Furnace Freed

Continuing the NewOld House construction, today's post is about disconnecting the furnace, and considering our options for what's next.

Hapy Update

I know I have not written much about cars lately, so here's a quick update on Hapy. I don't drive every day, but Hapy has been my main vehicle all summer. The other night, I grew frustrated with someone driving at least 10 mph below the speed limit in the left lane. I was cruising around 2k RPM in 3rd (around 30mph in a 45mph zone). An opening appeared in the right lane, so I stepped on it and started changing lanes. I guess I stepped on it too hard because I smoked the tires for a second before they grabbed, launching us forward. Goes to show, the KermaTDI bigger nozzles and Malone Tuning CPU chip were significant improvements. Since I have been driving him so much, it is now time to do his front brakes. I am still questioning the brake booster, so once the front brakes are done, I may revisit the booster and master cylinder. Since Hapy has become the gear-hauler for the band I've been playing in, taking him off the road has larger implications than ever. Anyway, back to the furnace.

Exhaust

furnace freed

Because of the way the furnace was installed, I had to get the exhaust stack out of the way first. The furnace is not a 95% efficiency-or-better, so the exhaust is both double-walled and transfers more than just water vapor. Still, it is put together the same as one of the high efficiency ones, it is just double walled instead of single. Some pieces twist-lock together and others are held together with sheet metal screws. With a 1/4" hex socket on the cordless torque driver, I made quick work of all of the sheet metal screws. I was able to remove the exhaust in sections and set them aside. Once the entire exhaust, from furnace-to-chimney-liner was removed, I shifted to the cold air intake or "return" in HVAC parlance.

Cold Air Intake

On this furnace install, the cold air return/intake enters from above. So, while warm air rises and cold air drops, our cold air return was installed 6 feet up into the wall. Genius. It was simple to take apart, though. The protective grill was held on with 3" long screws, which also held the air filter in place. Behind that the HVAC flashing was bent to create a flute or trumpet-bell shape to route air from the grill through the hole in the wall into the main intake. From there, the intake took a 90* turn down into the top of the furnace. Easy-peasy. The intake was similarly held together with sheet metal screws, and it came apart just as easily as the exhaust had. The sole difference was that each seam had the fancy shiny duct tape. That came off fast too. Once in pieces and the trumpet-bell bits bent straight, the whole unit came free.

Hot Side

exhaust removed

Once the "cold" air passes into the furnace, the squirrel-cage blower pushes it through the heating element and down into the chase below. In our case, that chase is large, rectangular and takes an immediate hard 90* turn along the main beam. From that chase, the round insulated heat conduits attach, routing the air to the various registers around the house. None of that needed to be touched for the furnace removal. All I needed to do was detach the furnace from the floor. Again, sheet metal screws held a double-thick 90* bend of HVAC flashing between the side of the furnace and the top of the chase interface. Once removed, the furnace was free-floating. We intend to re-use as much of the original "hot side" as we can. The round insulated tube things were all replaced when the crawlspace was done, so they are effectively new. The places where heat needs to go remains the same and whichever furnace we put in the crawlspace, it can send heat (or should I say processed air) down the same paths.

Electric

Next came the electric stuff. I started by removing the thermostat and the trigger cable from it to the furnace. We don't know if we are going to retain that thermostat, nor are we sure it is going back in the same spot. Either way, it was a standard 5-wire control cable, so re-installing it or doing net-new is very little difference in cost. Having it all out so we could make decisions was worth the few minutes.

Obviously, a gas furnace still needs electricity to run the squirrel-cage fan, so I flipped the breaker for the furnace and disconnected it at the furnace end. I pushed the wire through the hole in the floor. Next, I disconnected the ground wire which the prior installer had connected to the gas line. While I would like to accept that this was safe, it really didn't feel like it. I think we will run a fresh 3-wire line if we reuse this furnace. Since an electric furnace requires 220V, that would also get a new line.

Gas

gas and electric shutoffs

All that remained was the gas line. After our little excitement a few years ago when Zed went crashing into our gas water heater at the old house (See One of the Many Joys of Home Ownership), I was not exactly wanting to do this part. Our pipe-fitter (also licensed plumber) friend offered to do it. So, Lana came by, shut off the gas at the meter, disconnected the gas line under the house where it bent up to the furnace and capped it off. Together we push/pulled the disconnected end up through the hole in the floor, leaving the furnace completely disconnected.

Considerations

We have a curious cat, so we are leaving the furnace pretty much where it was while we figure things out. Otherwise, we would have a cat stuck in the heat system as fast as you can ask "where'd the cat go". Meanwhile we have some things to figure out. The furnace was manufactured in August 2019. The house was vacated around a year later, so the folks who installed the furnace got one winter out of it. We bought the place last year and used it this past winter so this furnace has 2 years of use. There are at least 15 more in it. Knowing that natural gas prices will continue to climb, eventually this furnace will be more expensive to run on a month-to-month basis than an electrical one, but that isn't the case today. Today, a gas furnace is considerably less expensive to run. A heat pump is different, but we don't have one of those. Adding a heat pump to this system would be a $8-10k upgrade. We are not in a financial place to do that. Assuming either system can reuse the existing hot side, and routing the cold return from the hole in the floor will be effectively the same, we can eliminate those from the decision: its a wash.

August 2019

So, we are looking at electric-only or gas-only. Since this furnace is practically brand new, and in-hand, it probably makes the best financial sense to keep it, and install it under the house. Before we jump in, we need to route the gas and the exhaust -or- get 220V under there and set up the trigger cable. The gas is already right there. We may need to add some flex-pipe depending on where the furnace ends up, but the gas part seems easy. For 220V, we have multiple extra slots in the breaker panel, so it would just be a matter of adding a breaker and threading the wire through. I know how this furnace was set up so re-introducing the trigger wire is easy. I don't know anything about a new furnace, so while it is probably not that hard, it would be something new and potentially challenging. Last, the gas furnace needs to have the exhaust routed. The chimney goes through the floor, but we don't know if there is a clean-out at the bottom. That would tell us if the chimney is hollow below the floor (we think it is), and therefore available for having the exhaust run into it. This mystery needs to be resolved if we are going to retain the gas furnace for a few years. I think, for the bigger financial picture, it makes sense to relocate this furnace rather than spend even $1500US on an electric one. I cannot imagine routing the exhaust would cost half that, and the 220V routing versus gas routing is a cost-wash. So, really it comes down to the cost of the exhaust versus the cost of a new furnace plus the increase in monthly cost to run the electric... even if we could sell the gas furnace to offset some of the initial outlay. I think, the gas makes better cost-sense. Once we make a determination about the chimney, we'll know.

Well, that's it for now. thanks, as always, for following along-

Malone Tuning Stage 2

Today, I wrap up the saga of the bigger injector nozzles and the Malone Tune in the VW bus. And, finally take Hapy for a drive. But first, for my mj-friendly readers, Hapy 420; celebrate safely :) Before I get flamed, yes, I know 420 did not stem from a date. It came from a time-of-day, but that does not change the fact that people celebrate pot on the 20th of April. It does, however, explain why some folks celebrate 4:20 in the afternoon with their personal favorite intoxicant.

Also, please note that the fine people at blogger have notified their users that "After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported." So, if you are relying upon an email to let you know that there is a new post on one of your favorite blogs, this will no longer function starting in August.

On to chipping Hapy's TDI computer...

Malone Tuning

In the TDI world, and increasingly outside of it, Malone Tuning is kind of the hallmark for getting your ECU "chipped". For those who wish to get more out of their engine, there is a tune for practically any set up and performance target. Malone has a few tunes below the "stage 2" that I selected, which either maximize power with a completely stock set up or adjust settings for best economy. I decided that I wanted larger injectors so I could get a little more oomph, so the stage 2 is the better choice. I do not have any plans to upsize my turbo, but if I did, this tune would support it.

On the turbo, I am running a stock VNT-15. The easiest upgrade would be to find and install a VNT-17. These appear on some cars stock. The advantage of the 17 is that it can create more boost (in pounds per square inch or PSI), because everything is bigger. The downside is the turbo lag (delay in the arrival of the power) is increased, moving the powerband up the RPM's. Since the sound and vibration of the bus increases with the RPM as well, I generally try to stay below 3500RPM. The VNT-15 turbo starts to kick in around 1800, but isn't really all-there until closer to 2200. So, right now, my total band for power is around 1300RPM (2200-3500). Adding a bigger turbo will reduce that or push my top-end higher to compensate which would make for a more noisy / shaking experience. It is for this reason that I am not really considering a turbo swap. The $1000US for a turbo is, of course, a factor too. Besides, we haven't seen how bigger nozzles and a tune will affect things yet!

Ship Ship Ship Ship

projected HP and torque
increases from stage 2

The actual purchasing of a Malone tune is through "Tunezilla". For someone with a super-early TDI like mine, it is not a simple download of software, though. A pair of chips need to be swapped out. This can be done by their shop, who does this every day, or they will send you the chips to do it yourself. I decided to have them do it, and sent my ECU off to them. Less than a week later, it was back in my hands, having traveled through customs twice (Malone is in BC, Canada) and their shop. Unfortunately, FedEx international shipping was a little rough with the package and after some highly responsive tech support from Malone to diagnose, I had to send it back. Malone determined that a handful of the solder joints broke free during shipping, causing the ECU to not power up.

The symptoms were consistent: apply switched 12V power and nothing happened. No messages on the "K" line thru the OBD-II plug to my little reader, no check engine light, no glow-plug light, but there was power at and past relay 109. So, there was some power moving through the ECU (relay 109 is triggered by the ECU), just not all of it.

I sent it back and they turned it around in 2 days, finding and fixing the loose soldier joints. They super-packed it with extra puff, so we would not have a solder fail repeat. Again, about a week after I sent it to them, it was back in my hands. An aside: when I sent it the first time, FedEx said they were not delivering to that address, so I went through UPS. UPS cost twice as much. The second time I sent it, FedEx was delivering there again. So weird.

Holy Head Snap

Hapy says "lets play"

Anyway, this time when I plugged it in, I had an entirely different experience. I turned the key to "RUN" and heard the familiar "snap snap" of the relays and the dash-pod waking up. I turned the key to start and Hapy fired up immediately (bum-bum broom). He rough idled for a few seconds and then settled down at 900RPM. I cleared the codes (per Malone instructions) and then played with the go pedal. Oh, this is gonna be fun. The new injectors don't leak at all, and the pump retains prime after being left idle for days. Bigger nozzles, stage 2 tune, wrapped exhaust, oil temp and pressure gauging, fresh wiring from front to back, including a new, custom fuse/relay box, the fat-plug harness surgery... All I needed was a test drive and Hapy could be ready to rumble.

Not so fast. It would be irresponsible to put that much new power on the road without verifying the brakes. So, before I got my "go" on, I adjusted the rear drum brakes, checked the lining on the front and confirmed I had full fluid. I switched out the system to DOT4 a couple of years ago, so the fact that he has been sitting most of the time since did not concern me as much as DOT3 would have. DOT3 absorbs moisture (bad for your fluid life) over time while DOT4 does not.

dyno curve compare
stock -v- stage 2

So.. with brakes adjusted, and all the stuff I said a paragraph ago now complete, I'm ready to test drive. We have been blessed with pleasant (20*C / upper 60*'s F) high temperatures so far this April, with many sunny skies. This makes for some perfect conditions for a test drive. While I only did the usual lap for my test, it was amazing. Somewhere along the way when I worked on the original bus dash I failed to re-connect the speedometer cable, but otherwise, everything worked very well and the brakes responded strong. As I turned onto the main road, I quickly moved through 1st and 2nd gear. When I put it in third, I really put my foot into it. I didn't floor it, but I put it pressed it pretty far down. The turbo spun up and I lost traction in my drive tires: I was burning rubber in 3rd gear, rolling at around 25mph. That'll do. Hahaha. I don't think I'll need to do anything more performance-wise, though I may replace the exhaust pipe if that will reduce exhaust gas temperature (EGT) or if the wrap destroys it. When I got back home, I felt the rear tires; they were warm, but not hot. Same goes for the rear drums. Then, I checked the wrapped exhaust which was also warm, but easily touchable.

With a consistent accelerator pedal (no more 1200 limp mode) and better visibility into the engine health, Hapy is pretty much ready for some road-tripping this Summer. Now that CoViD-19 vaccines are becoming more widespread and plentiful, Hapy's system-ready status could not arrive soon enough.

That's it for now. As I go, another reminder that Hapy turns 50 on 3-September-2021 and we will be celebrating it at LL Stub State Park. If you have nothing else to do Labor Day weekend, there are some great hiking, horse and bike trails there as well as our little birthday.

Thanks, as always, for following along--

Injector-Go-Round (Part 2)

Today, we continue and complete the efforts to get old used stock injectors from Hapy to work in Flash, and then brand new higher-performance injectors installed into Hapy. Fun with injectors starts.... now.

Injector-Go-Round

Now comes the fun part. With the wedged-nut extractor tool I mentioned in part 1 (See Injector-Go-Round Part 1), I pulled the injectors out of Hapy, Then, I pulled the old injectors out of Flash and installed Hapy's old injectors into Flash. That sentence took less than 10 seconds to type, and I feared it would take all weekend to do. It was actually fairly uneventful and quick. On Friday night, I set myself up by putting Hapy and Flash near one another, and then shooting the injectors where they enter the head with the trusty old Kroil penetrating oil. The next morning, I cleaned around the injector-to-head points, took my slap-together injector puller / slide hammer and all 8 injectors popped out with little effort. Seriously, each injector took fewer than 5 pops with the slide-hammer, and none of the "pops" had much force at all behind them. Honestly, I was being gentle because I didn't want the wedged nut to fall off the hammer. So, I held the slide between my index finger and my thumb and gently pop-pop-popped, moving the slide less than 4 inches each time with a flick of my wrist. I think the Kroil really helped, though I expect there will be some who bristle at the thought of letting some penetrating oil slip into the engine. 

I carefully arrayed the brackets, bolts and washers (excepting the one I lost) so I could re-install them in the same spots. In Hapy, I left the injectors loose, but still in their respective holes while I completed the extract on Flash, cleaned the holes and the head mating surface. Then, in one move, I pulled the injectors from Hapy, carried them across the driveway like a cat's cradle and set them into Flash's head. Ideally, I would have replaced the copper crush-washers on the injectors, but I didn't have replacements on hand, and this was the day I had to do this. *Dumb short-cut actually taking more time warning*

The install of the new-to-Flash injectors was fairly straightforward. Once the injectors were set in, I cleaned each bracket, rested it into place, and then lightly threaded the bolt through. Once I had all 4 in place, I threaded them down finger tight. I plugged in the 3rd-injector plug, set the glow-plug harness under the hard-lines and then re-connected the hard-lines to the tops of the injectors, but only barely threaded on. Once the lines are in the right spot, the compression fittings on the pump can be tightened down. Then, I wrenched down the brackets to around 10 foot-pounds (spec says ~15), snapped the glow-plug harness onto the glow-plugs and connected the return line to the injection pump.

Drift, Torque, Repeat

At this point, I test-cranked the engine to force air out of the hard-lines. There are a few ways to do this, of course, and the video I mentioned in part 1 is as good a way as any. He did the injectors in pairs while I did them one at a time, tightening the hardline at the injector end as each injector-to-hardline point spat out fuel. My one-at-a-time method moves from injector to injector based on the way they are connected to the injection pump: closest-to-the-ground one first, highest one last. My thinking is that any air in the pump will work its way up that way. By the time I was on the last injector, the engine was trying to fire.

I got that last line done, and Flash started right up. I could see some vapor puff-puff-puffing above the head, and could hear a "psst-psst-psst" noise, so I knew there was a leak. Boo helped me here, by jumping into the driver-seat and starting the engine while I looked and felt for the leak. It was around the #2 injector, but not at the hard-line mate point. It was around the injector near the head. Engine off, I grabbed a socket extension to use as a drift. I lightly smacked either side of the #2 injector bracket near the injector. Then, I re-torqued the bolt. I was surprised by how much more I could turn the bolt (like 3/4 a turn), so I repeated the process on the other 3, and continued to do this until the bolts torqued down at 15 ft-lbs and would not accept more after more drift-smacks.

This process worked very well. When we test fired it again, Flash started right up, made no funny noises (nor puffs of vaporized fuel) and ran strong during the test drive. The biggest indicator of our success was the near-immediate start the following morning and no cloud of smoke. He had been getting harder and harder to start in the morning. I now conclude that his old injectors were leaking (evidence of that was found upon their removal, as they leaked all over the paper shopping bag I set them on), and the fuel system needed to prime every morning, causing the long hard-start effort. I decided to change his oil immediately, while waiting for the delivery of the new injectors from KermaTDI.

Priming the Injection Pump

During the oil change, I discovered that the #2 injector had actually leaked at the head again during the test drive, and concluded that replacing the copper crush-washers (or injector seals) is not optional. I got a replacement set from the local parts store (not DIP, still bummed about that) and re-did the removal / install. This time, I did a pair of injectors at a time, starting with #1 and #2. Oddly enough, the injector pump lost it's prime in the few minutes the system was open this time. Half as many injectors, loosened the lines less and it still lost prime when it didn't the last time when I did all 4. Ah well; just shows that luck is a factor. With the MityVac, I applied vacuum on the low-pressure return side (no more than 7 pounds so the seals inside the pump were never in jeopardy, and more vacuum would not have tangibly sped the process) of the injection pump until fuel appeared in the MityVac collection cup. Then, I buttoned things up, cleared the hard-lines of air by cracking the connections one at a time (bottom to top, like above) until Flash started. Again, I see no puffs, but I did the #3 and #4 injector seals anyway. Fool me once. After letting Flash sit for a few days, he lost prime again.

So, I ran another round of MityVac priming and got him running. I let him sit an idle while I got a really close look at the injectors. I noticed that #1 had fuel appearing around the injector mount-point into the head. The #1 injector is unique in that it has a cap on one of the return bibs. That cap was leaking. I didn't have a real one, so I made one from low pressure hose and a bolt. This helped, so after letting Flash sit for a few days he would start, albeit roughly. Believing that the low-pressure return lines I moved from Hapy were no longer viable, I considered my options for replacement.

Hapy Injected

Once KermaTDI had the injectors set up, they FedEx'd them over with a new set of copper seals. They arrived mid-week, but with the dicey weather, I waited to until the weekend so I could have a nice big block of time. Hapy's head had been cleaned when the old ones were pulled and I had stuffed rags into the injector holes so it would stay clean. With the injectors in-hand, I could at least prepare them for install by removing the "T" fitting from Flash's old #3 injector, and moving the low-pressure return lines onto the replacement set. The kit from KermaTDI delivered with brand new low-pressure return lines so the set up of the injectors was that much easier. With the injectors set up, and a new weekend day, I followed the same process I did with Flash, except for skipping the test-start parts. I am having issues with Hapy's ECU, so this is as far as I could really get.

I'll describe the test-drive once I have Hapy buttoned back up. Between then and now, I need to get his ECU sorted but at least the exhaust is back on. There's never a shortage of things to do. Couldn't be Hapy-er.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

Injector-Go-Round (Part 1)

I got back outside and started playing on the TDI's (Hapy the camperbus and Flash the daily Jetta) as the weather has been somewhat hospitable, though not consistently so. Since Hapy is running so well (still no codes, accelerator responding as one would expect, etc.), I decided to step up his injectors and get that Malone Tune I had dreamed about for years. In contrast, Flash has been making a plume of black smoke when he starts in the morning (after a long start cycle), so I figured his injectors had gotten pretty clogged up. My thinking: I can upgrade Hapy's injectors and put his under-100k miles injectors onto Flash to extend his life. Today's post is about picking, and removing injectors. I'm still perfecting both Flash and Hapy injector installs, so I'll post part 2 on that once at least one of them is running right. Good times.

Injector Selector

PowerPlus 764

For the uninitiated, like me, the world of diesel injectors or nozzles is cloudy and the choices not clear. For one thing, the manufacturers all suffer with varying quality because of their efforts to get them constructed at lower costs. As is true with any market, there are always new players. Some new players build good stuff, but have little recognition. Others are simply trying to turn a dime and build garbage, but have flashy advertisements. Like I said, all markets are like this, but for a product about which you know little, how do you avoid overpaying or getting garbage? This is where your trusted vendors are so important. For TDI stuff, I go to KermaTDI and IDParts first and then some others like PartsPlace or TuneMyEuro to see what they are selling. When they are all selling the same subset of the market, you can be fairly sure those are the better quality-to-price. In many cases, your greatest gains from an injector upgrade require an ECU tune, a turbo upgrade, or both. Regardless, my research indicates that they need to be balanced / pressure checked / set-up or you will probably not get the performance you were expecting.

To help me through the maze, I worked with the folks at Malone Tuning and researched my 2 usual forums: TDIClub and VWVortex. There really is nothing better than true end-user feedback, but in most cases, the folks who replaced their injectors were going from clapped-out original stock injectors to something new, so, of course, they worked way better. And, they only did that one set ever, so they only had the old crappy ones to compare against. Still, the forums helped steer me where KermaTDI and TuneMyEuro were already taking me: Bozio injectors are the market leaders right now, but even they have quality issues. So, having them set up will best ensure a high-performing set. I decided to have mine set-up by our friends at KermaTDI since that brought with it better guarantees and some things are just best done as a unit.

DLC 1019

I spent considerable time toggling back and forth between the DLC1019 and the PowerPlus764. I ultimately went with the PP764, but, in retrospect, they are both great injector nozzles from everything I have read. Here is another write-up of the PP764. Both injectors appear to have the DLC protective coatings that extend the nozzle life against lower quality and low-sulfur fuel. Knowing that the quality of diesel fuel varies across the country, this is important. The PP764 also has hardened surfaces, etc. to extend its life relative to the stock injectors (the DLC1019 probably does as well), and have a higher upside in terms of HP potential with additional upgrades. Ultimately, the TDIClub seems to feel that the PP764 may produce more smoke, but more power than the 1019, but again, as in so many things, your mileage may vary, and with all the other variables at play, it is very hard to distinguish between these nozzles... except for which one can handle larger modifications: the PP764.

I had Kerma set them up at the lowest "pop" stage, so they are fairly tame, which parallels the stock-for-now turbo. I should be able to replace the original VNT-15 turbo with a stock-in-some-VW's VNT-17 and the PP764 injector set up can remain the same. The 1019 may not embrace the higher boost as well as the PP764. Again.. who really knows? This feels like a job for MotorTrend's Engine Masters, if they ever give a whiff about performance in otherwise not monster engines... and diesels in general.

Injector Removal

still from KermaTDI vid

I had a rain-free, beautiful Saturday morning, with a forecast for decent March weather (read: spotty rain) all weekend, so I had my opening. KermaTDI co-hosts a great video on YouTube for how to remove / replace the injectors which I mostly followed. So, I am not going to go through all those steps in great depth here. Instead, I will highlight what I found particularly interesting. In the video, the glow-plug harness was removed at the very beginning. It was easier to remove once the injector hard-lines were moved out of the way. Getting a good angle on the bottom compression fittings on the injector pump was difficult, but not impossible, especially during initial removal. With the hard-lines out of the way, for the Hapy removal, I then had to remove the vacuum ball and the bracket holding it to the head in order to get to the clips for the 3rd injector plug-wire. This bracket did not interfere with the plug in Flash, but his plug was very difficult to get out of the bracket. With that unplugged, I shifted to the injector-hold-down brackets. On Hapy, I lost concentration for a second and pulled the bolt out of the 4th injector bracket independent of the bracket, causing the dished washer to disappear into the engine bay. This momentary lapse cost me some time searching.

I never found that washer, but it was nowhere near the injector so I moved on. Finding a single replacement washer took some time, though. For posterity, it is either part number N0231312 or N0237314. With the brackets removed, the injectors would not budge (no surprise). So, I cleaned up around them as much as I could with brake cleaner and a slotted screwdriver, getting as much black gunk off as I could. I felt this would minimize the risk of that hard yuck falling into the open injector port once the injector came out. I applied a short burst of Kroil penetrating oil around each of the injector-to-head mating surfaces to help in the extraction.

Injector Removal Tool

no worky

The injector has a M14-1.5 thread where the hard line injector fitting attaches. Metalnerd makes a slide-hammer specific for removing this injector that threads right on. As of this writing, they cost around $45US. Back when I was working on the dents on Zed (the 1978 Datsun 280ZX), I got one of those stud welder / dent slide hammer kits from Harbor Freight. This kit includes a 2-pound slide hammer with a single thread-on attachment that is designed to grab onto one of those studs. The thread on the slide hammer is M14-2. Soooo close to the injector thread, but not. I would rather re-use a tool in-hand rather than buy another rare-use tool. So, I got 2 nuts from the hardware store (M14-1.5 and M14-2) and JB Weld'd them together. I would have Mig welded, but welder one I used on Oliver's floors has disappeared into the tool collective of Travis' friends and I didn't want to wait. Besides, I'm not sure welding these nuts would have been a slam-dunk anyway. Turned out, the JBWeld failed on the first injector, so my tool became just the one M14-1.5 nut: I force-wedged it onto the slide-hammer and threaded the other end into the injectors. Yes, this cross-threaded the nut at the slide-hammer end, but it served it's purpose.

I'm going to stop here, and pick up the actual removal and install experience in the next post. Like I said above, the removals were actually quite easy. Like so many things, destruction is easy; construction is hard.

Gramps Clutch

Unrelated, I mentioned the clutch replacement for Gramps (2-dot-slow Jetta 3) a few weeks back when I was considering what work to do next. K2 decided that he wanted to hire that out, so we called up Courtney over at MobilePdx. We have called on these guys a few times over the years when our workload was more than we wanted to handle at once, and they have never disappointed. He and his guys (Lou and Joe) knocked it out, replacing the clutch, flywheel (old clutch blue'd the friction surface), throw-out bearing, the throw-out bearing cover, etc. Before they started the tear-down, the engine got a de-greasing. Once everything was apart, they replaced the rear main seal on the engine. With everything clean, they were able to lubricate things (like the shift linkage), and confirm the oil leak was the rear main seal. All in, it was a ton of work, but Gramps is running like a champ again. And, he is no longer marking his spot every time he parks. Thanks MobilePDX!

Last, an early shout-out to my local-to-NW Oregon friends: Hapy turns 50 on 3-September-2021, so to celebrate, we will be camping at LL Stub Stewart State Park that weekend. If you have little else to do for US Labor Day weekend, we (Hapy, Boo and I) would love to see you.

Thanks, as always, for following along and I'll post again once at least one of the 2 injector beneficiaries is running right.