onward

Honestly, this post is just to move that last one off the top of the stack. Now that the election is over, the vehemence that I felt last Sunday feels a week away. On the project side, I should be completing my living room efforts by Saturday night, so, if the weather works out, I may be able to get the engine in Sunday. I still need to resolve a few things, but I think I could even resolve those things after the fact.

1 - fuel filler hose
The original hose is just that: original. That means its almost 40 years old. I don't expect that rubber to stand up to any more use, much less the diesel blends that have biodiesel (BD) in them. BD eats old-style rubber quickly. I think it eats the "biodiesel-ready" rubber too, but thereis little evidence on either side of that debate.
My plan is to take the old rubber hose over to a muffler shop and have them cut/bend me a pipe in the same shape and length, save for about 1/4" on each end. Then, I'll use the rubber hose as a source of joiners between the new pipe and the old connections. That should last a while.

2 - fuel return port
The original fuel tank doesn't have a place to route fuel overflow back into the tank. Since the 1972 VW bus was a carburated engine, there wasn't a fuel rail, or any overflow fuel to route back to the tank. I could have bought a later bus tank, but there was nothing wrong with the original, and I'd rather leave as much alone as I can. Yes, I know putting a water-cooled diesel engine in kind of runs against that. Still, the less I change, the fewer decisions I have to make. Like, does a newer tank fit in the tank bay?
My solution idea is to put a port into the fuel filler pipe that I will be having fab'd by the muffler guys. It seems pretty simple to me: bore a hole in, thread a nipple into the hole, attach the return line. I need the pip first, then the nipple, but this shoudl be a pretty easy step.

3 - starter
The original starter will fit into the original opening on the transaxle. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide enough torque to start the engine. There are vendors that are willnig to sell me a "hi-torque" starter that will directly fit. Unfortunately, these "hi-torque" starters are built like crap and are known to fail soon after the check clears. The vanagon TDI folks use a TDI starter with an adapter constructed by "Westy Ventures". From my findings, though, the vanagon starter (SR87 fitting a 091 and 091/1 transaxle) has an output shaft about 1/2" longer than the old 002 transaxle starter (SR15, SR17). So, if I were to use the adapter, it would fit in the starter hole, but the gears would overshoot the flywheel by 1/2". So, I'll either need an adapter for the adapter or a custom adapter right off. I'm leaning towards a custom adapter, but I'll need to find someone capable of doing it. I have a mock-up made out of wood, so that fabrication would be a pretty easy job for someone with the tools.

I don't really need any of these bits to get the engine slammed in. In fact, I can address all of these in the warm comforts of my garage after the engine is in. I would, however, like to get the fuel filler pipe done first. It is so much easier getting that pipe on without an engine to climb over. I'll try to remember to bring the gose with my to work tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a local-to-my-work place that will cut and bend while I wait.

More later...