1970 Westy Camper

[VDub63 ( Steven )]

Sept 15, 2010 16:48:50 GMT -5 @dunedudex4 said:

I have a trailer you can borrow and some ratchet tie downs also. Thanks Dave T

Thanks Dave

[jmallen05]

My wife sent me to the store for dog food and I came home with a bus....some guys are just lucky.
Today after work we pulled the bus in the garage and dropped the beam and trans. Tomorrow I'll have a narrowed beam and straight axle conversion done..it'll be in the weeds in no time.

Just kidding AJ, its safe and sound right where you left it.


jerry

[teamafx]

Do you know whats wrong with it for sure? That sucks! I hope its an easy and cheap fix.

[ghiastein]

Thanks Jerry but Wifey does not want the Bus lowered. You will have to talk with her.

I will find out more info when I pull the motor and tear into it. For now its off the road until spring of 2011

We did have one last fun vacation

So far I have just over 6,000 miles this year and it has been to 5 states plus the Upper Peninsula

[teamafx]

What's the word on your Bus? Did it go smooth today getting it home? Could you see anything that was broke? Dave and I both think you broke a valve from the sound of it.

[VDub63 ( Steven )]

Well long day for sure. On the way to Dave T's saw a idiot get what they deserved, a semi was pulling out of the truck stop and was going slow so we did too, had a small car go by us in the bicycle lane went to turn onto I 196 and the semi hit them or the car hit the semi depending on how you look at it. We stop asked if they needed any thing and they said nope, we jumped back into the truck and were off.
Got the trailer from Dave T, Thanks. Headed up to Jerry's, Thanks for your help, pushed the bus onto the trailer. Secured it down. Headed down 131, got the bus to A.J.'s, pushed it into the garage. Made the turn to return the trailer. Got to Dave T's unhooked the trailer. Went and looked at the "garage / shop". I'm home and so is A.J. and the bus is too.

[dunedudex4]

Glad all went well. Post up some pics and tell what happened. Thanks Dave T

[ghiastein]

Thanks Steven for letting everyone know whats going on

I finally had some time with the Bus today.

First I pulled all the Sparkplugs

Sparkplug Cylinder 1


Sparkplug Cylinder 2


Sparkplug Cylinder 4


Lastly Sparkplug Cylinder 3


That black stuff on the wire end is the remnants of the plastic spark plug wire end melted to the Sparkplug. Also if you look closely you will notice the center electrode is missing. I tried to show a picture of my melted plug wire but once again Photobucket only SOMETIMES uploads my photos.

The Sparkplugs to me look OK (except for number 3) there might be a bit of ash deposits due to valve guide wear or questionable gas from up north.

I had trouble with Sparkplug cylinder 3 before earlier this year. I had maybe 50 miles on a new set of Sparkplugs. When climbing a large hill I just kept it in 4th gear ans held the gas to the floor and this happened.



See no center electrode ......... after a quick plug change I was off and running. From then on though I always down shifted into 3rd when my speed dropped below 45-50mph. I never had any problems climbing the mountains of Pennsylvania. Matter of fact i was even using the same plugs pictured above.

Today I also pulled the rocker assembly from 3&4 side to check the valves\springs. The problem is that everything looked good. I even sat a straight edge on the valve stems to check flatness against the other valves. All of the valves were the same height. To me that rules out broken, or stretched valves and it even rules out valve seat retention. I still could be left with a burnt valve or the dreaded hole in piston or worse.

I also wanted to do a compression test but I could not find my compression tester. I guess its time for a garage cleaning. My best guess on cylinder compression would be good on 1, 2, and 4 but no compression on 3.

I will find out more when I pull the engine. I am in no real rush because I have an other good running VW. I had to confirm this today just to feel better again and yep it runs good.



I will leave you with my favorite picture from the trip........

[ghiastein]

Well I found my compression tester while cleaning the garage.

Here are the results

Cylinder (1) 110 psi
Cylinder (2) 110 psi
Cylinder (4) 110 psi


Wait for it .......




Cylinder (3) 0 psi

Hopefully tomorrow I will pull the engine and remove the 3&4 head.

[dansam]

Yuck. Hope its just a valve issue and not a piston issue...... How old is this motor??

[ghiastein]

2 years ago I split the case measured everything up and everything was in spec. I installed all new bearings and reused the old cylinders and pistons because everything looked brand new before the engine fire. I also reused the original dual port heads. Last winter / spring I changed out the dual port heads with single port. Unfortunately I was laid of from work and money was tight so I just slapped some old single port heads on from my stash. I think that is where my problem lies I will find out later.

[MadMike]

I bet it's a Timing issue, #3 runs hotter then all the rest thats how the VW Wizards compensated for the oil cooler blocking #3 Are you running a Dog house cooler? if so try a diff distributor next year At least you were'nt up here in BFE when it blew ;D ;D ;D

[81pumagtc]

AJ:

I thought you were running an 009 dizzy in the bus. I thought that the 009 was the last VW dizzy to retard cylinder 3 a few degrees to prevent overheating.

I don't know if this also works for non-standard distributors.

I have an 050 and Pertronix for the Pig of Plastic, but am not certain if the cylinder is retarded for that. Guess I will have to check with Glenn on the Samba for that.


Dave

[ghiastein]

Ok timing could be off but not by much because the idle was nice and smooth.

I was running a stupid 009 dizzy because I ran out of time to hunt down parts to rebuild a 205T dizzy from my collection.

With Steve aka teamafx help we dismantled the Bus engine. Thanks Steve

First of all what we found out is that on 3&4 head the nuts nearest to the flywheel were loose not even finger tight. Don't worry I remember torquing them up.

After removing the head we found this ...... oops

There's the Problem



And a better shot




So I have a burnt valve.

After reviewing with people looks like I was running lean on number 3 cylinder due to the fact that air was finding its way through the very loose head nuts.

Anyone else have any idea or suggestions?

Now we did pull the other side head just to see the condition on that side, and it looked very good almost like new. I believe the compression test can vouch for that and even Steve.

I will still pull the cylinders and check everything out if something is bad it will be replaced.

What I plan on doing is to have a set of heads rebuilt with new valves, new valve guides, new springs, and have the valve seats ground to match the new valves. Then its just bolt and go. I even plan on lapping the cylinders into heads just to help everything seal. I plan on torquing and re-torquing the heads multiple times. Then even after 1000 miles pulling the engine to re-torque the heads again.

I just think I lucked out, but I am done with broken Bus.

[dansam]

Well it coulda been worse. Not a bad deal. Get the sucker fixed and lets get back to buss'n