Itinerant Air-Cooled's Visit to Beaverton
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 11:23 am
Colin arrived Saturday morning to the IFBwax Douglas Fir Research Lab and immediately sat down to work, explaining the inner workings of hydraulic lifters and the heat peak curves of different VW engine components.
We then started to work on Charlie. Since last Thursday he started exhibiting some strange symptoms. Unlike humans who miraculously get well just before seeing the doctor, Charlie decided to show his ailment at the very time he'd have the best chance of getting a cure. I noticed while in a certain RPM range in second.. going about 25 MPH the bus would kind of hiccup for a few seconds. Lurch or buck is too strong a word.
Well we moved right to tuning and setting the timing and when Colin removed the vacuum off the can of the distributor the idle went way down. Immediately Colin thought that was a bit strange and after a few minutes realized that someone (not me) had installed the vacuum hoses incorrectly. As I understand it, someone tied the fuel pressure regulator in with the vacuum advance nipple at the throttle housing.. instead of the intake manifold nipped at the 1/2 runners. Right Colin?
Well after making the adjustment we found that Charlie had been running retarded by 5 or so degrees.
We made the adjustment after checking dwell, idle and all the rest, then moved to fuel mixture.
It was great watching Colin do the little dance with the AFM taking his time and listening very intently to what the engine wanted.
After making all the adjustments we were just about done and close to solving why Charlie was running hotter than I'd like.
Then he noticed the spring on the engine flaps wasn't engaged all the way... meaning the flaps weren't opening all the way. Doh!!!
He fixed that lickity split and then we took Charlie for a ride and saw the temps much cooler now on the 400 mile engine. It also had much more power!!!!
No mure hiccups!
Now to the Party Pickle (Keep in mind I only had Colin for a half day).
First order of biz was fixing an exhaust leak between the headers and muffler.
We worked quickly and got that taken care of, then took Pickle for a ride.
Well, once again we found some problems with the vacuum hoses and then after adjusting the timing and fuel mixture, Pickle had even more power and ran even cooler!!!!
Colin really earned his money in the short time he was here. Although I don't think he liked my coffee as he only had 2 cups!
Thanks Colin.. see you next year!!!
Wayne
We then started to work on Charlie. Since last Thursday he started exhibiting some strange symptoms. Unlike humans who miraculously get well just before seeing the doctor, Charlie decided to show his ailment at the very time he'd have the best chance of getting a cure. I noticed while in a certain RPM range in second.. going about 25 MPH the bus would kind of hiccup for a few seconds. Lurch or buck is too strong a word.
Well we moved right to tuning and setting the timing and when Colin removed the vacuum off the can of the distributor the idle went way down. Immediately Colin thought that was a bit strange and after a few minutes realized that someone (not me) had installed the vacuum hoses incorrectly. As I understand it, someone tied the fuel pressure regulator in with the vacuum advance nipple at the throttle housing.. instead of the intake manifold nipped at the 1/2 runners. Right Colin?
Well after making the adjustment we found that Charlie had been running retarded by 5 or so degrees.
We made the adjustment after checking dwell, idle and all the rest, then moved to fuel mixture.
It was great watching Colin do the little dance with the AFM taking his time and listening very intently to what the engine wanted.
After making all the adjustments we were just about done and close to solving why Charlie was running hotter than I'd like.
Then he noticed the spring on the engine flaps wasn't engaged all the way... meaning the flaps weren't opening all the way. Doh!!!
He fixed that lickity split and then we took Charlie for a ride and saw the temps much cooler now on the 400 mile engine. It also had much more power!!!!
No mure hiccups!
Now to the Party Pickle (Keep in mind I only had Colin for a half day).
First order of biz was fixing an exhaust leak between the headers and muffler.
We worked quickly and got that taken care of, then took Pickle for a ride.
Well, once again we found some problems with the vacuum hoses and then after adjusting the timing and fuel mixture, Pickle had even more power and ran even cooler!!!!
Colin really earned his money in the short time he was here. Although I don't think he liked my coffee as he only had 2 cups!
Thanks Colin.. see you next year!!!
Wayne