Day 2

This would be my new camper van. The body and frame looked really good, but the engine needs work. It turns out the engine needs work so badly, the seller really didn't advise driving it home, so I got a tow truck to park it at my brother's place, since his car-port is private and therefore can have an unregistered car sitting in it for a couple of weeks. Day 1 was spent actually buying it and getting the tow. Day 2 was mostly spent borrowing my roommate's car and buying heavy tools.

Kinda silly posing for pictures as if I'm driving, when it's quite obvious the thing is parked in a car-port...

Random pictures of the sink, stove, fridge, and lower bed. Upper bed is missing its foam, and I can't pop the top anyway until it's running and not in a car-port.

Days 3-5

Mostly, I spent two days buying a few more tools, hemming and hawing, starting to poke at disconnecting a few wires, trying to make the engine in front of me agree with the descriptions in three books, and other such things of which I didn't take any photos, and which would probably have taken about an hour if this wasn't the first time I've really done any car tinkering at all.

Day 6

This would be the engine, after most of the electrical wires and some of the hoses are disconnected, but it's all still in the van. There's an air filter removed from the top-left of the picture, too.

Rob came over to help play with tools. Today was the day the engine was coming out, and I figured it would be a good day to have extra hands on hand. We ended up hemming and hawing in committee for a while, because the book suggested unbolting the front of the transmission, which made no sense to us, as we wanted it to stay put under the van. It's on a pivot at the front, so we ended up ignoring that step in the book, leaving the front of the tranny attached, swinging the engine-tranny combo down until the tranny rested on this 2-by-4 hanging off the frame on chains, and then wiggling the engine backwards. And then cursing and swearing and huffing and puffing and lowering the engine as far as the jack could go, then lifting it by hand to get the jack out from under it.

Eventually, though, we were able to drag the engine out from under the back bumper, and then carry it over to beside the truck.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon removing various bits of shrouding, the alternator, fan, fan housing, distributor, and other sundry bits and pieces.

And so endeth Day 6. The crankcase, cylinders and heads are still one really heavy piece, with a bit of exhaust manifold/ heat exchanger still attached, too. I left this and a bunch of shrouding tin under a tarp for the night. No-one stole it.

One of the books suggested using paper bags for all the nuts and bolts and other sundries as you take them off, so you can write what they are on each bag. Seemed like a reasonably obvious and sensible idea to me.

Day 7

Much cursing and swearing was had today over the removal of the exhaust manifolds. It turns out they were less stuck than I thought, but in hammering them off, I got one twisted a bit and wedged on its bolts. And then it would not budge at all until I finally figured out I needed to hammer it back on, and then pull/ wiggle it off straight. That done, taking the heads off was relatively straight-forward, except that the head gaskets were not so much worn as missing completely. Unless I'm on crack and there's not supposed to be a gasket between the heads and the cylinders, but the book talks of one... So cylinder 2 is pretty firmly stuck to the head and doesn't seem to want to separate. I will have to solve that problem some other day.

Also, some genius replaced the nice friendly #3 phillips screws holding the piece of tin under these cylinders with a bleedin' flat-head, which I can't get any purchase on. Maybe once cylinder 1 comes off, I'll have a better angle on it.

Maybe some WD-40 overnight will loosen this here cylinder.

That's one head off, and one still to come.

Uh-oh. This looks like bad news. I'm pretty sure the pistons are supposed to be round...

Looks pretty much like I'll be buying a new piston. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to buy *four* new pistons, because that would start getting expensive.

The other ones look, well, not melted, but that's about as much as my extensive knowledge of car parts allows me to judge. Maybe I will have to recruit some car-dude friends over for opinions. Or just take all the various bits to a mechanic and see what they say.

This was pretty much the goal for the day: pull the thing into pieces small enough to lift into the van, so they are not sitting out in the driveway.

Except for all the tin, and the catalytic converter and muffler and other exhaust pipes. They are not heavy, but they are pretty filthy and/ or rusty. They can sit under a tarp for another night, I guess, but maybe I should get them washed off and piled into the back with the other various engine bits.

Day 8

No pictures from today. Not much progress, either. pWeasel suggested PB Blaster to help remove the stuck cylinder, but Canadian Tire appears not to sell it. I started trying to get the pistons off, but the gudgeon pin was pretty tight. Oliver found alley-booty dowelling we tried using to pound on it, but it was maybe a bit too small. It's also really tough to hold the piston securely. One book suggested wrapping the piston in rags and pouring boiling water over them to heat it. That worked a little bit. The other books suggested using a propane torch. I'll have to take my propane torch over and try that. I also tried to buy a better-sized piece of dowelling at Canadian Tire, but they were sold out of that, too. I guess I could use the extension bar out of the socket set, and just avoid damaging it...

Day 9

Well, today I had a propane torch and some 7/8" hardwood dowelling, and after a few hours with that and some help from my brother, we got the pistons off. This is #3, which is all burned out and melted and really not looking happy at all.

The question is, whether this piston looks OK. If it does, I can get by replacing one piston/ cylinder set ($CDN 140) and the rings on the other three ($CDN 50). If the little nicks and such on this one mean it's up for replacement, too, I might as well get a whole new set of pistons and cylinders for $500, which should include new rings. Plus then I'll need the gasket set for another $100, and a thermostat for $114. Not sure if that burned piston has stripped metal bits into the oil cooler; if that needs replacing it could be another chunk, but bowwow.ca doesn't list them. And then removing, cleaning and lapping the valves sounds like machine-shop work, as I don't have the tools to compress the valve springs. So we'll have to see how much they charge for that, and if any of the valves or valve guides also need replacing...

Random picture of one of the rods sticking out. The crankshaft feels all smooth and lovely, so I don't think there should be any expensive bits in there in need of replacing. I just want to break the crank-case open anyway to clean everything up, as I have been not so fastiduous about stuffing clean rags in every opening to avoid any grit falling in...

And the crankcase with the cylinders removed.

Day 10

Another no-pictures day. In fact, I didn't even go over to play with the van. I did, however, go to a couple of mechanics and autoparts stores for quotes. Rudy and Peter don't really sell parts to do-it-your-selfers. Bow-wow has the piston/cylinder kit for $495, the oil cooler for $260, and doesn't stock the thermostat (I guess the $140 one on their web site is actually for the water-cooled post-1983 models). Autobahn Imports could get the piston/cylinder kit for $550, the oil cooler for $210 and the thermostat for $38. The guy there also thought removing the valves and re-lapping them would really not be necessary and would just be pointless money spendage, and that I can quite safely de-carbon the cylinder heads with the valves in place. But California Import Parts can get the piston/cylinder kit for $322 and the oil cooler for $100, though they don't stock the thermostat and the oil cooler is due to come in this weekend and should be in stock by Tuesday.

So I think I will put off splitting the crank-case until after a trip to Langley to see these guys and get new parts. That way I can have the case open for as little time as possible to avoid any damage to the sealing surface. They also sell a case splitting tool for $10, which might make life less frustrating. In the meantime, I guess it is time to start cleaning parts and inventorying how many of what size bolts and nuts are really rusty and want replacing. Fun, fun, fun...

Day 11

Nothing today. Did a bunch of non-van-related errands.

Day 12

Finally applied penetrating oil (PB Blaster appears to be a US brand name; can't remember now what the local version was called) and rubber mallet to loosen cylinder 2 from the head. Also applied penetrating oil and a bigger (better-fitting) screwdriver to that stubborn slot-head screw holding the last piece of air ducting under the cylinders. Good news is the air ducting is now loose. Bad news is the screw head sheared off from the screw, so now I need an extractor.

Also tried poking feeler gauges in next to the connecting rods. Both Chilton and Muir say if you can fit a 0.016" gauge in there, then your connecting rods and/ or crankshaft are seriously worn. Hayes, on the other hand, merely refers you to the tolerances table at the front of the chapter, where ``Connecting rod: Maximum endfloat on journal'' is given as 0.7mm, which is almost twice 0.016". Guess where my tolerances all seem to lie? If you guessed right smack dab between the two, you'd be right... I guess I'll be asking the dudes at California Imports for advice on this one. The dude I talked to on the phone seemed friendly, knowledgeable and helpful.

Also tried using two levers to pry off the oil pump, but then decided I'd rather have the engine sitting in a different direction for bonus leverage. And while I can lift the crankcase from the van to the workbench by myself, rotating it 90 degrees in the air and setting it down a different way will require two people.

Day 13

Borrowed Megan's car and drove engine shrouding to a coin-op carwash. Got much of the really gunky bits somewhat cleaned off. Will probably want to split the fan housing to clean out the insides of the air passages, and give everything a closer going-over. The concrete bunker at the car wash was a little dark, and the pressure washer was good for a first pass, but also tended to send all the tin skittering around and getting scraped up, which seemed less good.

Day 14

Cleaned all the little bits and pieces and looked at bolts to see if they're stripped and look like they want replacing. Should be heading out to the store in Langley tomorrow to buy bits, and see if they have crankshafts and connecting rods and how much they cost. Their web site seems a little less than completely detailed...

Day 15

Shopping day today. I also spent the morning getting approved to get a line of credit at a credit union to replace the credit card at a bank. This isn't strictly van-related, but gives me a better interest rate (though the van itself I wheedled with my academic supervisor's help onto a promotional cash-advance cheque at 4% until November) than the usurious 18%, and a bit more wiggle room for the end of the summer. And given the van, all the tools, and the spare parts are all sitting on that card, this is sorta-van-related progress :)

The more van-related news is that I now have shiny new pistons and cylinders, a complete set of every gasket needed to replace everything in the engine, and a couple of tools to split the crank-case and to compress the piston rings when sliding the new cylinders on. They did not have the oil cooler yet, or rather, they had the oil coolers in the warehouse as part of a 20-odd pallet shipment which they had not yet had time to unpack and check in, so they could not yet find an oil cooler and check it out. They also turned out not to have the 10-mm size of 12-pointed star allen-key type thingamibob, so I'll have to check bow-wow tomorrow morning before heading over. I also need to find the thermostat. Further, it appears the crankshaft and connecting rods are no longer made, so replacing them is not an option. The dude at CIP suggested I could take them down to bow-wow and have them polished and/ or machined a bit, and then fit over or under-sized bearings as needed. I think I will stop by Jackson's auto repair place, which is about 5 blocks from my brother's place, and has a sign advertising ``Up-fixing der Volkswagen'' and see if they might be more enthused about helping/ selling parts to/ doing machine-shop-work for a do-it-yourselfer than Autobahn seemed. I might even be able to box and haul stuff there by foot, avoiding the need to co-ordinate a car borrowing from Megan.

Oh, and lastly, I asked about replacing the little inch-wide rubber skirting which seals the edge of the engine tin to the engine compartment, as mine is pretty brittle and fally-aparty. Apparently, that would cost $170. This, my friends, is ridiculous. I think I will be experimenting with silicone sealants squeezed into duct-tape forms for that :). While replacing high-pressure, high-temperature head gaskets with insta-gasket-from-a-tube seems to have been a dumb idea on the part of whoever last overhauled this engine, I think for the engine compartment skirt, improvising should be acceptable.

Day 16

Well, another day of no photogenic progress. I did finally get the 12-point star bit for the flywheel. Errands take a ridiculous amount of time by bus. Also got a couple of cradles built for the crank-case halves, for when I get them apart (hopefully tomorrow). ``Up-fixin' der Volkswagen'' guy was very friendly and helpful, but does not do machine work himself. He uses The Bug Shop in Surrey. He also suggested not even bothering with the missing thermostat, as he usually leaves them unhooked anyway. I guess there's a risk that if anything binds the flaps in the closed position, then the engine overheats. Whereas if you don't have the thermostat installed at all, the flaps remain in the open position, and it just takes a few extra minutes to warm the engine in the morning.

Day 17

Today was frustrating. This is sooo frustrating. I am getting sooo frustrated. That sort of thing. First, the 12-point bit star bit I finally found, it turns out measures things differently than I thought, so I need the 12-mm, not the 10-mm. I have, however, learned my lesson and called bow-wow in the morning and got them to bring in the 12-mm bit on the afternoon truck from their warehouse in Surrey, so I only needed to make one trip out there. Then, the steel mending plates I was using behind the bolts to extract the fan hub were way too soft, and just folded into the bearing. And the oil pump is still steadfastly refusing to be gently pried out with two levers. And then, before heading out to bow-wow, I tried to lift the engine and cradle into the van without bugging my brother, and promptly dropped the engine on my finger. Well, just pinched a bit of skin, really, but it kinda smarted and left a nice little welt...

Anyway, after bow-wow, I went to a hardware store and bought some tie-down ratchets and big eye bolts to secure the cradle to the engine, so I can now lift it in and out of the van by myself without injury (as long as I remember to lift with the knees and all that). And I bought a drill bit and screw extractor for the screw I broke. And a big hunk of slightly thicker steel to use for forcing off the fan hub. And then back to the van with high hopes of finally making some real progress.

Yeah, well, that didn't last long. First off, the steel stock was too thick. Second, I quite forgot I was going to pick up some pry bars, which would be sturdier than screw-drivers, and also have various bends in the ends to get better purchase. So I moved on to the screw extractor. Good news is, the extension cord was long enough, so I could use the drill out by the van. Bad news is, the screw extractor then proceeded to break off. I think it's time for a big-assed hole and a threaded insert. Then I spent about an hour chopping up the steel stock into small enough bits, and grinding them down with the dremel until they were thin enough to squeeze in behind the fan hub. As I started applying torque, they too started bending. But at this point, I figured I'd see if I could just get a bit more pressure on there. Just an eighth of a turn, maybe, on this bolt. And then, with a scary expensive sounding KAPWINNNG!, there were bits of steel stock flying every which way, and the fan hub flew off into the concrete, and there were all sorts of random seals poking out from the hole. But I think it's actually all OK. Nothing actually looks seriously damaged, and the swine fan hub is now off.

And then I was out of time to try getting the drive plate off. Tomorrow I should probably spend on campus seeing doing not van tinkering types of things. Maybe I'll go over for a few hours in the evening. Still don't have any really good ideas about the oil pump. The books make it sound so easy. ``Gently pry out the oil pump using two levers.'' That's all the advice they give you on that one.

Day 18

Went up to campus to do some non-van stuff. Then couldn't stay away, so went over to try remove the drive plate. I think that'll need a 5-foot cheater bar and a second pair of hands.

Day 19

More non-related van work today.

Day 20

Hauled a six-foot pipe over on the bus this morning. Even with that and my brother's help, no success on removing ye olde drive plate. The sockets just aren't very deep, and the bit kept threatening to grease out of the bolt head, and I really didn't want to strip them. So tomorrow I'll do what I should have done a week ago, and just take the whole flippin' crank-case to the machine shop and ask them to remove the drive plate and oil pump, split the case, and put the bearings in. I'll have to see if I want them to put it all back together again, or whether I should still try do that myself. I'm not entirely convinced I could put enough torque on the bolts to re-install the drive plate, so depending on what the machine shop charges, maybe I'll ask them to do that bit, too.

Day 21

Well, today I drove the crank-case to The Bug Shop in Delta. We pretty much knew we had the right place when we spotted the six or seven Vanagons parked out front. It's a tiny little hole in the wall, too, which inspires confidence given that I've seen references to it everywhere. He seemed perfectly happy with the idea that I wanted him to do as little as possible, thought the bolts would come out no problem with an impact wrench, wasn't in the least bit concerned about the oil pump, and was quite willing to take the thing apart, assess and replace bearings, and hand it back to me in little pieces to save me the money and gain me the fun and excitement and learning and personal investment of putting it back together again :).

He further thought that I should bring in the old oil cooler when I go pick up the engine, and he'll pressure flush it for $35 and save me the $170 of buying a new one. On the other hand, he thought improvising on the engine skirt would not be a good idea, but promised to see if he can beat CIP's $170 on that one.

So now, I wait, and do other productive things. Oh, and also crack the fan housing apart to clean out the gunky oil-dust coating on the inside passages there.

Days 22-25

More waiting and doing not-van things. I did clean off some of the hot air ducts, and the inside of the fan housing. The fan housing had a good millimeter or so layer of caked on dirt and oil and gunk. I think a plastic ski wax scraper would be a good addition to the toolkit for that sort of thing. It would be stiff enough to scrape gunk, soft enough to not scratch the aluminum, and has all sorts of little curves for getting into the smaller places.

Day 26

Mechanic called today. Things don't look too bad inside there, so I'll get away with just polishing the surfaces and putting in new bearings. Actually, he thought one might even be able to get away with re-using the bearings, but I'm not convinced that would be such a good idea... He also thought I could pick it up today, if I got there before they wanted to leave. I tried, but by the time I had organised a car borrowing and driven to my brother's to pick up the oil cooler and stuff, there was no way. So I called back, and then he had forgotten the previous time we talked that I had taken the heads in, too. On those, he'll just take the valves out, make sure the guides aren't loose, and polish up the seat for the head gaskets. He's closed tomorrow, so looks like Monday I get the engine, I'll spend Tuesday and Wednesday morning mantling it, and call in re-inforcements for Wednesday afternoon/ evening to do the grunt work of hoisting it into the van :) Then it'll just be connections and tune-ups, and we should be able to turn the ignition by Thursday sometime! But let's not be counting our chickens before we cross the bridge, eh? We'll see how things go...

The mechanic also said that apparently those five bolts holding on the drive plate that gave me such grief had been put on with ``some weird loc-tite stuff'', and he had to drill two of them out. At least now I don't feel bad about them having given be trouble...

Day 27-28

Day 27 was a Sunday, and I rested :). Day 28 I spent driving around, picked up the crank-case and some more parts at CIP in Langley. $800 later, I think I am just about ready to start re-assembling the bugger. Luckily, today I also got the 6 GST rebate cheques that had been mailed to my old address, because one of Post Canada, Revenue Canada, or myself are incompetent and Revenue Canada never got my address change notification. Good timing though...

Day 29

This is the crank-case and heads, as the mechanic returned them. He didn't actually assemble the case; the bolts are just finger-tight so the thing can be carried easier.

These are the innards from the crank-case, which need to be put back in there. Turns out the case was align bored at some point, so the main bearings are oversized both inside and out, which makes them hard to find and kinda pricy when found... Just my luck, eh? Anyway, between labour to take the case apart and polish the crankshaft, and parts for the bearings, this was about $500 and change in spendiness.

This is the first $500 or so I spent at CIP many many days ago by now. The piston-cylinder set was about $320, and the gasket set about $100. There were a few other little trinkets making up the difference.

This would be the annoyingly expensive ($170 or so) engine compartment seal. Doesn't look like much, does it? Something fitting more or less the same specifications has got to exist in some application somewhere for one fifth the price, but I'll be buggered if I know where to even start looking. If anyone has any ideas for future reference or what-not, let me know...

Oil pump and connecting rods. Not much to say about them, really, but I snapped the photo for completeness.

And finally, the crank-case halves after a bunch of cleaning off the old gaskets and sealing compounds. Still a bit of work to do on cleaning old gaskets off the heads tomorrow, and then it's time to start assembling.

Mantling

This page was getting too big about three weeks ago, so photos from putting the engine back together again can start their own page.