threaded, as I am able to screw it in cleanly with my fingers (tight spot about halfway in ) and snug up with ratchet. The engine is otherwise running smoothly and quietly (thanks to Colin's help, not the MMO) so I will go forward unless someone here insists that such an occurrence is a death-knell.

pic of said piece of metal to go here later ~ I'm busy trying to keep my head above the financial waters, so to speak.

I also checked a few air hoses (I can't remember if I mentioned it above, but apparently there are two sizes of air hose ~ 4.0 mm, and 4.5 mm, but I only have one size, so some of my air hoses are split at the connectors from the size difference) and clipped of the split ends and reattached. If short, I just replaced them. Engine continues to run happily, so I didn't torpedo anything there.

Last adjustment was removal of the AC unit fan belt. I've never run the AC (Colin did once, blowing a soft zephyr of hantavirus-laden aerosolized mouse/rat poop all over the backs of our necks) and won't be using it this week either, so Colin asked about removing the belt running the compressor... which I did with a thorough application of Gerber-brand bowie knife. Hopefully that'll lighten the load on the engine as we trundle up the I-5 corridor in the right lane.

Not to worry; I have the super AAA towing package (200 mi tow) ~ if I can get close enough, I get to go here and get an updated German engine designed for the modern man...

http://www.h2ovanagon.com/

For details on the trip, I shall post in the Type 2 forum, ala Colin. We'll use it as a real-world proof-of-concept. If the van can make this, then I'm hitting the road with the family. In the words of an old-timey movie star, "I'm going to shake the dust of this crummy town off my feet and see the world!"*

*Note: Please do not split verbs as is done here; grammarians prefer that you avoid the debased Germanic influence that is the 'separable verb'. Hence, properly (and nearly Ciceronic in style) stated:

"From my feet, O listeners, shall I shake off the dust of this degenerate hamlet, and all the peoples of the Earth observe forthwith!" Truly majestic in it's obscurity and epic scale, no?

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asiab3
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by asiab3 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:06 pm

Lanval wrote:For details on the trip, I shall post in the Type 2 forum, ala Colin. We'll use it as a real-world proof-of-concept. If the van can make this, then I'm hitting the road with the family. In the words of an old-timey movie star, "I'm going to shake the dust of this crummy town off my feet and see the world!"*

:thumbleft:

When is it happening? I love a good road trip thread.
Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

Lanval
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by Lanval » Tue Aug 11, 2015 4:01 pm

asiab3 wrote:
Lanval wrote:For details on the trip, I shall post in the Type 2 forum, ala Colin. We'll use it as a real-world proof-of-concept. If the van can make this, then I'm hitting the road with the family. In the words of an old-timey movie star, "I'm going to shake the dust of this crummy town off my feet and see the world!"*

:thumbleft:

When is it happening? I love a good road trip thread.
Robbie
T-22 hrs. Comments and pix as I have time, I guess.

L

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wcfvw69
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by wcfvw69 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:57 pm

Nice write up! I too love a good road trip thread and don't be stingy with the pictures! :)
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Southern California Rattus Rattus

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:28 am

SlowLane wrote:Actually, I believe the more common spelling is "swage", but the dissonance of New-Yawkese pronunciation and SoCal auditory receptors may have mangled the translation.
Mangled the translation? Did we translate ?
Do eyes zoun like I gotta speech impediment, haAH?
Hey Lanval, dis guyz sez you got a "auditory receptor" or sompin, you gonna take dat?

Anyways, I swedge my collars with a good tap from my slage hammer.
Colin
(thanks for the correction, by the way)
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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