Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Florida II
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 7:55 am
So VW Treasure and I did indeed have quite a Thursday, February 25th, devoted to his Headflow Masters engine. This was the engine of last December that sprung a few surprises on us, like foam.
"Foam?" you ask. Yes. Foam:
That there is foam. Foam blocking up the fan housing outlets to the heat exchangers, because, apparently you don't need to cool your exhaust pipes coming from the 1,000* exhaust valves and 900* exhaust ports, and 750* manifold pipes, not to mention that you don't need heat in the cabin. Silly factory engineering! Here's some more foam, foam that is a bit burnt:
To his great credit, VW Treasure would have none of this edited engineering, and demanded and received new fan housing flaps, and we did make it all as the factory designed. We also installed "new" exchangers and noted with disgust that every single port from the 20-total-running-miles Headflow Masters engine had been leaking. Here's some foam and some soot:
I promised with more bravado than common sense that THIS installation would be Itinerant Air-Cooled Certified leak-free. We bastard-filed the exchanger pipes, drilled out the mounting holes, and anti-seized all the studs and we torqued the exchangers up like a couple of blind old biddies.
"I can't see the scale on the torque wrench."
"Me neither."
"Here, let's put a piece of tape on the scale, we can see THAT." :
Meanwhile, I vandalized his new scale with some fingernail polish:
At lunch, I was treated to ART! Real art! Art from an artist! Art on the walls! Art, beautiful evocative gorgeous paintings that answer questions that nobody asks but the artist. The light that lands on some peaches next to a tea kettle, you look at that and it is pretty, yes of course, but someone had to figure out exactly how the light lands on the peaches and how the reflected light from the tea kettle backlights the peaches which are then reflected back into the tea kettle with the correct optical distortion of the peaches on the curve of the wall of the tea kettle, and then they had to paint it with brushes and colors that they had to mix! Unbelievable.
The man who helped us modify the rocker arms, VW Treasure's father Viejo, is an artist of reknown. I was so jealous of that tea kettle and those peaches. I felt like a ham-handed toddler with a Crayola crayon in that man's presence. That whole house sings with art, I loved it. I drank it up. Here! Go drink it up yourself!
https://www.facebook.com/jesusechevarriaart/
Well, we went back to work in the garage. Spent the afternoon fitting heater pipes and tearing off that VW 411 heat shield that was jammed against the body because, as everybody knows, a VW 411 heat shield does not fit a VW Bus. We got the engine running, yes, a transaxle oil change, and we drove the bus around the neighborhood and I stomped it briefly just to hear that engine get up and breathe a little, then I asked VW Treasure to do the same. Headflow Master engines *can* get to work when they have monster carbs, and this one got up and moved. Performance Art!
Now, interspersed in another thread, VW Treasure and his family came over to Jivermo's on Brake Day, Saturday February 27th, to get some vent windows installed. You know I get nervous with vent windows, hello Chloe! now add poorly fitting rubber seals on vent windows that have to be installed with new headliner (oh yeah, we have a big huge incorrect panel seam that was exactly where we have to squeeze in a sharp edge on the vent window frame over the pinch weld). I was sweating bullets.
The Nine Year Old Princess magically showed up with her string when it was time to install the big glass (competent AND punctual, she shames 90% of all sub-contractors out there) . . . We ran right out of time, and the Cuban Chrome brigade bade a farewell as I dived back in with Jivermo who was right then ready for brake bleeding.
VW Treasure? Let me know how the windows do at the first rain. A true joy to work with you ridiculously talented people.
NOW THEN, I am supposed to be heading back to the frozen north of Atlanta, but when I read of the sleet forecast .. .. ..
.. .. .. I decided to go AWOL in Florida's Finest Wildlife Refuges where I take refuge with my other wild refugees:
It was a beautiful day to tackle anew Fred The Over-Sprayer's mighty overspray. That gleaning cadmium plated gas cap thingamajiggy was flecky brown primer and yellow only thirty minutes prior:
Painted the opening around the gas cap with my new five can spray paint mix:
This lovely evidence that Florida's elevation is only three inches higher than the ocean .. .. .. :
.. .. .. inspired me to turn it into a canvas worthy of the great painter I had just met:
Then I got rambunctious on a trail and clonked the belly pan but good:
Not one hour later, I had to fix it:
This Westy's twenty year garage hibernation is definitely over:
"Foam?" you ask. Yes. Foam:
That there is foam. Foam blocking up the fan housing outlets to the heat exchangers, because, apparently you don't need to cool your exhaust pipes coming from the 1,000* exhaust valves and 900* exhaust ports, and 750* manifold pipes, not to mention that you don't need heat in the cabin. Silly factory engineering! Here's some more foam, foam that is a bit burnt:
To his great credit, VW Treasure would have none of this edited engineering, and demanded and received new fan housing flaps, and we did make it all as the factory designed. We also installed "new" exchangers and noted with disgust that every single port from the 20-total-running-miles Headflow Masters engine had been leaking. Here's some foam and some soot:
I promised with more bravado than common sense that THIS installation would be Itinerant Air-Cooled Certified leak-free. We bastard-filed the exchanger pipes, drilled out the mounting holes, and anti-seized all the studs and we torqued the exchangers up like a couple of blind old biddies.
"I can't see the scale on the torque wrench."
"Me neither."
"Here, let's put a piece of tape on the scale, we can see THAT." :
Meanwhile, I vandalized his new scale with some fingernail polish:
At lunch, I was treated to ART! Real art! Art from an artist! Art on the walls! Art, beautiful evocative gorgeous paintings that answer questions that nobody asks but the artist. The light that lands on some peaches next to a tea kettle, you look at that and it is pretty, yes of course, but someone had to figure out exactly how the light lands on the peaches and how the reflected light from the tea kettle backlights the peaches which are then reflected back into the tea kettle with the correct optical distortion of the peaches on the curve of the wall of the tea kettle, and then they had to paint it with brushes and colors that they had to mix! Unbelievable.
The man who helped us modify the rocker arms, VW Treasure's father Viejo, is an artist of reknown. I was so jealous of that tea kettle and those peaches. I felt like a ham-handed toddler with a Crayola crayon in that man's presence. That whole house sings with art, I loved it. I drank it up. Here! Go drink it up yourself!
https://www.facebook.com/jesusechevarriaart/
Well, we went back to work in the garage. Spent the afternoon fitting heater pipes and tearing off that VW 411 heat shield that was jammed against the body because, as everybody knows, a VW 411 heat shield does not fit a VW Bus. We got the engine running, yes, a transaxle oil change, and we drove the bus around the neighborhood and I stomped it briefly just to hear that engine get up and breathe a little, then I asked VW Treasure to do the same. Headflow Master engines *can* get to work when they have monster carbs, and this one got up and moved. Performance Art!
Now, interspersed in another thread, VW Treasure and his family came over to Jivermo's on Brake Day, Saturday February 27th, to get some vent windows installed. You know I get nervous with vent windows, hello Chloe! now add poorly fitting rubber seals on vent windows that have to be installed with new headliner (oh yeah, we have a big huge incorrect panel seam that was exactly where we have to squeeze in a sharp edge on the vent window frame over the pinch weld). I was sweating bullets.
The Nine Year Old Princess magically showed up with her string when it was time to install the big glass (competent AND punctual, she shames 90% of all sub-contractors out there) . . . We ran right out of time, and the Cuban Chrome brigade bade a farewell as I dived back in with Jivermo who was right then ready for brake bleeding.
VW Treasure? Let me know how the windows do at the first rain. A true joy to work with you ridiculously talented people.
NOW THEN, I am supposed to be heading back to the frozen north of Atlanta, but when I read of the sleet forecast .. .. ..
.. .. .. I decided to go AWOL in Florida's Finest Wildlife Refuges where I take refuge with my other wild refugees:
It was a beautiful day to tackle anew Fred The Over-Sprayer's mighty overspray. That gleaning cadmium plated gas cap thingamajiggy was flecky brown primer and yellow only thirty minutes prior:
Painted the opening around the gas cap with my new five can spray paint mix:
This lovely evidence that Florida's elevation is only three inches higher than the ocean .. .. .. :
.. .. .. inspired me to turn it into a canvas worthy of the great painter I had just met:
Then I got rambunctious on a trail and clonked the belly pan but good:
Not one hour later, I had to fix it:
This Westy's twenty year garage hibernation is definitely over: