small progress is better than none

As I look through the last year of postings, I seem to say something about not getting much done an awful lot. It makes me think that I have a hard time moving from "goal oriented" to "process oriented". I really do believe this project is all about the learning and the doing, and that the driving the bus part is just the dessert. At least, that's how I think about it when I'm actually doing something on it. When I haven't touched it in a week, I focus on the "I haven't done anything since...". I guess you can take the goal away as long as you're still in the process. Today's posting covers some small progress, a little planning, a Busaru update and a personal note. No pictures, but I'm having issues with my new phone.

Small Progress
I did manage to get the final bracket completed for the front of the radiator. I still have to cut the square tubing, and attach it to the bracket. Then, I'll be rolling back under the bus (please, no rain) to think about how I'll tie it into the bus. Like I said in a previous post, it should be easy to bolt in the rear end. The front end, however, doesn't have an obvious mount point. I'm hopeful a solution will come to me when I'm lying on my back under the bus.

A little planning
While I'm under the bus looking for a mount point, I need to think about the routing of coolant lines. I need to run lines from the engine bay to the radiator, and from the engine bay past the radiator to the front beam - where the cabin heater will be. Last, there's the thought of getting an air line from under the rear seat up to the cabin heater for recirculation. Now, I don't plan to put anything like that in now, but I don't want to design without that in mind. Otherwise, I may not be able to get air from there. Considering that is one of the coldest places in a VW Bus (yes, there's a story here), I'd like very much to make that my "cold air return".

Busaru
The Busaru was sold, so if you were thinking about it, you're too late. Too bad for me, the buyer also took the winter tires and the diesel heater :( I'm glad the former owner was able to get his old project to someone that would finish it out, though. Dave put a lot of time and effort into that bus. I sincerely hope he is able to work through his difficulties and find another project soon.

On a personal note
We learned this week that my wife's brother Tom has cancer. We don't know what kind, or what his treatment options are, but we appreciate your positive thoughts for him. Just a few days before that, we had learned that my wife's mother Marianne has a lump in her lung and that my wife's estranged father had passed away. Meanwhile, her neice Becky gave birth to her first boy (she has a young girl). Through all that, my wife has managed to keep her class schedule, and everything else much more together than most would have. It has really been too much to process for all of us, so I don't have a nice pearl to tie it all together with yet. It will be a few days before we know more about either Tom's or Marianne's condition or treatment options.
Update: I just learned that my younger son, Cedar, has contracted H1N1. When it rains it pours.

That's about all I have today. I should have some time early this week to get that cross bar on the radiator. Whether I have a dry opportunity with ample lighting is another question. Maybe I'll find that pearl along the way.

no new tales to tell

I've been working on getting my daily driver running right, and dealing with non-vehicle issues, so I haven't made any real movement on the bus since the last post. I've had some musings, and a little action, though, and I'll hit that today.

Harness
I did get most of the harness plugs identified, though. I also got an email from a reader in Kentucky that will be sharing his wealth of knowledge that he accumulated doing a conversion with an ALH engine. Same engine -> same harness. Unbelievable offer from him, and I'd been a fool to not accept it. Reading someone else's notes can be hard, but harder than trying to do all the research and making your own? Knowing that a notebook's worth of detail is coming has effectively ended my foray into identifying the plugs myself. I was able to discover that the harness still has the large relays for firing the original radiator fans. That circuit may be helpful when I get to the radiator.

Radiator Locating.... Again
This seems to be the open sore spot with this project. It shouldn't come as a great surprise, though, I mean this was an air-cooled bus. Getting qualified opinions is hard, and getting flamed by purists is easy. There are a few brave folks out there, though, that have done this before, and I believe I am back in the under-belly camp. In the picture to the right, here, a member of theSamba has fitted a simple radiator concept under his bus between the frame rails. If you look closely, you can see that it has a slight pitch, but no cowling. He says that he doesn't have any overheating issues, though I can't help but wonder how the rad-heated air doesn't recirculate back into the radiator when idling at a stop light or in stop-and-go traffic. Regardless, I am going to follow this design example, and start assembling something very similar when I can get back to my usual schedule.

Cabin Heat
I've been thinking and talking to folks about the cabin heat too. Now, this is much less important, but having a means of running the defroster is important during Summer camping months too, so we can't just throw it away entirely. I'm thinking of using a flexi-hose (1/2" PEX) to get the coolant from the rear to the heater core. For a core, I have a vanagon rear-heater unit that I will be tying into the main air channel under the bus just behind the front axle. I need to determine an internal air-vent source, and I'm thinking of re-using the original Westy water vent hole in the floor right by the sliding door. I figure, I can put a simple round finned plate on the floor of the bus to pull cool air into the heat system without any new holes. Then, its just a matter of figuring out a flapper to control when to get interior or exterior air, and routing an exterior vent to a place that won't get a bunch of water in it. That can wait, for now.

Busaru
Our friend Dave, who is forced to sell his Subaru-powered bay-window bus, is still soliciting offers. He has not entered this decision lightly, and needs this capital to raise a legal defense. So if you have any interest in getting into a bay-window bus that has the benefits of a water-cooled engine (read: real heat in winter), and more get-up-and-go than modern Eurovans, please reach out to him. If it makes a difference, I'll try to help by taking the snow tires or the diesel heater (or both).

That's it for today. Lots of thinking, not a lot of doing... at least on Hapy. I Diesel Purged my Jetta TDI today and changed the fuel filter. I'm hoping that will resolve the fuel economy issue I've been chasing there. Otherwise, its the usual family time conflicts: Halloween (and the assorted parties), soccer games and practices, school stuff, etc. Crazy.

More next time. Maybe I'll have made some headway on the radiator bracketing.

Busaru UPDATE

Here's the word from our friend with the Subaru powered '79:
---
I have tons of pictures of the conversion process. The Subey gets around 21/22 mp(US)gallon. Best was a tank that AVERAGED over 80mph and gave me 24mpg! Power is more than you'll ever need. How about 80mph in 3rd gear? Speedo will wrap in 4th. 3rd gear starts on level ground (not recommended but definitely do-able!) 2nd gear starts easy and smooth. Instant reaction / power out of corners twice as fast as you ever took them in a bus before!

The "SET" is for sale for $4,000 (any reasonable offer considered however.) The brown 1979 bus (the Busaru) was in Eastern Washington when Mt. St. Helens erupted and all double body areas filled with ash. It was okay in that dry environment - all that happened was the ash ground away any surface treatment of the metal... Once it moved to Western Washington (Seattle area) the ash took on moisture and acted as a sponge, holding it there and eventually rusting out all those areas. The grey bus is a 1974, was apparently used by the Oregon Dept. of Corrections as a body repair training vehicle. It has only a very few spots where there may be a millimeter of bondo filler, but is virtually straight. It was shot with primer only - probably 15 years ago (?) but never shot with a seal coat, so there is surface rust - meaning it has to be stripped once again before using. It is a "rolling body" with no engine or transaxle.

There is the first Subaru engine ready for rebuilding, a set of 4 Nokian Hakka snow tires, mounted, with about 1.5 winters on them (the best snow tires on Earth, bar none!) Espar diesel heater with one winter use on it, the brown bus has a 1200 Watt inverter built in for the 1000 Watt microwave oven.
--

I'm sure he would like to sell the whole lot to one person, but I believe he'd sell the rolling body, engine and Bussy as individuals. Other than that, though, I think that's as far as he'd go parting-out wise. Personally, I'd love the Espar diesel heater.... and those snow tires. Anyway, let me know if you're interested, and I'll put you together with him. If you want to unload the tires and the heater along the way, I'm interested in talking to you.

Just for grins, check out the "spare tire" on the nose of the brown bus. That is actually a disguised radiator. Pretty frickin' sweet.

Want a watercooled '79?

A friend of mine that has helped me through some of the "where do I place the radiator" questions is in need of selling his water-cooled 1979 VW bay window bus. It is powered by a Subaru 2.2 engine. He custom fabricated a radiator shroud to look like a spare tire on the nose that looks extremely good. He also has a rebuildable Subaru 2.2 engine and another engine-less West Coast (read: low rust) '79 bus. If I had the space, I'd buy the lot. If you've been reading the posts, though, you know very well that I have a sub-sized single car garage with a small exposed driveway. I've looked for a picture of the finished bus, but I can't find one in my stash. If I can get one from the guy that's selling it, I'll post it. In the meantime, if you're interested in his bus, contact me, and I'll get the 2 of you connected. He and his bus are both in Renton, WA (outside Seattle).

I'll be getting everything out of the way for the dump run tomorow, and, hopefully, making the run Saturday. That should clear the way for shoving the bus around the driveway on Sunday. The forecast shows the rains are coming in the middle of next week, so I've just about run out of time. I'll post again after the bus has moved.