Diesel Geek rocks

I know, I just posted something yesterday, and I'm already posting again. I had to make a quick shout-out to DieselGeek for their unbelievable turnaround time. To be fair, the USPS, who I roasted in another post (FedEx Ground -v- USPS), played a pretty large hand in it too. I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered a race pipe kit from DieselGeek. Well, that order hit the internets at 12:30 Saturday morning. Yeah, I was working late. Anyway, I got an order shipped message this morning, and the package arrived this evening. That's just crazy.

So in the picture to the left, here, that's the EGR valve replacement for the intake (race pipe) at the bottom. There's a nipple on there to attach a boost gauge. I hope that doesn't interfere, clearance-wise with the lid. Above that to the left is the seal. Near the top is a plastic baggie that contains 3 allen bolts for attaching the pipe and a diamond shaped plate (and gasket) for blocking the opening in the exhaust header.

Now, I have to find another of those 90* turn rubber hoses for routing the charged air. The part number is 1C0 145 834, and the usual places (autohausaz, JCWitless, etc) don't stock it. A search on eBay only brought up that Kleiner Auto guy that over prices and then slaps a $8 minimum shipping for a dirty, possibly faulty, part. His price is the same as some others charge new. Regardless, I don't like the idea of paying $50 for a section of hose that's that small (see picture on right). I may just go with a section of steel pipe there. I figure I can get a stretch of exhaust pipe bent for a few bucks down at the local Meineke and cut that to fit. It won't flex as much as a rubber hose, of course, but the inter-cooler mount is pretty flexible, so it may not matter. Regardless, for the difference in price, I'll take a run at the steel pipe.

I'm taking the afternoon off this Friday after working so much this weekend, so I'll have an opportunity to finish the inter-cooler stuff. Then, its finishing out the cooling system and thinking about an air filter.*stoked* . I should probably get 2 90* bends from Meineke so I can better assemble an exhaust. Just thinking that what I have now may not have enough material for welding. We'll see. I haven't heard from Hal, so I don't know if he'll be here on Friday or not. I have stuff to do regardless, but it would be nice to have a partner... and those bits he's working on really need him.

More next time...

Birthday, engine pass

I made progress on lots of little things since that last post. First, I had a birthday. Woo hoo. The wife and kids took me out to a hockey game after a day-time cycling picnic. Great day. Then today, I sold off my old pancake engine. Quite a weekend. The engine sale should cover some of the cost of the Riviera pop-top I bought on lay-away from my friend Toby. Other than the engine, I took a big bite out of the intake (EGR elimination) and cooling system work that's left.

Pop-top for an engine
Like I mentioned above, I verbally agreed to taking Toby's old Riviera pop-top. In my last post I went into the what and why. I sold my engine with the idea that I'd be taking that money to Toby for that pop top. I'll still have to scratch together a little more, but I'm a good half-way there now. Harry got the engine for a steal, IMHO, but I want it gone, so my sick-of-it-being-there cost me some cabbage. Oh well. It'll run well for Harry, and at his price, I don't owe any explanations or anything if it doesn't run as well for him as it did for me.

Inter-cooler / Intake Progress
I got most of the pipe set to route from the turbo to the intercooler intake. I need a short section (2") of hardpipe to span between 2 thick rubber lines, and that end is done. I haven't given any thought to the air filter yet, but I know that is next after the intercooler-to-intake portion is completed.

Early on, I made the decision to omit the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system on the ALH engine when I installed it into the bus. First, it feeds sooty exhaust into a damp intake creating a sludge that eventually gums up the intake. When the hot dry soot hits the damp oily intake, we get goop. The oil comes from 2 places. First, there's the PCV (positive crankcase valve). The PCV allows for the pressure that builds within the engine to be released. Because this pressure is not pure air (it contains a little oil), the EPA doesn't want that vented into the atmosphere, so it is routed into the air intake. The second source is the turbo. As a part of the lubrication of the turbo, some oil gets into the air passing through. Since we can't eliminate this second source, we're left with the soot. I intend to run at least B5, so that should eliminate the soot that would have been routing into the intake at the time of combustion.

Eliminating the EGR
To cut the EGR circuit out of the process, there are a few different things that need to be dealt with. First, there's the EGR that's bolted onto the intake. This is pretty easily removed and replaced with a "race pipe". It should be noted that a vehicle that does have to pass emissions will be in violation of emissions laws if this is used. Once the intake-side has been removed, the exhaust end needs to be blocked off too. A plate can be constructed by tracing the gasket on some mild steel. Dieselgeek offers a kit for replacing the EGR and the exhaust bit. Link here. I also removed the EGR cooler. Dieselgeek has a kit for that too, but I'm not using their replacement for that.

Oil Cooler / Upper Radiator Hose
I changed the "upper" hose. I had just a simple run from the engine outlet to the radiator. I looked at the hoses that came with the engine and noticed that the upper hose has a sensor in it and the lower hose has a bleeder. I took the upper hose and cut it off just past the 90* bend. To that I tied in the sensor and then a copper 1-1/2" / 1/2" T so I could tie in the oil cooler. The picture to the right here is the completed "upper" before installing. After separating the oil cooler feed hose from the return, I cut it down to about 4" long and routed it between the cooler and the "upper" hose. Once I integrate a better 90* solution at the radiator, I will probably be able to eliminate 24" of hose I had laid out earlier.

Bleeder to Bottle lines
After the main hoses, the TDI engine has a secondary coolant line system. These hoses are about 3/8" and pull air bubbles out of the high points of the system back to the top of the overflow bottle. The stock setup connects at 3 points: from the head, from the heater-circuit and from the EGR cooler. Since I have completely removed the EGR, I will replace that connection point with on from the "lower" radiator hose. I was able to get the lines connected for the heater circuit and the engine head, and set up a "T" for the lower hose. I have a pretty good idea where the overflow bottle will go, so I'll be working on a bracket for that next.

Cabin Heat Delay Complete
I took the hose from the heating circuit return, cut it up a bit, and tied the heat input and output together. This closes that circuit for now. There's a bleeder already in place, so I should be able to come back at this at the end of the Summer for cabin heat without sacrificing anything right now.... especially time.

Once I get the race pipe kit from dieselgeek, I will be a short stretch of rubber away from having the intercooler work completed. That short stretch will have to bend 90* twice within a very short space, so this may not be easy. I will continue to work both of these aspects of the project, though, to reduce down time. I'm certain I will need another 90* bend of turbo-charged air supporting rubber and I have a bracket to fabricate for the overflow bottle. That is where I'll pick up next time.

Pictures:
top - the old pancake engine. Good luck, Harry.
middle - upper pipe with the sensor and oil cooler "T" ready for install.
bottom - my boys at the hockey game.

Benz banging. now, back to bizness

After losing most of my spare time over the last several weeks, I was able to track down the source of the weird climate controls issue with the Benz. As you may know, it started acting poorly last Summer when we drove to Lake Shasta for some fun in the sun. After a week of babying the car, it limped home. I replaced fuel filters, changed the oil, changed the air filer... nothing. I changed the fuel tank screen... little change, but no big kick. I cleaned the "banjo bolts" to no avail. That was all last Fall/Winter. We discovered that by playing with the climate controls, we could turn on the turbo. Well, kinda. So, for 6 months we drove the car with the kids in the back shouting "turn on the boost". Funny stuff, but harrowing for the driver when the boost switches didn't kick it up.

kill the button
The climate controls, like too many of the systems in the Mercedes, are driven by vacuum. When it works, its very slick. You push a button to change how you want the air toflow and the little doors inside the system slowly open or shut, gently changing the air routing to your liking. Its pretty cool when you push the defrost button and the floor vents slowly turn off while the windscreen vents slowly open. That coolness disappears when it doesn't work right, and you're just praying for the car to speed up. So, I removed the vacuum signal to the climate controls before I did anything else. Unfortunately, this removed the massive vacuum drain that "turned on the boost", so we now had a car that would barely break 45mph... ever.

the saga
So, I started spending every evening and weekend trying to get it running. First, I did a valve adjustment and changed all the filters. That didn't do anything. Then, I replaced all the boost-related tubing and found that the overboost protection valve was bad. Replaced that. Still no difference. Then, on a whim after reading about the "evils of the EGR", I removed the vacuum signal from the EGR. I figured maybe it was stuck open or something and it was gumming up everything. Maybe by removing that little door, I'd see some of the boost come back. Wrong. Suddenly, ALL of my boost came back. It was like driving a rocket! I felt the back of the seat pushing me forward like my old Camaro used to.

It seems the diaphram in the EGR went bad, and all of my vacuum was disappearing through that hole. You see, whenever the engine moves into a semi-throttle position, the EGR is supposed to open, letting in exhaust into the intake to improve emissions. When that vacuum signal was interrupted by my leaky climate control system, the boost would kick on. Now that it has been resolved, the Benz has been filled with B99, the keys returned to my wife, and I get some time back to work on Hapy.
Of course, first I have to clean the garage. Hopefully, the next post will be about dropping the transaxle to test-fit the adapter plate, clutch/pressure plate and engine. My new goal is to have the engine physically attached to the bus before the end of Summer / start of rainy season so I can roll the whole thing into the garage for Winter work.
Thanks for reading,

TDI engine timing belt replaced

Last night, I had my friend (and TDI-mechanic) Justin over to go over the TDI engine with me. I would have preferred to have done this a year ago when I bought the engine, but time money and smarts were all against me then. It turns out, it didn't much matter. Today's posting will serve partly as a postcard of what was done and partly as a checklist for what remains to be done on the engine itself before its ready to install.

timing belt, inspection
We dug through the engine, looking for signs of trouble - cracks or leaks. We didn't find any. We did find a few rare casting marks, which Justin attributed to this being such an early version of the TDI engine. He was able to determine how the vehicle got hit, based on which brackets were damaged. Having seen the body, I knew he was right - that was just freaky. He determined that the car wasn't going too fast, based on the superficial damage to the engine mount that connects at the timing belt area. The valve train looked very good. He believes the valve cover had never been removed. The inner timing belt cover had been damaged, so we pulled off all the splintered material. He, then did the timing belt replacement pointing out what different things were along the way. Justin, you're a star, man.

Vacuum pump trouble
One of the parts that needs to be removed to perform the timing belt replacement is the vacuum pump. The one that was on the engine had the valve broken off. this could have happened during shipping, or it could have happened in the accident. regardless, I knew it ahead of time, and bought another one from an on-line vendor of used parts. Unfortunately, the part I was sent was full of sandy grit and needed to be dismantled and cleaned before we could use it. The one-way valve was completely gummed up. Considering the part was sold as a direct-replacement not as salvage, I was pretty disappointed with the vendor. He chose to not stand behind his part, and will not see any more of my business unless he is willing to do make up for this in some way.
Fortunately, we were able to get the pump clean with elbow grease and detergents. The timing belt replacement is practically complete. Once the engine is in the bus and start-able, the injection pump timing can be prefected, and it will be 100% done. Justin will be doing that part too.

what's left, engine-wise
So, what's left? I need to pull the intake manifold and clean the soot/gunk out. this is more muscle than brains, so I can handle it. Once removed, the EGR stuff will remain off, so I'll have to fabricate a couple of block-off plates. Why is the EGR staying off? It is a source of intake problems, my emissions aren't tested (1972 bus) and I'll be running BioDiesel anyway, so my emmissions will be significantly better than they were with the old gas-burner. I need to replace all of the vacuum lines (only a couple are bad, but why go piece-meal). I have a new glow-plug harness and glowplugs. I need an accessory belt, but a special size (no A/C, no power steering). Then, the engine should be ready to install.

Gotta go. I'll post more progress when there is some. I'll be building a shed during my limited "free" time, so this project will sit idle for a few weeks.

tank ok, panic past

Fuel tank interference resolved-ish, ready for welding mounts.

I took a look through the Bentley manual and figured out what was sticking over the flywheel: part of the cooling system. Above the flywheel are 2 different bits that stick out. First is a cooling pipe (outlet flange, according to Bentley) with 3 glow plugs sticking out of it. This, I believe, was to help get the engine warm for cold temperature engine starts. The glowplug bit is attached to a pipe fitting that bolts to the engine. Coolant passes from within the engine (water jacket) out through that pipe. The coolant is then optionally warmed before passing through the EGR cooler. An alternate route for the coolant is to the top of the radiator. The bugger in the system is the pipe that sticks straight out from the glowplug thing that routes to the EGR cooler. In the Bentley drawing, the glowplug thing isn't there, so its a little confusing.

I am going to look into 2 different alternatives to resolve this. First, I'd like to try to re-route the connection from the block to the outlet flange. I think with a small stretch of pipe with a 90* bend in it, that whole operation can be moved around to the side. This should be relatively easy to do, once I source parts.

Second, I want to see just how important the EGR cooler is. I can see how the high heat of exhaust gas entering the engine would be bad. My real question is "how necessary is the EGR in my install?". I mean, I'm going to run BioDiesel, and that produces considerably less pollutants than regular diesel. The aircooled engine I pulled out was probably a bigger pooluter than this new engine will be without the EGR and without the catalytic converter. Lastly, this bus does not require smog testing.

Technically, I could pull all the smog stuff off this engine and drive perfectly legally. Ethically, though, I'm struggling. The whole point of this project is to embrace the "leave lighter footprints" concept and removing all of the pollution control devices seems to fly against that. I'll talk with Justin the TDI magic-man and see if he has any strong ideas. At this point, though, I am leaning very much in the direction of removing the smog control devices.... if I can confirm my suspicion that the pollution produced after its removal would still be better than the old aircooled engine when running at least b50 (50% BioDiesel / 50% dinoDiesel) as I must in Winter.