TDI install retrospective: Air, Intercooler and Exhaust

Continuing the process of back-documenting what I did to put a TDI engine into an old (1972) air-cooled VW bus. Today I cover the air intake, the inter-cooler and the exhaust. Arguably, these could be addressed independently, but in my mind, it is all one system, with the turbo linking it all together.

Exhaust

I'm starting with the easiest part: the exhaust. When the TDI is installed longitudinally (versus transverse), the exhaust output of the turbo faces towards the front. This doesn't make it harder, it just means that the exhaust that was originally on the car won't work. I brought it with me to the muffler shop, though, so the shop could re-use parts of it. They used the mounting flange, but did their own thing from there. From the flange, it curves down and then rearward, leveling off at the oil pan lip at the bottom of the engine block. Here, the pipe runs straight back and curves 90* towards the driver side where it enters a not-terribly-interesting muffler. The muffler exits into a 90* bend out the rear. Not fancy, nor expensive. I had asked for something bigger, but this has served the need. Perhaps, if I do that Malone tune I've thought about, I'll upgrade the exhaust to a wider pipe.

Air Intake

air filter example

The fresh air intake is very simple as well. I re-used much of the TDI-donor plastic pipes, which route along the driver side of the engine. I attached a small silicone sleeve to the end, where the mass air flow (MAF) sensor housing attached to the plastic, and to that, I connected an extra MAF housing which I retrofitted with a vacuum nipple. This is the source of filtered air for the vacuum system. For the nipple, I simply cut up a small square of metal flashing and bore a hole through it large enough to press a vacuum nipple. I sealed around the nipple with RTV, cut some gasket material to go between the flashing and the housing and threaded it into the spot where the MAF sensor bolts in. Attached to that MAF housing is a large washable B-and-M air filter. I have cleaned the filter at least annually, after each trip into the Central Oregon desert. I have thought of adding more pipe and routing the filter up into one of the high louvered vents. I considered it, but felt that I would need to block off the vent from the engine compartment to really get "cold" air. I'm not sure there is considerable ROI for that effort, but I encourage you to think about it. I still might.

Inter-cooler

The inter-cooler is probably the most complicated part of this effort. Still, it isn't that complicated. First, the inter-cooler on the TDI is an air-to-air, so it needs to be in the air flow to really reduce the temperature of the compressed air. The air flow around a bus is not well designed for passive cooling like this, so I added a motorcycle radiator fan to the rear side of the inter-cooler. This fan is controlled by the same switch as the radiator, pulling air through the inter-cooler. At this point, this fan is the only truly non-VW part I used for this project. Sure, there are aftermarket things, but they are all designed for a VW. This fan isn't, but it was the only thing like it for this conversion... until 2 paragraphs down.

With the reuse of as much of the plastic plumbing as I could, the inter-cooler ended up in a not-so-great location as well. In my case, it hangs from the engine support bar, so the heat radiating from the turbo is kind of heating the air that enters it. I have thought about how to resolve this, but nothing elegant has come to mind yet. Regardless, the length of the run of pipe from the turbo to the inter-cooler inlet is less than 5 inches so there is little opportunity for boost loss. From the inter-cooler outlet, the charged air uses a short run of silicone hose before returning to the original donor plastic pipe up to the intake. I omitted the EGR, so between the intake and the inter-cooler there is the shiny race pipe. This post has some deeper detail.

In order for this layout to work, I needed to replace the inter-cooler from the stock NewBeetle inter-cooler. The stock has the inlet and outlet on opposite sides (one on the top, one on the bottom). This would have forced the inter-cooler to either sit much higher in the engine bay, or have one of the charged pipes hanging way down low. Or, the pipe routing would have required more plumbing. I didn't like any of these options, so I purchased a Saab Blackstone inter-cooler where the inlet and outlet were both on top. This is a fairly common choice for Vanagon conversions which I learned about on the TDIClub forums. Once in-hand, I had to retrofit the inter-cooler with a boost pressure sensor. That meant cutting into it. Not my favorite thing to do to an otherwise functioning thing, but the ECU needs a boost reading. This was simply a case of tracing the lines and carefully cutting them with the Dremel. Once set, I drilled 2 holes for the mounting screws and it's set.

One thing I learned along the way was to make doubly sure that the inter-cooler is being held up entirely by something other than the charged-air hoses. Otherwise, the hoses will eventually work themselves free of the inter-cooler.

appendix:
Prior related posts:
Preparation
Fuel System
Physical Mounting
Vacuum System

Next related posts:
Primary Electrical
Cooling
Secondary Electrical
ECU, dashpod and Sensors

Turbo-Bus Turbo'ing Again

Quick post today. I've had recurring issues with the charged-air plumbing. I think I now have them solved. Before I get into it, for my fellow Americans: Hapy Independence Day. May we all live a little less dependent upon corporates and money and a little more dependent upon each other this year.

Ka-Bang
On the test-drive I took following the install of the radiator and starter (see radiator 1 and 2 and starter here), the charged air plumbing separated again. This time, it was whiel stomping on the accelerator up a hill so when it separated, it made a huge bang. I thought I'd back-fired it was so loud. Backfiring a turbo'd diesel? Nah.. I don't think so. So, I gingerly finished the journey and popped the rear flap behind the license plate. Yep, that cursed charged air pipe had worked itself apart again. After solving the post-turbo / pre-intercooler plumbing a couple of years ago, the pipe running along the rear frame from the intercooler to the elbow up to the intake has become the weak-point. It has been coming apart with increasing frequency, exposing the engine to unfiltered air while removing the turbo from the power. The first one is engine life-threatening, the other just annoying. It needs to be solved.

Simple Solve
In a considerably marked contrast from pretty much everything else I do on this bus, the solution here was actually quite simple. The elbow had been zip-tied to the rear engine mount so it would not work itself free from the intake tubing on top of the engine. I had done that when I solved the turbo-to-intercooler separations a few years ago. I had thought that suspending the intercooler with wire would continue to be sufficient to hold the rest of it together. Yeah.. that was wrong. The weight of the intercooler presented a constant tug on the plumbing. So, to solve, I isolated the intercooler from the plumbing by better securing the plumbing. "How's that," you ask. The pipe running from the intercooler towards the intake runs right along the rear engine support bar that Hal fab'd up 10 years ago. Once I got all the rubber and aluminum parts back together, and hose-clamped snug, I simply zip-tied the charged air pipe, and each of the rubber ends, to the frame support. The weight of the intercooler is now supported by the wire from the bottom, and through zip-ties holding the top to the bar. It doesn't move any more.

So, that's it for the charged air, and that's it for today's post. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Back Together, Test Drive

In my last posts, I covered the hazardous re-assembly of the engine-to-transaxle and the install of the combined unit at 15*.  Today, completes that journey.  In order to do the re-assembly as quickly as possible, I tried doing it a little differently.  I usually do system by system.  This time, I did it based on where I was and did everything I could before I moved.  I'm not sure I'll do that again, but it was interesting.  I cleaned every part with brake cleaner before installing it.  It made a world of difference, and I'll do that every time now.  Handling a clean part is just so much better than the oily, greasy alternative.

Lower Right Rear

Starting below the right side of the engine, there are a few things to do, starting with the CV joint.  I place a jack under the lower shock-absorber mount and lift until the tire just barely leaves the ground.  Then, with 6 new Allen-head bolts (one striped last time), attach the CV joint to the side of the transaxle and drop the tire back onto the ground.  At the front of the transaxle on the right side, is the ground strap.  It requires a 13mm socket.  Install the starter.  It requires a 17mm socket (need to verify) for the 2 bolts plus a 13mm for the B+ cable from the battery.  Plug in the trigger signal wire to the starter.  Connect the B+ wire to the Atlernator and plug in the sensor wires.  Double check all the other visible sensor wires (like on the cooling system) are plugged in.  Last, zip-tie the cooling pipes up out of the way from the axle.

Rear

Put in the rear support bar.  Don't forget to put the rear bumper mounts back in when you do the bar; they use the same bolts.  Install the support tower and the rear engine-frame mount.  If you get this far and the mount isn't lining up, check the support bar install.  If the mount and tower are on different angles, you probably mated the engine to the transaxle at something other than 15*.  Go back one posting :)  Once the rear mount is in, hook up the exhaust.  The muffler pipe has a hook that fits onto the rubber mount which is hanging off the right side of the rear support bar.  Once hanging, it should fit with enough room to maneuver the rest of the pipe without it hitting the ground nor the bus and no jacking required.

The exhaust-to-turbo mating has a gasket and 3 13mm nut/bolts.  One mount is a stud coming out of the turbo.  Because of the design, at least one of the 13mm needs to be tightened with a wrench instead of a socket.  Next comes the intake system.  Start with the non-charged air pipe from the air cleaner to the turbo.  This is held on with 10mm bolts, and most of the work is from above rather than through the rear hatch.  Next, the charged-air plumbing with the intercooler is most easily installed as a unit.  Slide the turbo-end on first, then set the intercooler and complete the system to the intake last.  The pipe clamps are a combination of slotted-screwdriver and 10mm socket.  The intercooler is held in place with bailing wire (yes, bailing wire) looped between the mounting hole on the intercooler and the open loop in the engine mount attached to the engine.  This allows for the vibration of the entire system to resonate as one.  Route the vacuum to the turbo and snap it into the channels on the plastic tubes.

Lower Left Rear

Shifting back under the bus, repeat the CV joint process for the left side.  Verify what's been done thus far from the new perspective: the turbo plumbing, the air system, the vacuum.  Hook up the bowden tube and the clutch cable to the clutch activation arm.  If you run out of adjustment threads, you need some head-washers (I used 4) between the bowden tube and the mount it slides into.  That mount is held on with 2 13mm bolts.

Lower Middle
Mount the nose of the transaxle.  Plug in the reverse wires for the reverse light switch.  Don't brain yourself on the radiator.  Thread the short hollow tube to connect the gear selector at the front of the transaxle to the long gear shift tube coming from the front of the bus.  Zip-tie the tube into place.  I'm sure that last line will upset some purists (as if the whole project hasn't already), but the original bolt/nut solution falls out; the zip-tie doesn't.

From Above

There's little left now.  Mount the coolant overflow bottle, verifing the top coolant line runs where it's suppoed to.  Plug the sensor into the bottle.  Note the coolant level, and come back and check again if its not spot-on.  Verify the vacuum bulb is set and tight.  Put the fuel filter into it's mount and tighten it down, making sure that the lines run properly.  I have a cheap $1 clear filter in front of the spendy stock filter to extend its life, but it also shows me that fuel is getting that far.  I check that for a fuel level at this point.

All Over
Last, the battery is hooked back up.  Before that, all of the electrical connections, including all sensor plugs should be double checked.  This is where the "do everything you can see" model falls apart.  By doing it one system at a time, you know everything was done.  By working zonally, you don't really know for sure without checking system by system.  At that point, you may as well have just done it that way.

Testing
This is the part everyone wants to jump to: grabbing the keys and giving a test fire.  The first time I tried this time around, I got nothing: I'd failed to hook up the battery.  Once resolved, he started right up.  I applied the clutch and shifted through the gears.  Nice and smooth.  Seatbelt on, and on the road to test.  There was less noise than I remembered.  The gears shifted easily up through 3rd (never got to  4th), and the bus felt peppy.  Overall, it was a great, albeit short, drive.  I declare the bus road-worthy again.  By the way, there wasn't a single drop of oil on the transaxle nor engine after the test drive and cool-down.  Success!

Thanks for following along.  Next time, I look at the ceiling of the bus and/or knocking the dents out of and painting the rear bumper.

That Familiar Feel of Snow

You may be happy to know that my blog hasn't been the only thing I've neglected over the last couple of months.  Today, for the first time in over a month, the family and I hit Mount Hood.  I'll touch on that and the latest page in the saga of my Jetta.  No bus news today.  I was going to test drive him this weekend, but I focused on other things instead.  If I have a dry and uneventful morning this week, I'll drive him to work as a test flight.

Flash Lives

Poor Man's Ramp

First, some context.  The symptoms were simple: little power, hard starting, seemingly no turbo and black exhaust.  For codes, I was getting a P1556: low or inconsistent boost.  Yep, the turbo wasn't kicking in properly.  Now, based on the days when the turbo wasn't kicking in on the bus, I knew the sound of a turbo firing up, but not boosting.  That was the sound I was hearing.  On Saturday, I prepared to get the Jetta (Flash) operating right.  Since I'm without a place to work on it, I set up on the street, using the poor-boy's ramp: the curb.  Once the engine is running, crank the wheel all the way so that the back of the front tire is facing the curb.  Then back-up.  Simple.  I slid under Flash and verified the connections from the turbo to the intercooler were good.  From the top-side, though, things were sideways.  The hard-pipe coming out of the intercooler was loose and grinding against the coolant pump.  We have our problem.  I drove it to Johnny, showed him the evidence, and he fixed it.  He did my rear brake pads too, and didn't charge me for either.  Thanks, Johnny.  Flash runs awesome.  Now, I need a pair of tires, and he's ready for another 40k+ miles.

Snow

C resting mid-Molly's

I hit Timberline with my boys and Boo today.  She couldn't slide, needing to grade student work unfortunately.  Turned out C had left his boots at his mom's house anyway, so he went in Boo's (they have the same size feet).  The snow was hard-packed with about 1/2 an inch of puff on top.  It was fast, but the crashes were painful.  I only spilled a couple of times (once on my helmet-protected skull, trying to follow C off a jump).  It really was what my mood needed, though.  There is nothing like a day of playing with your kids.

I Know that Feeling
We left the mountain in a bit of a rush.  T & C were due back at their mom's, so they left in the lead car while Boo and I arranged the ski equipment into the larger carry-car.  As we made our way off the mountain, we discovered an ice-patch.  Ahh... I haven't lost traction on slide-y stuff in years.  Funny how the old skills kick in, though.  Total calm, turn into the skid and lightly tap the brakes.  We righted our descent.  No side-rail impacts, no nerves even, really.  Oddly enough, the car behind us didn't hit the ice, nor were they deterred in their close traveling distance.  Bah!

That's it for tonight.  Have a great week, and thanks for following along.  I'll try to get back to this posting with a couple pictures...

Weather Whether Whatever

Yep, its been a month.  I really don't know where the time goes.  When I look at my calendar for that past month, its been all over the place, so I can't point to one thing as my time killer.  I think its simply working too much.  I have had some time playing with the bus.  Boo and I hit the mountain for the first time yesterday, so I'll hit both of those today.

Whether Weather
When I first pulled the electronics together for the bus, I positioned the throttle unit (resistor pack that sends desired speed to computer) under the floor.  This area is protected by a square-ish pan with a couple of silver-dollar-sized machined holes that is supposed to be held on with 6 6mm bolts.  My bus being 40 years old, and having had multiple owners clowning on it, those bolt holes are not dependable.  For example, when I drove to the Futhur show I could hear the pan rattling in the wind.  Yikes.  Now, add the incessant rain we experience in the Pacific NorthWest and the sensitive electronics contained within.  Clearly, the bus was not ready for Fall, Winter and Spring.
First, I closed the machined holes with noise-reduction material.  This reduced the ambient noise as well. On top of that, I glued-in thin closed cell insulation for more noise containment.  I then ran 3/8" window insulation along the lip of the pan.  These 2 efforts solved the water problem, but I still had to get the pan attached to the bus such that the insulation would compress.  Since the bolts were rattling around the holes, I went to Home Despot and bought a handful of every bolt size from 6M to 8M in both metric and US sizes.  None of them worked.  So, I switched it up to thick (size 16) sheet metal screws, and sent one through the front-center and one through the rear-center.  The pan sealed right down and compressed the insulation.  Nice.  I tested the edges with a thin screwdriver, and I was unable to press past the insulation.  Problem seemingly solved.

I apologize for my lack of pictures.  The belly pan work was performed without the benefit of adequate light, so there were limited opportunities for taking pictures then either.  It looks like the drizzle has finally ended, so I'm going to head outside and address the turbo outlet that seems to loosen almost every time I drive the bus.  Once that's done, I just need to solve for the rear cabinet and protecting the electronics hidden underneath it.  Then, the bus will be ready for taking the family to the mountain regardless of the weather.

from 2011-2012 season a-top Palmer

Sister Hood
If you've read this blog long enough to have read entries from last Winter, you're already pretty well aware of my love of snow.  Season lift tickets went on sale a few weeks ago, and I outfitted the family with passes.  Of course, the kids keep growing, so 5 out of 6 of us got new boots (even me; mine were shot), and we spent last weekend at Next Adventure getting extra snow pants, a jacket or 2, etc.  As I write this, I'm starting to figure out where my month went... anyway, Boo and I took a test-flight to Timberline yesterday in my Jetta (bus may go next time).  T-line always has the glacier to slide on.  They call it the Palmer Snow Field; I call it the Palmer Ice Sheet, but either there was snow on Thursday, and it hadn't warmed above freezing since.  As we drove through Government Camp, all the trees had a light snow-dusting on them.  SkiBowl has a couple of inches and even Summit has some.
The road to Timberline was snow covered, but sanded.  We realized our chains were still in storage, so the slight drifts we experienced had us a little on edge.  Still, we made it to the parking lot unscathed.  It was cold.  I mean cold cold.  Almost 0*F cold.  And a wind.  Take the cold and the wind, add that you're suspended in a chair 30' above the ground (and above the tree-line) and finally add that this was out test-run and we both inevitably forgot something.  We couldn't stay very long.  We got 2 runs in and called it a successful test.

That's it for today.  I hope to have the bus winter-ready by ThxGiving so we can take the bus to Timberline for White Friday.  It would really make my season if I could bring my 2 favorite things together.

Transaxle Transition

I heard once that the most productive time in the US is between Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day.  Something like 40% of all work is performed in this period.  When I think about it, it makes sense.  Come Thanksgiving, the holidaze kicks in.  Shopping, vacations, etc through NewYears.  Then, the Winter blues take hold, and sun-seeking vacation get-aways.  Not that I take those, mind you.  Then there's Spring Break, Spring fever and then end-of-school Summer break.  Family vacations end at Labor Day, school starts, so no one is taking vacation, etc.  With this in mind, my work load is peaking, so I've been too distracted to get back to the blog.

Transaxle Arrives

starter adapter on new

I've already mentioned the gearing, etc. in another posting, and that I got it from AA Transaxle in Seattle. Daryl shipped it in a basic cardboard box wrapped in bubblewrap.  Crazy, but simple.  Since I'm living in a condo without a garage, I was in a bit of a spot for doing the work.  Boo had a funny idea of doing the work in my real estate agent's (we'll call him MS) driveway as a motivation to get a house solution.  So... we asked and that's where I did the transaxle swap.  Since I packed my storage space thinking it was only going to be a couple months, finding my tools and the ATV jack adapter was a fun adventure but I was ready to go leading into Labor Day weekend.

Out with the Old
Dropping the engine has become a bit of a predictable system now.  Disconnect the coolant, fuel, and support the engine with the adapter/ATV jack.  Disconnect the axles, lower electrical, exhaust and intake (with intercooler).  Last disconnect the rear engine support and bellhousing support bolts.  Lower the engine and transaxle as a unit.  Once on the ground, I removed the starter and the other 3 bolts between the engine and the transaxle.  Separating the 2 components was simplified with a furniture dolly (covered with a tarp) under the transaxle and simply pulling on the front mount.  The input shaft slide off of the clutch.  I pulled the transaxle into MS's garage, cleaned up my workspace and called it a Saturday.

Prepping the New

'72 stud on left
'75 stud on right

The nose (front) mount on a '75 transaxle is not identical to the nose mount on a '72.  Fortunately, the mounts attach to the transaxle the same way: 2 bolt holes.  The '72 has longer studs, though, so if you do the swap, the studs need to be swapped with the mounts.  The new transaxle was completely redone, but came without a throw-out bearing.  I know the one that was on the original 002 was relatively new, but I put on a new one anyway.  It made a racket during the initial tests at first, but its nice and quiet now.  Getting the wire clips from the throw-out bearing onto the arm takes a little willingness to get after it, but its much easier if you put a longer crescent wrench onto the clutch activation arm and press the bearing hanger away from the depths of the bellhousing.  Attaching the starter and adapter were straight-forward. That old fast-forward adapter needed the custom detailing to fit the '75 002 as well (I did this before.  There's a post in the archives).  I replaced the radiator fan switch, but I haven't seen it actually work yet.  Too paranoid; I hit the manual switch first.

Mating
When mating a transaxle to the engine, it is important to remember one key thing: remove the mounting studs first.  In reading this, it seems obvious, but when you're removing things, its easy to overlook.  After some sweaty attempts to get the transaxle on (input shaft aligning with the clutch), and a beer in the shade, I remembered.  They were easy to back out and slide back in through the ears of the bellhousing easily too.  Once the studs were out, the input shaft slid easily into the clutch and with a little twist of the transaxle, the stud holes were aligned.  Minutes later, the transaxle was torqued down, the starter was wired and the deal was ready for re-install.  I took the opportunity to get the engine harness buttoned down right, and put a new c-clip on the temperature sensor.

In with the New

new throw-out bearing
on input shaft

Classic instructions: install is the reverse.  hahaha... it was that instruction for the control arm replacement in the Type2.com library that started this blog all those years ago.  Raise the nose of the transaxle more aggressively than the engine.  The shifter needs to get over the rear beam.  If you planned ahead, and put the shifter cage on first, you'll appreciate it later.  I hadn't planned, and regretted it.  Once the shifter clears the beam, raise the engine with the ATV jack into place.  Test alignment with the bellhousing mounts, and when its aligned front-to-back, install the rear mounts.  Then install the nose mount, and then do the bellhousing mounts.  That takes a second to write, but many minutes to get done.  I packed the tranny-side of the CV joints, peanut-buttered grease into the valleys where the CV joints mount, and wrenched it together.  All the remaining electrical bits from underneath were all i had energy left for and I called it a Sunday.  Finish the job by reconnecting the coolant lines, fuel, electrical.  Install the intake and exhaust.  Fill with coolant and burp the system.
I've been having issues with that burping bit.  In fact, I spent Monday wrestling with coolant leak issues, and trying to get a replacement c-clip onto that coolant sensor again.  That thing has been killing me.  I think there's air trapped in my cooling system that's creating funky pressure issues and the weak point is the temp sensor.  So, that's where the coolant leaks out.

What to Do with the Old?
On Labor Day, I drove the bus home.  The coolant leak appeared to be resolved, and he drove unbelievably well.  The amount of pep even in the lower gears was fantastic.  We played it safe at first, taking city streets, but he was able to cruise at city speed limits in the low 2000's (RPM).  Just to see how he'd respond, I spun onto the freeway for one exit, and I got up to 55MPH on the onramp with RPM headroom.  Fantastic drive home.  Since then, I've returned my tools to storage, and I have the old transaxle... sitting on the floor of the bus.... making the bus smell like axle grease..  What to do with a viable 002 transaxle?  Sell it to a dune buggy guy?  Sell it to someone who wants a rebuild core?  Welcoming ideas.

Okay, so this was ridiculously long.  Once I add the pictures, this will be epic-long.  Sorry.  I could have done this over the course of multiple postings, but its been 2 weeks already anyway.

Buttoned and Bowed

All those tired of reading about my inter-cooler woes raise your hand. Okay, mine was up too. I spent from 10:AM yesterday until close to 4:PM working on the inter-cooler and it is done. [pause for cheers :)]. I'll cover the different attacks I did to get it in, with the parts I had on hand. I have a health update for my MIL Marianne too.

Marianne
As you're read in earlier posts, my mother-in-law Marianne was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2008. Her son (my bro-in-law), Tom, was diagnosed with cancer at the same time and ultimately surrendered to it last Spring. Marianne has battled hers, from stage-4 to cancer-free and back to stage-4 again. Recently, she was admitted to the hospital with a pneumonia that has not been responsive to treatments. There is a general feeling around her caregivers and friends that her time is getting short, so my wife (D) flew down there today. She'll be in Las Vegas for the next 2 weeks, but she expects Marianne will pass during her visit there. The boys don't fully understand, but they were able to visit with her in October, when she was in remission and walking around. Fortunately, their last memory of Gramma will be of her walking through the buffet under Planet Hollywood, and sitting by the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel. We'll be lighting a candle for her at church tomorrow.

Re-hashing My IC History
Before I get into the solution, I'll recap some of the different things I've tried. First, I went with the original inter-cooler (IC). This has the inlet and the outlet on different ends of the unit. I cut part of the original body tin in the engine compartment to create a pocket in which the inter-cooler would sit. I fabricated some pipe, re-used the softer rubber connectors, and had a closed system. I bore a hole into the inter cooler for the pressure / temperature sensor.
Enter Heat. Once I placed the heater core, that first try at the IC needed to be changed. The front-side of the IC was now pressed up against the heater flexi-hose, effectively preventing the inter-cooler from getting cooling air. So, I removed it, and started working through alternatives. I couldn't get the stock IC to work in another position, so I bought a SAAB Blackstone IC. So started my adventures in bracket-building. This bracket adventure turned out to be a waste of time. I would advise the reader to get the hoses and everything all hooked up first and then figure out how to bracket it in-place. I bought a bunch of 2" pipe, 2.5" pipe, some elbows, connectors and hose clamps for a full-court press on this thing. Queue yesterday's efforts. I started with the SAAB Blackstone and my available hoses and pipes. I couldn't get it together. I switched back to the stock IC and couldn't get it going, so I switched back to the Blackstone.

Induction Complication Discussion
The trouble was with the space available from the turbo outlet to the IC inlet. The turbo outlet is 1.5" in diameter while the IC inlet is 2 3/8". The distance from the turbo outlet to the support bar is less than 8", so I have less than 8" to turn the air flow 90* to route on-plane with the air-stream and then another 90* to route into the IC while expanding the pipe from 1.5" to 2 3/8". Routing the IC outlet to the intake is much easier. The IC outlet is also 2 3/8", and the intake is 2" in diameter. There is considerable space (relative to the inlet side), requiring, again, 2 90* bends, but there was a foot from the intake to the engine support bar and nearly a foot from that bend to the IC outlet.

Induction Solution
First, I solved the turbo-to-inlet challenge. I cut up the original turbo outlet hose to a very short 90* bend. To the IC side of the bend, I pressed in a thin-walled 1.5" diameter pipe to act as a joiner between the 90* bend and the Silicone Intakes 1.5" to 2" reducer. This reducer was then pressed into a copper water pipe 90* 'street' bend. This bend has an expander on the end so it can fit into another 2" pipe. For my purposes, this expanded the diameter to 2 3/8" so it could mate with a straight rubber / silicone coupler at the IC.
Once the inlet was in, I held the IC in place with a bungy-cord. The intake had the stock 90* rubber connector on it, pointing straight down. The IC outlet had a straight rubber / silicone coupler on it. Into this, I pressed a 5" long 2.5" pipe. The other end of the pipe has a 2.5" 90* silicone bend. Fitted between the 2.5" 90* bend and the stock intake rubber I put a stock plastic pipe that narrows from 2.5" to 2". It fit very well, and had a few flat spots on it. Into one of the flat spots, I bored a hole for the temperature / pressure sensor. Once everything test-fit, I final-fit the connections with clamps, buttoning it down. It needs a support bracket, but I can start test starts while figuring that out.

Air Dressing
Last, I clamped the air route from the air filter to the turbo intake. This needed to be done, but not necessarily with fancy clamps. I figured for about 50 cents more per clamp, it looks nice, like putting a bow on it. Anyway, that's my adventure in inter cooling. In the end, I needed a few pieces from Silicone Intakes, and some of the stock parts. If I hadn't lost the plastic pipe which originally holds the sensor, I would only have needed connectors and bends - no pipe. Ah well.
It is already getting dark here, so my attempts to start the engine will have to wait until tomorrow. Still, being able to say I'll be trying to start it tomorrow feels pretty darn good.

Happy New Year!

pictures:
top - turbo outlet to IC inlet resolved
upper middle - stock plastic pipe with sensor installed
lower middle - IC pipes and hoses installed. (needs bracket)
bottom - the dressed air hoses from filter to turbo inlet

Waiting for Guffman

There's not a whole lot to post about, other than Christmas, and waiting for the shipper. Today, I'll touch on both. Though, I did hit most of the Hitchcock references in my last film-related thread, I doubt I'll be able to hit all of Christopher Guest's or Eugene Levy's, but I'll hit my favorites from the troupe (Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, etc) that appears in many of their movies.

Best in Show
Christmas was a hoot. The custom in my house has been that Christmas is all about the kids, and not at all about the adults. This held true again this year with the boys getting lots of cool new clothes, and a couple of larger things. My wife was well adorned with yoga items (and jewelry of course). My haul was exceptionally small this year, but I don't expect anything anymore, and really truly treasure watching the boys respond to things I've selected for them anyway. I wasn't disappointed. Now that I work for a company that offers employees deep discounts, I can get some pretty cool stuff for them. For at least one day, I was "the best". :)

A Mighty Wind
First, I got the hoses that I ordered from Silicone Intakes. Of the 3, I was able to install one, the 45* angled 2.75" runner that fits between the air flow meter and the air tap for the vacuum. This ties off that, but it needs clamps. Of course. Still, the raw air source has been at least defined.

Waiting for Guffman
With the clamps mentioned above, I also discovered that the 90* angled 2.5" part is right, but it will also require clamps, and a few other things. I decided that rather than nickle-and-dime any more on the induction, I mapped out what I needed and made one single buy for all of the remaining pieces. This includes clamps, but now I'm waiting for the postman again.

This is Spinal Tap
I have this whole week out-of-work, so if I had planned better, I could have made better use of this time. I would have loved to have had all of the intake stuff in hand at the beginning of the week. I learn from this to jump in and over-buy early, when you work with a retailer with a great return policy (like Silicone Intakes does). Translation: make your amp's go to 11 :)
Still, I'm taking the boys up to Mt. Hood tomorrow for a day with the aunt's, uncle's and cousins in the snow. On Wednesday, we have the extended family Christmas party-dinner thing. In between the events and the passing showers, I'll be looking at the auxiliary battery stuff. I need to get it a-fixed to the floor (under the rock'n'roll bed), grounded, and the B+ wired to the little fuse block. I'll tie the battery into the Alternator later, but having some juice flowing to the inside lights will be handy.

That's it for today. I'll post about our day on the mountain, my progress on the electrical and my in-bound package next time. If FedEx Ground is as fast as I've experienced before, I may still be able to button-down the induction before NYE. Thanks again for following along, and I'll have more later-

Bracing for the Holidaze

I mentioned over the Summer that I got a new job. I haven't really talked much about the gig, other than to complain about the hours. Looking at the job numbers, and seeing how hard some folks are having it, I'm going to stop complaining about it. I read back through some old posts, and it seems like I gripe about not having time an awful lot. Seeing how I can't really do much about it, I'm not going to do that anymore. I should be grateful to have work doing something I'm pretty good at, and I get paid regularly.

Holidaze
The craziness started for most folks around Thanksgiving. I have a tradition where I take my boys out shopping the Saturday before Christmas. In past years, we've gone to Macy's or Fred Meyer. This year, my brother called and asked if the boys wanted to go shopping with their 3 year old cousin around the city of Portland. It was a blast, and it gave me a great reminder of how wonderful a city Portland is. The energy... the people... we truly live in an amazing place. The boys and I found a few unusual items for "mom", visited with our uncle/brother and cousin/niece. Last, we enjoyed some fresh Thai food for lunch off one of the street-carts. Yummy.

Today, my sister and her daughter arrived from Austin. They will be staying with my folks in close-in SE Portland for a few days before heading over to her mother-in-law's place. Her husband flies in on Xmas-eve. We'll have almost the entire extended family in town this year, but with the usual extended family challenges, I don't think we'll be celebrating as a full group until the middle of next week.

Bracket Progress
With an unexpected change in the weather, we were given a few dry hours today. After cleaning up the house, and wrapping what we got yesterday, I could think about the bus guilt-free. I had spent about 30 minutes in the dark on Friday night figuring out where the inter cooler could fit, and what I would need for pressure hose. That night, I ordered a couple 90* bends and a 45* bend (for the air filter end of the operation). Today, I figured I could start working on the bracket to hold the inter-cooler in place. I know my welding skills aren't that great, and I know that welding up a simple triangular brace would have taken me days. With this in mind, I grabbed a straight 1" steel bar and headed for the rear of the bus, prepped for the worst.

In looking at the scene, I didn't need a simple triangle; this thing needed to have an angled side and one corner was further forward than the other, meaning it couldn't be a closed triangle. I took the bar and bent it most of the way back on itself, and then twisted it so the top was a few inches further forward than the rear. I test fit the idea and noticed that the top corner needed a mount point that required another 90* bend. Luck was with me, though, as the bar had a couple inches of extra material on the top. I made another small bend, and it looked right. I guess I've paid some luck-dues, because I drilled 5/8" holes, and after some twisting and tweaking, they lined up about perfectly.

Looking at the finished product, the top of the inter-cooler is a couple inches lower than I expected, but the entire unit is in the slip-stream, but not below the low-point of the engine. It should be worth noting that the radiator and the front beam are both lower than the inter cooler, as placed. A front bracket still needs to be made, but I would rather have the exhaust in first, so I know what I have to work around.

The hoses should arrive some time this next week. This sets me up to get the induction system sealed up next weekend. My hopes to have test drives before New Years Eve could still become a reality. I still don't have an exhaust, of course. This will limit how far I can test a drive, but any movement out of the driveway would be a successful drive at this point. We'll see....

pictures:
top: rough-in placement of inter-cooler for hose need assessment
upper-middle: bracket in-place before attaching the cooler
lower-middle: same shot as the one above, but after the inter-cooler was attached
bottom: view from the side showing the road clearance of the inter-cooler. Consider the front bracket will raise it about an inch.

Fanning the flames of progress

Sorry I haven't posted much in a while. Honestly, there hasn't been much to post about. I have a small update on the defrost efforts, and a new revelation about the inter cooler. Last, I took my son T up to Mt. Hood Meadows for a day of snowboarding - total Fall highlight.

Fan Fun
I have the rear heater unit in-place, the switch in-place and the wiring run. After spending a few hours trying to figure out which wire should be connected to which male plug on the heater unit, I found this thread on TheSamba (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=435597). With the picture, and some logic, it totally makes sense. I made the wiring corrections, but... the resistor doesn't work anymore. Fun stuff. I got the highly-maligned symptom of the fan only blowing on the "middle" setting, which, it turns out, means the resistor is bad. So, now comes the question: do I replace the resistor with a stock replacement, or go new-style? "what's this new-style," you ask. You install a true-rheostat concept like this. For the stock-lovers out there, I've already pissed you off with this whole project, but bear with me for a sec. The true-rheostat solution is $60 where the stock solution is around $35, assuming you can find it. I haven't had any luck finding a stock resistor, but I'll be leaving the fan in this on-off configuration for now. I have a defroster, and that's all that matters at this point.

Inter not-cooling
I am unable to place the stock inter cooler within the space I have after the heater is in. I'm looking for a Saab Blackstone inter cooler instead. Why? They take up a little less space, but are reportedly more efficient. Also, the inlet and outlet are both on the same end, improving the placement choices. Assuming I find one, and have it in-hand relatively soon, I'll cover that install. I know I will need more silicone tubing, so the install will take 2 delivery cycles - one for the inter cooler, and one for the tubes. net-net, I won't be test-driving over Christmas.

Snow good to see ya
Last Sunday, my some T and I drove up to Mt Hood Meadows for some snowboarding. I've gone sliding a couple of times, but I haven't really had good conditions before. Mt. Hood had received fresh snow the night before, and we had some flurries while we were there. The result? Groomed powder runs, and some great sliding. Our first ride on the lift was just after 9:AM, and after 7-8 runs, we called it a day around 2:30. I'll upload pictures later.

With the heater troubles and the ridiculous darkness this time of year, my motivation has slipped. Its been a couple months since I heard the engine run, and that doesn't help. I'm trying to re-motivate, and get the inter cooler resolved. Once that's in, I can test-start the engine again, focus on finishing out the little bits, and take a test drive. I won't feel close to finished again until I hear that engine run again. Sigh.

heat placed, intercooler displaced

My time availability hasn't meaningfully improved since the last post. Somewhere I heard that the US is most productive (in GDP terms?) between Labor Day and Christmas. I can say that work has been distracting, but it wouldn't be fair to say that was the cause. Anyway, I have found a few hours here and there to get banging on the bus. I'll cover the highlights.

Heater Core Placed
After looking at putting the heater core inside the bus in a few locations, and trying to fit it under the floor of the cab, I have placed it in the alternate battery spot (under the spare wheel well). This location is already a little busy, with the intercooler and air filter as well as a bunch of wiring. So, this wasn't easy to get going. It still needs to be mounted. When I was working on the intercooler placement last Summer (or the Summer before..) I cut a section of tin out of the left side. To get the heater working in that space, I needed to cut the rest out of the way. The coolant lines will run from the left side of the engine, under the spare wheel well and along the body, curling back towards the right to the heater core. For a core, I'm using an old Vanagon rear-heater unit with a snorkel attached to it. The snorkel is still getting firmed up, but the mock-up worked well. Anyway, the snorkel will connect to a 4" diameter insulated flex-pipe that runs under the bus (over the axle) around the radiator to the original air line at the middle/front. Switching the fans and controlling the flow of coolant into the heater still needs to be devised.

Intercooler Displacement
Fitting the heater demonstrated that the intercooler was just in the wrong spot. As it was, getting in and out of the engine compartment on the left side was virtually impossible with it placed where it was. I found myself removing it frequently to do pretty much anything on the left side. Since the turbo an the intake are on the left side, the intercooler will stay on that side, but I'll be dropping it lower, down into the slipstream and rotating it flatter so access is much easier. Ultimately, it will operate much like the radiator does - with a puller fan placed underneath it.

Air Filter hassles
Another challenge on the left side is getting the air cleaner space to do its thing. I had something pulled together "well enough", but it wasn't game-ready. I'll need a 45* bend (another part to buy) to stitch into the set up, as the stock flex-tube is just too long to be effective. This became more obvious as the coolant lines and the flexi-hose for the heated air were introduced. Once the 45* bend arrives (still to be ordered), I'll be able to finish this off much more cleanly.

Exhaust Reroute
With the move of the heater into the engine compartment, and, more importantly, the insulated flexi-hose, the route of the exhaust has to move. The route from the turbo has been unchanged from stock, so it ran straight to the left out behind the rear tire. That was not ideal anyway, when we think about the "fresh" air we would want entering the heat system, or an open window when sitting at a red light. I was assuming I would need a custom run anyway, and now there's no question. The exhaust will route straight down, instead, and curve back to the rear along the bottom edge of the engine block. I will mock-up something so I can account for it while placing the intercooler. I don't want either the intercooler nor the engine to pick up heat from the exhaust as it passes. This will get interesting.

As you can see, things are getting more challenging, but I'm glad I'm finding these issues now rather than after a Summer of camping fun while winterizing. I'm going to focus on finishing the heat and the air filter completed first. Once they are done, I'll work on the exhaust and intercooler at the same time. I didn't mention that I did get the temperature sensor replaced, but with the different systems opened up, I can't test the engine. My plans for a holiday-season test flight may have to be pushed out. We'll see. Thanks for following along, and I'll post some pictures of this stuff when I'm on my other computer.

The fog's getting thicker.

And Leon is getting laaaaarrrrrger.
I made a little headway on the bus after the brewbus tour. On Sunday after moving a bunch of junk around the back yard I got some more done. In the end, I finished up the intake / inter-cooler. WooHoo! First, I figured out what the sensor is, and got it worked into the mix. Also, I re-ran the coolant lines for the radiator. For some reason, quotes from the movie Airplane have been running through my head for the last few days (thanks Sean).

Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?
I was trolling the net looking at different things on autohausaz.com when I noticed that they sold a thrust sensor for the engine that I was installing. I had noted a sensor thing when I was pawing through the inter cooler plastic lines, but I hadn't pieced together that it was. Having discovered it, I did a little research. This little do-hickey tells the engine when there is a turbo failure, basically. Without it, the engine will run in 'limp-mode' thinking that the turbo is jacked. The end result: no boost, little power. So... how do we incorporate this thingy into the very short charged-air circuit I have constructed? I have almost no hard pipes, and this thing looks like its supposed to go after its been cooled. I suspect the sensor is a little heat sensitive, otherwise VW would have installed it right on the turbo itself.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
I found my location answer in ETKA. ETKA is the parts and diagrams software the dealers use. I happen to have an electronic copy, and I found that the newer (PD) diesels, have the sensor on the inter-cooler, and it collects both pressure and heat data. So, I pulled my inter-cooler out, drilled a large hole and 2 small ones for the screws, cut some gasket and rubber material, and mounted my sensor in the top (cool end) of my inter-cooler. It looks relatively stock (except for the extra gasket material), and the temps should be low enough to prevent premature failure.

We have clearance, Clarence
One of the top tasks on the coolant circuit I listed in the Hal Returns post was improving the ground clearance at the radiator. I bought an '84 Scirocco upper radiator hose as a donor hose for the 90* bends, and cut it into 2 sections. As you can see from the picture here, the hose is barely the lowpoint of the cooling system - it is not lower than either beam or the axles, so we should be good to go. I need to figure out a bleeder for the lower hose, but I'll start on the overflow bottle bracket first.

That's it for this time around. Next up, the overflow bottle and the related air bubble lines, maybe locating a stock-ish air cleaner. One last quote as I go...

There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

pictures:
top - the inter-cooler with the thrust sensor installed
bottom - view of the radiator from the passenger side

Race pipe and intake movement

I tried to take yesterday off from work after working last weekend, but it didn't quite stick. I had put in at least 5 hours every day for almost 2 weeks, so I figured I needed a day away. Unfortunately, I got roped into a meeting for an hour, and there were a few other items that needed doing, so I basically lost the morning. Shrug. I was able to make some headway on the intake effort, though, so today's post is about that.

Race Pipe
In my last post, I crowed about the delivery speed that dieselgeek delivered the race pipe kit. This kit includes an EGR replacement pipe made of 1/4" thick 6061-T6 aluminum and the related fasteners. The race pipe has a nipple for a boost valve. The kit also includes a block-off plate for the exhaust manifold end with a gasket. After putting the rubber gasket on the intake-side of the race pipe, the provided bolts threaded right in. I cinched it down with an Allen wrench, and the pipe is in. The boost nipple points towards the driver-side, and I was happy to see there were no engine-hatch fitment issues. As you can see from the pictures, it looks better than the rest of the engine does. I'll have to clean the rest up a little bit. Maybe there will be time when I replace the injector-to-injector pressurized rubber fuel lines.

Block Off Plate
The diamond-shaped plate that comes in the kit blocks the port on the exhaust manifold where the exhaust gasses would have been sourced for the EGR system. Without the EGR, the engine will have less soot routed into the intake (preventing that goop issue I blogged about here), but without the blockoff plate, I'd have a leak in the exhaust, which would be bad. The enclosed plate came with a replacement for the gasket, but not for the nuts. As luck would have it, these nuts are the same size as the exhaust manifold nuts from the old aircooled engine. I had replaced them with stainless steel bolts, nuts, lock washers, etc, before, so when I sold the exhaust, I kept those fasteners. Now, they adorn my new block-off plate, and look great.

From Inter-cooler to Intake
The route from the intercooler to the end of the intercooler suddenly grew much shorter when I installed the race pipe. I had been concerned about having enough rubber material, and after that install, I was concerned that I'd have room for the routing at all. From the inter-cooler, I used the stock rubber hose that's about 3" long. From the race-pipe, I attached another stock rubber piece that turns sharply 90*, and twisted it so it points at the intercooler. From the picture, here, you can see that there is practically no room between the 2 rubber bits. After pushing through a bunch of scrap pipe, I discovered that an exhaust pipe would fit, but I needed a sharp 45* angle. They don't sell those at Meineke. So, I cut a leftover bit of exhaust pipe, and spent my afternoon welding it so there aren't any leaks. It may not be pretty, but it will work. I'll cut it down to size tomorrow, shoot is with some paint, and we'll know about it, but no one will ever really see it.

Hal should be stopping over tomorrow after work, so we'll have maybe a couple of hours of daylight together. Ok, more like 1.5 hours. Anyway, we'll go over what's been done, and what's needed to be done. I have a very short section of pipe I need to put on the turbo-side of the inter-cooler, and the intercooler will be done. Then, I'll have the air-filter end to deal with.

More after tomorrow's efforts..

pictures:
top - race pipe installed
top middle - block-off plate installed
middle right - engine bay with diesel-geek kit installed
middle left - rubber to rubber where inter-cooler meets race pipe rubber
bottom - my craptastic welding job.

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.

Olympic distractions

I don't like going more than a few days between posts, and its already been a week. I haven't been able to get much time with the bus, so I'm basically just posting an apology for not having anything to post. I'll touch on the little bit of work I did get done, some extra motivating camping plans, and finally some thoughts on my pop top.

Inter-cooler lower bracket
I did have about an hour this weekend, so I started working on the lower support bracket for the inter-cooler. Its not much to write about, honestly. Its a simple 1" flat bar cut about 8" long with a slow bend in it so there's about 2-1/2" of straight at each end. Because of the angle needed to match the mount-holes on the inter-cooler, this seemed to give the best alignment. The top-side will have 2 holes for the inter-cooler, and 3 on the side for riveting/bolting to the inside of the engine compartment. I discovered that my cheap carbon-tipped drill bits are starting to wear out, though. I'll be stopping at Harbor Freight or Lowes on the way home tonight to get some replacements. If time and light allow, I'll finish boring out the holes tonight, and maybe get it in-place.

Camping plans
Its that time of year when you are finally sick of the foul weather and start distracting yourself with Summer camping trip plans. For those that have large camping vehicle maintenance or repair work, this brings and extra added incentive to get-er-done. We already have a July trip planned, but this weekend, we started talking about another one... or two. My goal was to have the bus moving under his own power in time for Independence Day. This is still the goal, but he may need to be camping-trip-ready shortly thereafter. The extra motivation wasn't needed. More daylight is. Starting to feel a little stressed....

Pop-top
The 1972 Westy pop-top is the early-version of the slant-roof pop top. The luggage rack is over the rear tires and the available sleeping arrangement is a single narrow cot. On my bus, I have one extra added "feature" - the canvas has a 3' tear in it from top to bottom. When driving the bus, this doesn't make any difference. When camping the bus, though, this is a big deal. Bugs and rain easily enter, and especially annoy the boy sleeping in the upper cot. I have priced replacement canvas, and it isn't cheap. For decent canvas, its over $200, and the labor is still all yours. In the end, you still only have sleeping for one up top. The later Westy's have a full sized bed, so 2 people can sleep up-top. The ASI / Riviera pot tops (they go straight up) also have a full-sized bed that can fit 2 people. I am seriously considering purchasing a used Riviera pop top (with good canvas) as a replacement for mine. This does 2 things: replaces my bad canvas and gives my boys the penthouse together for camping. To be fair, would my bus still be a "westy"?

That's it for now. I'll be trying to finish the lower bracket tonight and maybe try to get some things done on the upper one this week. I have to re-visit the cooling system, deal with the charged-air lines and air filter, and then I'll be ready to deal with the electrical. All told, I could be doing electrical stuff before the end of February. That would be fantastic. I expect the next couple of weeks, though, to be full of Olympic distraction, though. There's just something about the Winter Olympics.

Engine Hatching

Last time I said there were 4 different things I could focus on next. Turns out, there was a 5th - finishing the engine hatch. I did 90% of that finish work today. I'll cover that, and then rough out a plan for the inter-cooler mounting.

Where'd that hole come from?
Over a year ago, I needed to put a hole over the engine compartment so I could fit the new engine. After some examination, it was really only a short section of support bar, but I really didn't like not having a hatch. (see "it's in the hole" for a longer post about the hole). Anyway, I put a roughly square hole over the engine compartment.


Don't cut your lip
In December, I posted about the radiator cowling. Within that post ("Radiator Shrouded") I talked about wrapping the edge of the hatch door with drip-irrigation vinyl tubing to protect my fingers from getting cut on the lip. Well, I discovered today that it does a pretty good job of sealing off the engine compartment from the passenger cabin. I will have to pull it off to remove the remaining bits of blue tape, to put some paint on the exposed steel and to glue it back, but its a keeper. I did file all the way around so it isn't sharp. That took much longer than I expected, but so much of this project falls into that category.


hinging on what?
I thought about piano hinging this door so it lifted from right to left instead of front to back. I thought is would be more useful or that I could figure out a way to get it to stay put using the cabinet. I discovered, though, that the square-ish hatch and the roundy roof wouldn't support that. So, we're going with front-to-rear. The shape of the floor is all lumpy, though, so a simple piano hinge would look weird. Instead, I got 4 1" hinges at Lowes and a small packet of 4-40 1/2 machine bolt/nuts. The hinges were set into the floor of the bus with rivets. Maybe I should have gone with bolt/nut on both sides. We'll see. Once the hinges were set, it was just a matter of patiently aligning the hatch, marking, drilling and bolting.


keeping it closed
Now that the door will go up and down, how do we hold it in position? First, we need something to keep it from falling into the engine. Since the hole was cut without regard for where the supports were, the rear edge was hanging 4" +/- from the rear support. To remedy that, I got a 1" angle of steel (36" long) and cut a 1-1/2" square from each end. After bending the remaining tab, I had a 33" long angle bar with a tab for mounting to the front-to-back supports. (I'll post a picture). I had to hammer on it a bit to get it to fit, leaving about 3/8" sticking into the open space. I riveting the tab's into the front-to-back supports. That left defining a knob of some kind to hold it closed.

I rooted around in the box of spare parts I got with the bus and found an old glove-box knob. "Perfect," I thought. Like setting the hinge holes, it was just a matter of patiently aligning, marking drilling, dremeling and filing. The hole is about the size of a nickle. I found, though, that the hole was a touch too close to the support bar I installed in the last paragraph, and the catch was too low. I took on of the cut-off squares I cut off the bar and fab'd a striker. After an afternoon of messing with it, I have a hinged hatch that holds shut.

All that's left is pulling the tape, sealing the hinge-side with vinyl tubing and maybe putting down a strip of weather stripping along the support bar. I think that might help eliminate any rattling. Oh, yeah, I'll probably put some noise/heat protector on the underside of the hatch. I already mentioned a little paint and glue. That's 10% left.

Inter-cooling planning
Well, I thought that by the time I got to this part of the post, I'd have a plan. I really don't. I'm going to use some thin flat-bar that I have lying around from my different radiator mounting experiments. Now that I have a cross-bar supporting the top-side of the hatch, I can tie into that for the top support. The bottom should be able to tie into the base pretty easily. I doubt I'll get to that work during the week, but it should be a small enough job to complete next Saturday. With luck, I'll be able to finish the hatch stuff too.

That's it for this one. Thanks again for following along.

pictures-
top: after installing hinges. You can see how I spread them out. That red circle is where the knob goes.
mid-top: while installing hinges. You can already see how it will look like it used to, except for a big black square. That rubber hanging over the seat back is a rear hatch seal.
middle: close-up of a hinge install.
mid-bottom: the striker during a test-install. I cut it down about 1/4" from that to work better.
bottom: hatch closed. close-up of glove-box knob holding it down.