Hapy Drives Again

It has been a long 18+ months without having a member of our family kicking around with us. But, Hapy is one injection-pump re-seal away from daily-driver status. Today, I'll go through the last little things. Again, my regrets for not taking many pictures. I have been away from fixing and blogging so I have fallen out of the habit of snapping a picture while I'm doing the doing. Also, I got hit by whatever flu thing that's been going around and was flat-backin bed-ridden for the last 3 weeks.

Clutch Adjustment

post-test drive

I touched on this at the end of my last post. I had to add an extra small spacer at the end of the Bowden tube as well as on the very end adjuster. To be fair, I really didn't need the one on the adjuster, but I would would not have much adjustment thread left if I hadn't. I ordered a replacement clutch cable and when it arrives, I will keep it under the rock-n-roll bed until I get to replacing it. I expect I will replace that cable relatively soon, but I want some fun drives before I take him off the road again, even to do something that I could do (and have done) on the roadside.

 

The standard adjustment advice is to shift the tension on the cable as felt by your foot on the pedal such that there is no engagement until the pedal has moved a good inch down towards the floor. This prevents premature wear on the clutch and/or throwout bearing. You don't want the throwout bearing riding on the clutch spindles all the time. That's noisy and introduces premature wear. What I did not recall from prior clownings on the cable was that the arm protruding from the transaxle would have so much play in it before the throw-out bearing touched the pressure plate at all. I recall it practically resting on the pressure plate, but my memory is not reliable. Anyway, I felt that the arm needed to press against the spring a little bit to get the adjustment correct. As I think on it now, that spring being engaged is what holds the clutch pedal all the way up so it's right. It just felt foreign. Honestly, it has been so long since I worked on Hapy, lots of this work has felt unusual.

 

Tail Light Show

Bowden Tube pic from theSamba

The tail lights were acting really strange prior to my first intended test drive after getting the clutch sorted. I start assessing the lights rather simply: run the hazards first. Since no other systems are involved, the blinkers ought to all light up together and turn off together. The left (driver) side was lighting up opposite from the others. When I added in simple running lights (still no key in ignition), the tail lights were a light show of blinking. I had initially thought that I did something funny with the reverse switch, but that is a simple dumb switch that allows 12V through when the transaxle is in reverse. So, I ruled that out. I concluded that the ground for the light fixture was poor, weak or virtually non-existent, causing the 12V to seek a ground though alternative paths of other not-illuminated lights, causing them to light up.

 

Getting into the Cavity 

The left (driver) side tail light is hidden behind a panel I added to offer colder air to the engine (See VW Bus Cold Air Intake). I had forgotten how much of the ugly TDI wiring was also hidden back there when I removed the panel. Anyway, first, I disconnected the cold air pipe at the last rubber coupling before the turn into the hidden cavity under the spare tire well. Then, I removed the 4 nuts holding the pipe flashing, and removed the air filter "assembly". While this was out of the bus, I thoroughly cleaned the air filter and shop-vac'd the cavity. With the air filter out of the way, I removed most of the screws holding the panel in place with a slotted screwdriver and bent the panel out of the way to access the tail light assembly.

 

Grounding

left side panel under spare

Immediately after sticking my head and a small flashlight into the space, I spotted a ground that had fallen off the grounding tab on the rear next to the light assembly. I popped that back onto the ground tab and tested the lights. There was no noticeable impact, but those grounds were probably used by something, so some other issue just got resolved.

I decided to add a ground directly from the metal back-plate of the tail light assembly to the unused grounding tab next to the one I had just resolved. I added what I call a "chair" tab splitter (because it looks kinda like a chair), that turns one tab into 2, to the grounding tab on the rear of the tail light. I re-attached the existing ground to one side of the "chair" and added a short brown wire to the other side, connecting it to the unused tab on the rear body. I then retested, and the crazy light show was over, and the left tail lights were much brighter. So much so, that I decided to add a ground the right side tail light, in hopes of balancing the lights.

 

The right (passenger) side is much easier to access on Hapy, but probably harder for anyone without a cold air intake cavity thing because the battery makes things tight. Unlike the left side, I disconnected the light fixture from the bus and hung it out the rear while I worked. I basically did the same thing as I did on the left/driver side: chair splitter, used an unused nearby grounding tab. Once reassembled, the left side did not see as significant an improvement, but I think the original grounding wire is shared between the lights so the right side was already getting benefit from what I did on the left side before I started messing with it, I just hadn't noticed during the left-side test.

 

Test Drive

At this point, I felt that I was safe enough to travel on a shared street. So, I backed out of the shop, down the lane-way and out to the street. He easily went into 1st gear and away we went. I did not have the little UltraGauge plugged in, choosing instead to use my senses to vibe the test loop. Hapy ran great. Power on demand at my foot, easily shifting from gear to gear, and getting into 4th but only barely before dropping back down. He still popped out of second when I quick-decelerated, but it was not as immediate and on a light decelerate he stayed in gear. So, there's some improvement there; I did not expect any. The exhaust was much quieter; I think some of my "wow this bus is loud" that drove to all the sound containment may have been at least in part from the broken exhaust-to-muffler joint. Facepalm.

 

The drive was not without its issues, tho. While the cooling fan and intercooler fans both came on by the manual switch, the intercooler fan was louder than I remembered. This could in part be because I couldn't hear it over the exhaust. Also, the noise of the turbo through the right cooling "ear" (behind the rear-most right side window) was unexpectedly loud. Again, this could have been masked by the louder exhaust and isn't really a bad thing. In a way, it's kinda cool and I can't hear it from inside the bus. Its only when walking around it did I hear any of these things and none of these are deal-breakers or send-him-to-the-shop things. I did notice that the dual-gauge I installed during the CoViD lockdown was acting funny (See Oil Temperature and Pressure). The pressure rose to the top and never came down and the temperature basically sat just off the bottom. I figured either the wires fell off on one end or the sender went bad.

 

Fixing Oil Gauge

left nut missing

Having the UltraGauge is great, but I really prefer just using the simple dual oil gauge. I can see if the temp is getting too high without a digital readout changing every few seconds. In fact, I have a VDO coolant temp gauge in my stuff somewhere that I have thought about adding into the dashpod and then I really wouldn't need the UltraGauge anymore. Anyway, solving the dual-gauge was fairly straightforward, starting with the engine-end. I figured that I did lots of moving things around, so simply disconnecting and re-connecting those wires to the sender would remove that variable. One quick peek, and clearly that was the problem: one of the M4 knurled nuts had shaken it's way loose and completely fell off. I ordered a set of 5 (the smallest set I could find not on amazon, and it still cost, like $15US). When I installed, I put some blue locktite on there so these don't shake off either. I was very grateful to not have to open the dash.

 

Diesel Leak Persists

catching the leak

Two years ago, when Hapy first started having hard-start issues, it was a fuel leak coming from his injection pump. Back then, there was literally fuel flying all over the engine bay. I spent time getting the top-end of the pump sealed, and that resolved the flying fuel and most of the hard-to-start issues, but it was during those months that I ground down the ring gear, putting us on the last 18 month trajectory. Also, I continued to lose prime in the pump, but without visible leaks. Now, I can see the pump dripping on the ground. So, the seal between the body and the head appears to be the problem, and its getting worse. I ordered a replacement deluxe kit from DieselGeek. Rather than do that seal myself, I have asked our old friend Justin (OldPoopie) to do it for a couple of reasons. First, he does these all the time, but more importantly, he has the computer bits to really get the timing spot-on. I expect that once the pump has been re-sealed and the timing set, Hapy will be a monster.

 

Well, that's it for today. Justin is super busy, so it will be a month or so before he can get hands on Hapy. In the meantime, I will be shifting focus onto doors for the shop, we have some house projects to chase and maybe I will be getting my hands on Oliver, the 1978 MGB. It feels like nice weather is not too far away, and taking the MG on a picnic run with Boo would be awfully sweet. Thanks, as always, for following along- 

Hapy Heat Repeat (Part 2)

Continuing the efforts on creating some cabin heat in the old microbus, today's post covers sourcing the air for the heater from inside the bus.

Grounding

air sourcing from inside

In the last post on this topic, I mentioned that the prior attempts, and the original heat, for that matter, all pulled in air from the outside. The original heat pulled from the engine bay, sent it through heater-boxes (insulated boxes around the exhaust manifolds) and then up to the front of the bus. There was even a booster fan to push air when the engine speed was too low to push air. Years ago, I added a bilge-blower fan mid-stream to help get the air forward, and replaced large sections of pipe with insulated hose. In the end, the original system at-best, delivered warm moist air when it was raining (again, it's Oregon so that's 8 months of the year). When not-best, we got cold moist air that smelled like oil or exhaust.

When I did the ALH-TDI engine swap, I removed the original system rear of the front frame, setting a Vanagon rear-seat heater against that frame crossmember. While it didn't leak for a while, it started leaking again this past year. The unit was really never up to the task, and since it was only designed to heat the rear of a Vanagon cabin, I was probably asking too much of it. Still, it was a significant improvement over the original and bilge-blower-enhanced systems. The air was warmer more often, and exhaust-smelled less often. Overall, though, it was not "warm" in Hapy from the use of the heater, and the issue with moist air remained.

Fast forward to the Maradyne heater I just installed. Unlike the Vanagon rear-seat heater, the Maradyne is a 3-row heater core and it is almost twice the width. The core alone could provide considerably more heat. The fan is way more powerful too, so moving that heat into the cabin will be that much more  effective. What remained, however, is the air is still sourced from below the bus, so the wet roads will provide an endless supply of moist air to fling onto the inside of the windscreen. I hope I resolved that with the changes below.

Maradyne Heater Prep

purists love this

In the last post on this topic, I described how the heater was installed on an angle to minimize the ground clearance impact and so the outlets point more directly at the original air pipe. This orientation, however, meant that the brackets were hanging into the space where air intake hoses would go. So, first order of business was cutting those brackets down with the death-wheel (angle grinder). Once cleared, I could easily see that the coolant outlet jutted too far into the same air-hose space so I cut it down as well. Last, I changed the hose from the outlet from a straight hose to a 45* angled hose, routing the coolant above and away from the air inlet. While the inlet is not completely exposed now, it is considerably better. The inlets are 3" diameter and have a lip that's maybe 3/8" for a hose to fit onto. I had intended to add something more substantial for the hose to attach to, but once I got into it, I concluded that the original fan housing could hold a hose and clamp. Time will tell, and I am retaining the extensions I bought for this purpose in case I need to add them in later.

Holy Bus

Well, more like holey bus. In order to send air from inside the bus to the air intake on a fan system that is outside the bus, I need to add a hole or 2 for the air to pass through. I did not want to put air intakes in places where I would accidentally spill water (or other beverages), or get dirt and the like into it. I also did not want the air intakes to be so close to the front that the fan was effectively pulling the warm air right out of the outlet vents. I applied some cold-air-return thinking and chose to put one intake inside the rock-n-roll bed base cabinet. This cabinet is probably the coldest space in the bus (second only to my feet) and the vacuum created by the fan will draw air from the front to the back, creating room for the warmer air to enter the bus more freely. Of course, it's not like a 50+ year old microbus is sealed, but my 70+ year old house isn't either and once I tied the cold air intake into the house system, the house grew measurably warmer.

From underneath, I considered where there was a space without structure nor pipes to interfere with the air intake plumbing. With the radiator, wiring, original stuff and everything else, it is quite busy under there, but there is a space just behind the rear cross-frame (think: rear jack-point) but in front of the rear wheel well that is inside the cabinet, nearest the front outer edge. I tested a few spots with a drill to make sure that I could fit a 3-1/2" circle without hitting something neither underneath nor inside the cabinet and found a good spot. I cored a 3-1/2" hole with a hole saw. Why 3-1/2"? The inner diameter of these hoses is 3", and I felt that leaving a little extra room for wiggling was better than having it tight as would have been with a 3-1/4" hole. This turned out to be a wise decision. Once the hole was cut, I shot it and the support brackets with paint to delay (can it really be stopped when it rains 9 months of the year?) rust.

Fitting

cabin air intake

Once the hole was cut, I was on the home stretch. I found what look like air outlets with metal grills that fit a 3" hose to act as an air intake screen. I a-fixed one end of the hose to the grill, cable-tied it to be double-sure and passed the hose through the hole from above. The hose barely fit. It was so tight, I had to cut off the cable-tie because the cable tie end prevented the grill from sitting flat on the floor. Anyway, I chose an orientation that pointed the grill away from the center of the cabinet so things don't accidentally fall in or over it and then screwed it down to the wood floor of the cabinet. From underneath, I stretched out the compressed hose, stretching it along the side of the radiator, and turning it towards the fan.

I had initially planned to have 2 air intakes, one per fan intake, but after cutting the passenger-side hole, decided that I had 3" of outlet, so having only 3" of inlet was actually a fair balance. So, rather than run 2, I added a 3" wye along the passenger-side frame rail. I sent the stretched and then cut hose into the base of the wye and shifted to the fan inlet on the driver side, knowing it would be the harder of the two. I can always choose to add a driver-side inlet, but with the furnace on that side, there will be additional complexities.

The driver-side was definitely harder, but simply because the coolant outlet hose still ran across the air flow path. I twisted and bent the air hose and jammed it onto the inlet lip. I added a hose clamp while pressing the hose onto the lip, threading the clamp until it was quite secure. Content, I stretched out the hose, threading it behind the fan housing, but in front of the radiator intake to the passenger side. I added a cable-tie on the driver-side to hold the air hose in place. I cut and then sent the other end of the hose into the wye. It got another cable-tie up to the underside of the bus before it entered the wye.

The section from the passenger side air intake to the wye was a little over a foot, and was the easiest part of the install. I attached to the fan intake first, adding a hose clamp, of course. Once stretched and cut into the wye, I cable-tied the wye up near the floor of the bus, mostly out of sight. I cable-tied the passenger-side hose as well so there would be minimal pressure on the hose clamp. At this point, the air intake for the cabin "climate control" sourced from the inside of the bus.

Testing

ground clearance mostly unchanged

All that remained was testing the system, both for air flow as well as coolant. I started with the air flow, accepting that I could confirm that without running the engine. As expected, the fan blows hard, and draws through the inlet. Because the inlet is inside cabinet, it make less noise than it might have had it been placed elsewhere. Still, I will need to be aware of it when we pack things so it is not even remotely blocked.

Satisfied, I exposed the top of the engine and started it up. I had expected to simply add coolant/water while air bubbles appeared but 2 things interrupted that plan. First and worst, the injector pump started leaking all over the place. Now, to be fair, I had smelled diesel on my last couple of drives, so this was not 100% a surprise, but it still was a little bit. Second, air bubbles did not really appear. I will need to bleed the heater core segment, once I replace a seal or two in the injector pump. A seal set has been ordered, so until the kit arrives and is installed, Hapy will sit.

That's where we are at this point. I may try to bleed the heater while I wait for the seal kit, but it will depend on the weather and my workweek. Thanks, as always, for following along. More next time-

Setting the Furnace

Continuing the fun with the furnace today. It being October, of course we had another issue with Hapy not starting so I'll touch on that as well. EDIT: oops. Didn't post on Hapy. Next time, I swear!

Plan and Plan Again

today's end-state

Recall our plan to move the furnace into the crawlspace. We had the work bid by a furnace company and they quoted us $12kUS; we recognized that as a "go away" price and chose to do it ourselves. My biggest considerations are around the combustion exhaust, so I spent some time researching this. According to multiple sources, an 80% efficient furnace needs a double-walled exhaust (check) and it must have an upward pitch of no less than .25" per foot. I thought that was fairly flat, so checked other sources. From this data point, I collected others, like how far from the ground is the bottom/top of the exhaust pipe heading into the chimney, where the exhaust exists the furnace, etc. With these numbers in mind, I set to planning where to set the furnace.

planning a hole

Initially, I planned to put it directly beneath where it had previously been. This would have changed the routing of the conditioned air, gas line, cold intake and exhaust the least. Unfortunately, this would have put the furnace right against a main beam running the width of the house, making seasonal maintenance impossible. Additionally, that spot under the furnace had an unexpected rectangular concrete curb that was smaller than the space we needed cleared. So, the furnace is going to be adjacent to that curb'd rectangle, but because the distance to the chimney is around 3 feet, and I would like an angle of assent that is greater than the minimum, the furnace will need to be almost on the ground. So, a plan that wound have suspended the furnace from the floor joists will be replaced with a plan that has the furnace a-fixed to the ground instead.

Dig Another Hole

hole dug

Obviously, I am not going to simply set the furnace on the vapor barrier on the ground. Beyond the fact that there are safety issues, the furnace needs to be up off the ground height-wise to get the exhaust angle I want and to minimize both the conditioned air and gas line routing. Instead, I decided to dig a foundation and set the furnace on a stand. That sounds so simple until you get down to trying to dig a hole when the headroom between the dirt and the bottom of the floor joists is less than 2 feet. Starting with my tools, I had a 5 gallon bucket for removing dirt, a small-bladed shovel with a broken-off handle, a crescent-moon scraper thing and a 4-prong hoe. I cut 3 sides of a rectangle into the vapor barrier with scissors and peeled it away, leaving a 2 foot by 3 foot rectangle of rough dirt. With the tools I mentioned, I removed probably 60 gallons of dirt, leaving a 2 foot by 3 foot hole nearly a foot deep. This took almost 3 hours since the whole thing was done on my belly.

gravelling

After taking a break for a few days, I returned and repaired the vapor barrier with thick black garbage bags. Along the cut edges, I made sure the plastic overlapped more than a handful of inches, and I lined the hole with sufficient slack so the additional layers of material would not cause gaps to form. Once satisfied, I added a 1/2 yard of gravel and moved it flat with a garden rake and then my gloved hands. On top of the gravel, I set 6 1-foot-square patio blocks. For each block, I made sure it was flat, and then flat to the adjacent block. As you can imagine for each block, this required multiple install-remove-install cycles and then additional ones to get the overall 6-block space flat. Between the gravel and the blocks, I probably spent 2 hours getting it level. This crawlspace patio will serve as a foundation for a stand upon which the furnace will rest.

Rack It

crawlspace patio

I initially thought I would simply use a pair of hot water heater stands for the furnace. I figured, they could withstand the weight of a full hot water heater so they could definitely hold a 70# furnace. I priced them but the cost and availability was not good. While searching, I found air conditioner stands designed to hold up to 400#. While local availability was again nil, the price was the same as for one hot water heater stand, and they are height adjustable. The rack I ordered was lost in shipping, so I switched the plan again. This time, I ordered a non-adjustable storage rack capable of holding 1000#. While I won't need anything that strong, this rack is also 2 foot by 3 foot in dimensions so it will fit into the hole, and potentially support the furnace better. When the rack arrived, I took the pieces into the crawlspace to consider my options. The rack is only "adjustable" by cutting legs to the height I need them to be. So.. adjust once, really.

prepping the legs

Accordingly, I wanted to be sure of my height, so I considered the exhaust run from where I expected the furnace to be over to the chimney. By suspending a long exhaust run, I could consider the angle of assent and the final destination for that edge of the furnace. From this, I could measure and math to the needed length for the furnace stand legs. You may notice from the pictures that I needed to move a couple of the blocks around too. Once satisfied, I took the rack back out from the crawlspace and cut the legs. Since the stand is really just unbraced legs, I added angle-irons at the bottom so I could mount the stand to the patio block. I then took the pieces to the crawlspace and re-assembled the stand. I set the stand where I planned, marked the holes on the patio blocks and took the stand apart again. Now, I could drill holes and mount the legs to the blocks. With the legs attached to the patio block, but not torqued down, I could set the stand top on, and then torque the concrete screws. I checked level along the way, pleased that all of this amateur work is level. Last, I bolted the legs to the top, using blue locktite so they would not work themselves loose from furnace vibration.

With the rack assembled, I was ready to move the furnace onto the stand. The gas line and the electrical will both enter the furnace from the bottom, and these will need to be routed so the "front" cover can be removed for seasonal servicing. The electrical entry has some wiggle room, but the gas line does not. I needed to account for these as I considered where on the stand the furnace would be placed. The stand is more than large enough to account for that adjustment and the space beneath it has ample room to run gas and electric.

rack installed

The furnace is heavy and the ceiling in the crawlspace is limited. I had feared that pushing and lifting it would be quite the undertaking for me (Boo had to work). My fears were not warranted, it turned out. To prevent the furnace from getting scratched up, I left in place the moving blanket in which we had moved it around under the house. This also reduced the friction as I moved it around. I set the furnace rear-ward of center on the stand, further from the chimney. This aligned with where I had expected it to go, mostly, leaving me with an exhaust run of around 3 feet along the plane, with a slight diagonal turn in it.. when I install it. The picture at the top of the post shows how it is right now, and no, the end furthest away is not touching the ground; it just kinda looks that way.

Exhausting

Once the furnace was in, I spent some time rough-assembling the exhaust. This consisted of taking the old exhaust down to it's most basic pieces and assembling a path that had the correct angles and took a slightly indirect route so I could route the cold air intake without interference. Once roughed-in, I took it back apart so I could easily get to the other side of the furnace. I have a great deal of "conditioned" air work to do, and having the fuller access will make that work easier.

This has gotten super long, and it has covered a few weeks of work. I was able to get another few hours in, but I'll couple that with whatever I get done next weekend into my next post. The calendar says 7-November, so, clearly, the weather is starting to get cold. We were fairly motivated when the daily high temperatures dropped into Autumn temps. We are getting overnight lows below freezing now, so there is no lack of motivation nor pressure. Still, I want to do it right and have a safe space once it is completed. Since I am doing it mostly by myself, it will only go so fast. At this point, I hope to have an operational furnace by the Winter Solstice.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

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-

Painting Zed

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I had taken a block of days off work for a camping trip in Hapy, but with Boo's arm, that was not going to happen, So, instead of a road trip and corresponding post, today I will cover what I DID do those days: take several major steps forward on getting paint on Zed, the 1979 Datsun 280ZX. Apologies for the late post. I finished painting yesterday, and I am back to work today. So, while this is a day and a half late, there's a lot to cover.

Priming Body Kit 

end state

Recall the last post about Zed, I was fitting and wrestling with the fiberglass body kit. I got the gaps set, and panels attached with bolts. I described the effort on the rear bumper and the side skirts, but did not detail the front bumper. While it did not seat as well as the rear, it was not as much trouble as the side skirts either. Similar to how I filled the gaps on the skirts and rear bumper, I matched the height to the side skirts and then set the spread on the front bumper. Similar to the others, I shot cooking oil into the gap, cleaned the fiberglass, applied Bondo, removed the bumper and sanded the Bondo smooth. After sanding, I repeated the process a couple of times to get the front bumper to sit as well as the rear. Once the seams were as good enough, I set the panels on that old blue tarp with the replacement driver fender, and shot them with the black urethane primer I used on the rest of the body. That was day one of my vacation.

Sanding Party

Ah yes. The fun of sanding. The more you prime, the more you get to sand. I had the 5 panels, and they sanded down smooth with 320 grit, eventually. I discovered, however, that if I started with 120 grit and did just a quick pass on the panel before shifting to the 320 the finish was as good or better, but it took far less time and material.

final priming shoot

Of course, I re-sanded the rest of the body too. Why? Well, I got a little overspray from the priming onto the passenger side of the main shell. Since the doors, hood and tail gate were still on, the tiny dried paint bits made a difference. There was a slight sandpaper edge on the whole car. It only took an hour or so, to sand it back smooth but it all adds up. Next time, I'll cover things with an extra tarp.

Next, I prepared for paint by removing the hood, doors and rear tail gate. I arrayed them on the blue tarp with their less-likely-to-be-seen sides up. My plan was to paint these areas first and then paint the flip sides when I shot the rest of the car. This plan was a good one in that I got to learn the feel for my new paint gun (Atom x27). As before, I disassembled and cleaned that gun with lacquer thinner and then re-assembled with a "larger" 1.4mm tip. I quote larger because 1.4 aint so big. This was where my day 2 ended.

First Spray with Color

hood underside shot

I am continuing to use Eastwood paint material, and chose a base-coat / clear coat urethane combination. For color, I am shooting "9mm" grey. The paint has very small metallic flake on a medium grey base that appears to have a touch of olive green in it. The olive green sub-color is not apparent in online images, but it does appear after it has been applied.

This first day of shooting was focused on body parts that mostly won't be seen: the insides of the fenders, the side skirts, the bumpers, the insides of the doors, the underside of the hood, the inside of the rear deck lid, the radiator supports, around the engine bay, the hidden parts of the headlight buckets and the door jams. The first coat laid down extremely well in the over 33C (92*F) heat. When I shot the second coat, however, I could not see the material hit the panels very well. Between wrestling with my glasses, which were fogging up from my sweat, to sweat droplets on my glasses, all aggravated by my lack of direct light on the panel.... lead to a dry-spray effect on most of the panels. The under side of the rear deck lid and radiator support were mostly spared, but the others had varying effects. So, the next morning, I chose to sand the bumpers, door jams, and door-insides planning to re-shoot them when I did the rest of the car.

In the background of the rest of the pictures, you will see that Boo and I added side walls to the Harbor Freight car ports. I ordered 2 8' x 20' walls from TentAndTable. They attach with clips, and, because they are 20 feet long, they can be used in different configurations around the 20' x 20' covered space we have. After the end of my final day of shooting paint, we shortened them to 10' long on the sides to allow air flow (after the surfaces flash-dried) to let the fumes out. These walls did a great job of keeping the light and temperature consistent while also preventing dust and bugs from drifting in.

Side Skirt Install Fun

pop rivetted

Before I could do the rest of the painting, I wanted the side skirts installed. Of course, that meant that the fenders were re-installed first. I mounted the headlight buckets to the fenders, and installed the fenders with M6 bolts. The side skirts had been held in place during the Bondo cycles with M4 bolts through the panels into the side of the car. I did not want to repeat that for the finished work.

I had hoped that the epoxy would hold well enough that I could remove the bolts and the panels would hold in-place just from the strength of the epoxy. I was not so lucky. Both the contact cement I used for carpeting the speaker box and the clear goop stuff that delivered with the panels failed. So, I cleared the goop and tried again with the goop and then, once the goop had set up, I replaced the bolts with pop-rivets. Of course, once the side skirts were on, the fenders are now effectively fixed-in-place. I applied small spots of Bondo a-top the pop rivets and sanded them smooth. Last, I cleaned up the goop along the top edges. The goop label said it was sand-able and paint-able. If by "sand-able" they mean that you can apply sandpaper to it, then, yeah, it's sand-able. It does not powder down, though; it sanded off in big boogers instead. Cleaning the goop took an hour just by itself. Grr.. But, the side skirts are in. With a gloved hand, I wiped primer on the spots I had put Bondo or otherwise sanded down to fiberglass. The next morning, I cuffed the primer down and after one more dance around the car with 320 grit, we're ready to shoot. I did not take a picture of the finished skirting, but the pop-rivet and booger repair is unnoticeable in the final finish. They look completely straight and flat.

Paint Prep 

no boogers, no rivets

Before I could shoot, I had to set up the space and then prepare the panels. For set up, I started by flipping over the hood and rear deck lid. I considered how the paint might flop on the panels, and considered that the hood is effectively flat, relative to the ground, and the rear deck lid is fairly close to flat. The doors, however, hang vertically. I don't have a means of holding a 20# door in the air vertically, but I do have saw horses. I hung the doors on one side of a saw horse, attaching it to the horse with bailing wire. This way, the door is as close to vertical as I can manage, allowing the paint to arrive on the panel in the correct orientation, and for the paint to cure that way as well. I don't know if it matters with this paint, but I figured it didn't hurt to take the extra step.

On shoot day, I have found that I follow a very similar path. If I know that I have touched the car with anything other than a gloved hand, I clean with de-greaser. Either way, I sweep the painting area clean and then vacuum every panel. Last, I pass over every square inch with a tack-cloth to get every speck of dust that might have attached itself to the panels.

arrayed for the shoot

Once the car and panels were wiped down, I set up the paint gun with an inline desiccant from Harbor Freight followed by a pressure controller. I added an air-system quick-release to the inlet side of the desiccant so I could move without the hose attached. With the gun set, and the panels placed, I was ready to mix paint.

By the time I got to this point, we were entering the heat of the day (2:PM), after the end of a heat wave peaking at 39C (102*F). On this day, at this time, it was 27C (80*F) so I set up with medium speed catalyst rather than the fast-dry I used a few days earlier.

 

Main Shooting

When I researched the root causes of dry-spray, I believed the problem was that I was not sending enough material out the gun. In retrospect, I think I was unable to see well enough, and moved too fast, or did not overlap my fan well enough. Regardless, when I set out to shoot this time, I opened up the mixture so more material would pass out of the gun. This, unfortunately, caused orange peel that I was unable to sufficiently account for during the second coat. Unlike the painting session 2 days earlier, this time, I was running the GunBudd, shining light directly on the work. I decided to turn up the pressure and apply a third coat. This time, the orange peel was reduced significantly, but it was not eliminated. Since this is metallic paint (albeit tiny flecks), the recommendation is to not sand, lest the flakes are disturbed. C and Boo said that they really liked the texture, that it looks bold and "badass". I'm not so sure.

unfortunate orange peel

Frustrated at my mishap, I decided to just get after the clear coat anyway. At this point, however, I discovered that I had just used the catalyst designated for the clear coat, consuming almost all of it. I determined that the catalyst I used was fine for paint, but the paint catalyst was NOT fine for clear. So, I could not shoot clear coat until I had more catalyst. Getting catalyst from Eastwood will definitely push me outside the 24 hour re-spray-without-sanding window so I will have to at least sand a little bit for the clear to adhere. Since I have to sand a "key", I think my mistakenly using the clear-coat catalyst creates a new opportunity: I can sand down the remaining orange peel and then shoot another layer of base before switching over to clear coat. The extra coat of base should address any flake flakiness. Of course, I have to wait for FedEx, but I can start sanding while I await the catalyst's arrival. Yeay.

At this point, we have color on every panel. There is orange peel, but I think there is enough paint build to allow me to lightly remove enough of the peel without burning through. Then, I can shoot another coat of base and top it with 3 coats of clear.

Thanks, as always, for following along. I'll post on the finished job once it's done-

 

VW Bus Cold Air Intake

Back when Hapy was getting regular long summer drives, I noticed that the engine bay would get pretty warm. Recall back to the Newberry trip report for example. So, I put together a cold air intake concept to drop the temp going into the turbo inlet. I really do not expect to notice much of a performance difference. While I understand a cold air intake can reduce intake temps, and improve engine performance by a handful of HP, I just don't think what I did will have that kind of impact. Still, it was fun to do.

For someone running the original engine, with the engine tins and surrounding foam in place, this modification makes absolutely no sense. The tins already effectively separate the hot side of the engine from the air intake. If you have lost your tins (or foam), and for some reason cannot replace them -or- you are running a modified engine where tins cannot be fitted, something like this might work for you too to keep the hot side from meaningfully impacting your intake air temperature. This whole bit is triggering memories of that old Burger King advertisement about keeping the hot side hot and the cool side cool.

 

Before I begin, today marks the Ides of March. I am not really sure how to recommend ways to celebrate that. Pay off your debts? Enjoy a celebration picnic with revelry and drinking? Wander out of town in an animal skin? Perhaps we can all just hope Putin will suffer Caesar's fate this day for the inhumanity he is visiting upon our Ukrainian friends. Whatever transpires, in a couple days, it will be St. Patrick's Day. So, I will just get some rest to prepare for that. Hopefully, we can tip a drink within 2 meters of dear friends to celebrate a post-pandemic Spring.

Orientation Thoughts

On topic, consider the VW bay window bus engine bay from the rear hatch (picture on the right is of a '68). Most to the rear on the left is an otherwise unused battery tray. Some folks (like late-bay Westy-drivers) have a luxury battery there to power the fridge when shore-power is not available. On Hapy, there are just a lot of wires, so it's actually not much to look at. The spare tire well hangs down towards the front, meeting the rear tire well. Above to the rear there is a tall open area that eventually reaches the finned ear behind the rear window. Running along the bottom edge, front-to-rear, there is a small lip or perhaps a pinch weld that's about half an inch tall. My thought: wall this in, and create a pass-through for my engine intake, isolating it from the heat generator (engine exhaust and the turbo). Keep the cool side cool.

Parts

My go-to for all things metal fabrication these days (at least for air movement) is HVAC flashing, and this is no exception: I started with some basic 20ga HVAC flashing that I had lying around ($0). Onto the air intake, I need to add a 90* turn ($14US from siliconeintakes.com) so the air filter which used to sit next to the rear end of the spare tire well can instead go into the new cavity. The last piece is pipe flashing (like this) which cost me about $18US to provide safe passage for the aluminum pipe through the HVAC. The air cleaner needs to fit through the hole left in the basic wall when the pipe flashing is removed, so getting one large enough for this purpose was important. I had some HVAC flashing lying around, but at the time I did this, a 4 foot by 3 foot sheet (common size) would have run about $20US. A smaller sheet would cost a little less, but not much. So, all-in this would cost around $50US plus your time.

Cleanup

paper model

I learned along the way that this wall idea is not as straight-forward as it looked. As I started trying to model with a large sheet of brown paper, I realized there were some wiring clean-up items left undone. I tidied up the wiring a little bit, and strung as much as I could into the upper rear corner where the fuel vent line passes into the new cavity, securing them together (and to the vent line) with a cable/zip-tie. Below this bundle of wires, at the rear-most bottom, a couple of wires need to pass as well, so that makes 2 gaps to manage. The front-to-back T-12 cable (See the Chasing the Hapy Electrical Gremlins posts for context) routes into the engine bay where the flat rear meets the upward angle of the rear tire well, so that's a third gap to seal. Last, the stock TDI engine management cable routes into the engine bay from under the center-point of the spare tire well, so that's 4 gaps. Had I planned for this when I did the wiring, I could have potentially cut this list in half, or even reduced it to one. I preferred to not revisit the electrical again this winter, after last winter's adventure. So, I made 4 distinct gaps for wires to pass through. I numbered them in the image of the paper model on the right, here.

Model with Paper

With the wiring bundled, I could start working on the wall... with a model. I started with brown packing paper. These days, so many things ship with large sheets of brown paper as the padding, and that stuff is nice and thick, and sometimes wide enough for things like this. It is also 100% recyclable (unlike the bubble wrap), so I'm doubly a fan. Anyway, I started with a basic measurement: 22 inches deep by 16 inches tall. Of course, I discovered that the hole is not square, and the 22 inch measurement is correct from the bottom of the rear wall to the point where the engine bay curves towards the fuel tank. The top is more than 24 inches from rear to top of fuel-tank compartment. Also, the section is not flat: the bottom curves slightly inwards while the top remains straight.

 

cardboard model 1

Then Cardboard

After a few rounds of test-fit, measure/cut and some added painter tape for strength, or for adding material for sizing, I arrived at an approximate paper model. I transferred the paper model to cardboard with a pencil using some tracing and some angle-square. Consider: the rear wall makes a 90* angle with both the top and the bottom, and (I thought) the rear wall is straight. The top run is straight, though I chose to cut some of the area away which would have been pressed against the spare tire well. I made this choice for 2 reasons: first, the vacuum control valves are mounted there, and I did not want to move them. Second, having a sheet of metal against metal like that would have created rattle noise I would have to solve. With my outline and wire bundle cut-outs defined, I cut the line with a razor blade and cleaned up the edges with scissors.

test-fitting a model

With this stiffer model, I performed another few rounds of test-fit, measure/cut until the cardboard wall completely covered the gap, the wire bundles easily fit through their respective gaps and the edges of the wall were clearly in a place where I could envision mounting. The final cardboard model, in-place in the picture on the right, also eliminated a large triangular shape from the lower front corner which would otherwise have set against the driver-side wheel well. Similar to the cut out from the spare tire well, having a large metal-to-metal contact area would create a vibration-noise opportunity. Looking back, this cardboard wall looked at least as good, if not better than, the final metal wall.

Then Model with Cardboard Again

The front and bottom have a lip I can easily attach to. The top and rear will need some kind thought and some creative drilling. One additional consideration: on the rear pillar, there are grounding points which cannot be disturbed. I decided to add a small tab on either side (above and below) to hold the new wall to the rear. The top will mount directly to the spare tire well for the front 2/3rds. The rearmost section of the top, will not get any treatment at all. I thought about it, and decided that there were already enough planned fastener points to hold the wall stable without adding another hole in the cabin floor. I transferred the cardboard model to another sheet of cardboard after a few repeated fit-attempts. I want to make sure the HVAC, when cut, will fit correctly. Last, I modeled mounting tabs with scrap cardboard and more blue painters tape so I would have them in the right place and the right size when I cut the HVAC. The picture above was taken before I added the mounting tabs to the model.

Plan the Intake Pass-Thru

note imperfect rear line

With the cardboard wall in place, that side of the engine bay looked considerably better... well, it hid what looked bad, anyway. Motivated, I planned the intake route based on the placement of the new 90* aluminum intake pipe. I made a rough cut in that general area of the cardboard wall and put it back in. The 90* pipe is too long on both ends. I needed to remove about 4 inches from the end that juts into the cavity, so there would be room for the air filter (7" tall from rubber grommet to chrome top) without it touching the side of the bus. The filter housing allows for up to 2 inches of pipe before it bottoms out, so there is some wiggle room for my cut on that end. Similarly, the engine-intake end of the 90* pipe needs to be shortened. Again, the silicone collar that attaches the new pipe to the air flow meter on the end of the intake allows for a couple of inches of play. I did not make the actual cuts to the pipe at this point, though.

 

The intake looked about right, so I added in the pipe flashing. I drew the edge of the flashing on the cardboard and then drew another set of lines 3/4-inch to the interior of the tracings. I cut the smaller square out of the cardboard, making a square that was about 6-1/2 inches per side. I tested that I could pass the air filter through that hole. Otherwise, maintenance of the air filter would require removing the entire wall. It fit, but barely, leaving about a quarter of an inch on each side (the widest part of the filter is 6-inch diameter).

Adjustments

HVAC test fit

I transferred the last model above to a sheet of HVAC, but I did not fit properly and had to do another round of cardboard before I was able to get a good HVAC design. The big barrier for me was the location of the vacuum valves (so probably not an issue for anyone else). Ultimately, I removed the valves that were no longer being used (anti-shudder and EGR), and moved the turbo controller to the rear mount. This freed up the front edge of the spare tire well. The second issue will appear for everyone who tries this: I thought that the rear inner wall was perpendicular to the floor and ceiling. It is not. Consider, the contour of the rear of the bus has a slight curve; the inner skin does as well. The picture just above on the right shows the deviation from pure vertical / 90* angle. That picture also shows on the bottom rear corner that the body panels do not have clean 90* transitions either. I cut off that little tab in future efforts. With these considerations, the models were working: showing me how to get to a viable wall.

 

Assemble

prepping the wall

For the second time, I transferred my cardboard model to HVAC flashing, complete with marks for mounting tabs. I cut the HVAC with my tin-snips, and formed the wire pass-thru's with pliers. For clarity, I marked the outline of the hole and then cut crossing lines through the center of that marked area. I folded the triangular bits of HVAC back upon itself to create the opening while also avoiding a sharp edge where the wire bundles would pass. With a hammer and dolly, I smashed the fold-back flat. By doubling the material at the openings, the wall was effectively stiffened; I had not anticipated, but will definitely appreciate that. For the upper rear wire pass-thru, I left a tang or tab nearest the rear wall that I could bend back into place, so the rear edge of gap #1 (visible in the pictures of the installed cardboard model) could get covered up once the wall was in place. Once I drilled the mounting holes in the tabs I set the wall in-place, marked the holes on the bus and drilled them out.

Pipe Flashing

wall installed

At this point, I considered how I would attach the pipe flashing to the HVAC. First, I transferred the square-ish hole from the cardboard model to the HVAC, and cut it. I need to be able to remove this section so I can clean the air filter. I drilled out 4 holes in the pipe flashing, one each per side, where the rubber had dimples for that purpose. I set the pipe flashing in place and marked the HVAC. These spots were within the folded-back HVAC, making the area thick enough to tap. Sweet! So, with a M4 (.75 thread-pitch) tap, I tapped the 4 holes in the HVAC. Into these threaded holes, I sent bolts from the cold-air side with thread-lock so these bolts will act like studs for the pipe flashing. The picture above on the right shows the studs through the HVAC.

Finishing

cold air intake

I moved the wall into place and secured it to the side of the bus with sheet metal screws. I had thought about tapping the holes and using bolts instead. The holes were too hard to access with a tap and I don't think this wall will be coming out with much frequency anyway. Even so, removing some sheet metal screws is not hard. With the wall in, I re-checked my measurements for cutting the aluminum pipe. Once verified with the permanent position of the pass-thru, I cut the pipe down. I pushed the shortened 90* aluminum pipe through the rubber collar and attached the air filter. I sent the air filter into the cavity, and maneuvered the not-filter-end of the 90* pipe through a connecting silicone collar to the rest of the intake. I set the pipe flashing against the HVAC and threaded on the 4 9mm nuts.

 

When I maintain the air filter, the process will be the same as this initial install: remove 4 nuts, loosen the hose clamp and remove the cold air intake assembly. After I clean the air filter, I would re-install by fitting the flashing atop the studs, finger on the nuts, get the pipes connected and then cinch down the nuts.

final install

Now, Hapy has a cold air intake, and the left side of the engine bay is no longer a complete visual downer. Instead, we have a nice clean wall and the engine will get colder air than it used to. This wall does have some small gaps, of course, so the air will not be as cool as it could have been. Perhaps I will circle back later with something on top of the wall to better seal the edges and pass-thru's. Longer term, I may apply a thermal layer onto the engine-bay side to help reduce temperatures even more. The picture on the right, here, shows it in its current (final) state, though a keen eye will see that I had not yet plugged in the AFM (air flow meter) when I took the picture.

 

This took quite a while to actually complete, having started before the 2021 winter holidays. I had other things going on, and this was a lower priority for sure. Also, there were multiple modeling cycles as I figured out the unique puzzles added to the driver side of the engine compartment from adding a TDI (and related vacuum control valves) to the mix.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-