Adventures with Nemo

No, this isn't a post about a clown fish. Today, I'm going to cover the adventure of trying to get Nemo, T's A4, to operate correctly again.

Break Down
This story actually starts very soon after the last post about A4 ended (See A4 Puzzles). It was late Summer, and T had been living with us for a while. His car had been behaving well, but he wanted to make sure everything was tip-top before leaving for Eugene. Well, we got it running, but he broke down with a coolant leak on the way to Eugene. We knew the radiator had a small leak, and we concluded that the leak was the cause. I drop-shipped him a replacement which he installed in his garage. Unfortunately, this was not the cause of his coolant loss.
T replaced the coolant outlet flange. Twice.
He replaced a few hoses.
He swapped the coolant overflow bottle with a used one from the junk yard.
By the end, he was no longer seeing coolant puddles appear under the car, but when he would return from a drive the coolant bottle would register below "MIN". Frustrated, he had the car towed home, to Beavo. He rode with the tow truck driver and borrowed Flash while K2 and I assured him that we would find the cause and fix it.
That was in June.

Rad Patch

K2 was out of school and missing his daily shop time, so we thought he would get into fixing the A4. Well, that didn't last very long as Summer brings its own distractions and rewards. So, while he took some air, I re-assembled what K2 had started (he was preparing for a head-gasket job) and got Nemo to start again. I had forgotten that I had drop-shipped a radiator down to Eugene, so I started to disassemble the front to remove it. I discovered that one of the fasteners holding the air conditioning condenser to the radiator was a screw instead of a bolt. AND, the tip of the screw had pierced the plastic side-tank on the radiator, causing a leak. So, I started with that.
I used an old Shade Tree trick for small (read: pin) holes. Do NOT do this for a hole of any significant size because the superglue could get inside the radiator rendering it less effective or even completely ineffective. Anyway, the quick fix for tiny holes:
drain the coolant down below the small hole and make sure the area is dry.
rough it up a little bit with sandpaper or a file
apply superglue, covering the hole
dust baking soda on top of the superglue, completely covering it
once dry, blow off excess baking soda
fill system with coolant/distilled water mixture and pressure test
Yes, it actually works. Again, this is only recommended for very small holes. There are epoxy-based kits that are designed for larger holes. At some point, though, even those become ineffective and you need to replace the whole thing.

Puddles
This worked great. No more leak from the radiator. But other puddles still appeared after a spirited test drive and the coolant in the bottle read below "MIN". Well, that's familiar. In fact, it is the exact experience that T was having. At least we're back to what he was seeing, and the pin hole in the radiator was not the cause. I found the coolant dripping from the lower radiator hose, which appeared to have been replaced with one from NAPA. I replaced it again with a Continental hose, and cinched the hose clamps down nice and tight. Another spirited drive and another drip-drip-drip, landing in the same spot. I could hear a "pssss" sound, and traced it to a hose near the intake where I could see water bubbling around it. I tightened it up and then started tightening every hose I could reach. I tightened the thermostat cover as well.

Temperature Sensor

During my early test drive, I noticed that the coolant temperature gauge wasn't working. This is often diagnosed as the sensor being bad. I knew we had recently replaced it, but I replaced it anyway. That didn't fix it. While installing, I noticed that the 4-plug socket that plugged into the sensor had a frayed the brown wire. When I tested continuity between that wire and the other end of the gauge-sending side of the socket, I got continuity at the wire (which had a bare spot), but not at the socket. So, I knew the socket was bad. But, where do you find a 4-pin socket with the correct alignment grooves? On eBarf. I cut off the old plug, leaving a short length at the socket for reference and as much wire in the loom as I could. One at a time, I checked and re-checked as I connected the wires with crimp-on butt-connectors and then heat-shrink'd the connections. It plugged in easily and with the hoses tightened, it was ready to test drive. If you replace a plug like this, take care to wire it correctly or you could fry your ECU. No, I didn't, but I was full-on scared about it until I turned the ignition to run and saw the coolant temp appear on my OBD-II reader.

Leak Free

I took a familiar drive up the connector streets onto the main road, thundered down that main road, right at the major intersection, around the next main road to the connector streets on the other side of the neighborhood before returning home. This route has stop and starts, speeds up to 45mph as well as lots of turns and speed bumps. All while remaining within 1/2 mile of the house. By the time I got home, the temperature had gotten up high enough for the thermostat to open. I backed into the drive, pulled the hood latch and hopped out. I couldn't hear any "psss" noise and there was a single drip from the lower radiator hose. I figured that drip could have been residual from prior leaks, and a longer test drive was needed before I called it fixed.

Coolant Bottle Swap
I decided to replace the coolant bottle since I knew the one that was in was not exactly right. The bottle fit the mounting points, but the low-coolant-level sensor was rectangular instead of round, so the sensor wasn't plugged in. When you know you have a coolant leak, that's not a good set up. I drained enough coolant out of the old bottle so I could swap them out, but I did not fully bleed the air. Once re-filled, I got distracted, and left it filled, but un-bled.

Another Drive

The opportunity for a longer drive appeared the following weekend when T stopped by after helping his mom with some chores. He was eager to see how Nemo was progressing, so we pulled him out and took a drive, T behind the wheel. T was thrilled to feel the big turbo spin up (PO upgraded it) and hug the turns (PO upgraded suspension too). By the time we got home, we had been running at normal temperatures for probably 10 minutes. When we got home, we both realized that we couldn't smell coolant, and I mean not at all. Not a whiff. All prior drives had at least a small smell, so this was a really good sign. We popped the hood and saw that the coolant bottle was down to just above MIN. Recognizing this could have been because I failed to bleed the air, we figured we would wait until it was cool again before checking. We also discovered that the tail lights were not illuminating with the headlights. I'll need to fix that before T takes the car back to Eugene.

Bad News
So, I seized upon an opportunity to drive Nemo when I had to take a run to Tualatin. That's a 20+ minute drive with a mix of highways and surface streets, so it would be a good test. When I arrived at my destination, the coolant bottle was pretty much empty. I let the car cool down and then added some water, and drove back home. When I got home, the bottle, again, was nearly empty. I wanted to prove that the system wasn't leaking. So, I grabbed my MityVac. When I removed the overflow bottle cap to refill the water, I could distinctly smell exhaust as the pressure released. I was starting to conclude that the head gasket or head were allowing water into the exhaust. To confirm there were no other leaks, I removed one of the hoses from the bottle, plugged where the hose came from and applied 14psi of pressure to the cooling system. Over the course of several minutes, the pressure would drop by 1/2 psi, and no coolant was appearing anywhere. More reason to believe the coolant is traveling into the combustion chamber. So, my next task, which I will document separately, will be to remove the head, have it tested and then replace the head gasket.

This is a big job. Just for context, I got a quote from a mobile mechanic I've never used, and he came back with $1250US. Seeing that the quote is more than we could get if we sold the car if it didn't have this problem, we're doing it ourselves. Well, myself. I really would rather not spend my autumn working on the A4. I would rather combine efforts with C and dedicate ourselves to the Zed (1979 280ZX), completing the sand-down and possibly spraying primer before the temperatures get too cold to paint. Oh well.

It has been unseasonably cold for more than 3 weeks (10F* / 6*C or more below average), so the window for spraying primer may have closed and it may make the Nemo work a little less fun. Regardless, I probably will not have much time to get back to Hapy until dead-of-winter. I may delay the electrical re-do I had in mind and focus instead on recovering the front seats, since I can do that indoors where its warm and dry. We'll see how I feel and how the weather behaves when the time presents itself.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

Now Water-COOLed

Before I begin, our family lost a brother over the weekend (14 September). Travis was taken from us too soon, but he left doing what he loved most, riding his Harley on a beautiful early autumn afternoon. To meet him was to know him, and to know him was to love him. You will be greatly missed, brother. On to today's post...

The cooling system for Hapy's new engine has been a journey. Looking back on multiple years of efforts to get Hapy to be genuinely water-cooled, today's post covers what may be the last thing I needed to do. I have lots of links referencing pretty much all of the things I've done, but I probably missed a few at the beginning of the project because many of those early posts covered multiple project aspects.

Initial Cooling System
Recall when I started this project, I sourced a radiator off craigslist for $30 (See TDI - Day 2). At the time, I was even offered the air-conditioning condenser, and it had the original fans. I passed on the air-conditioning condenser, which he subsequently sold, and I removed the fans. I added 2 flex-cool fans and wrapped the radiator with an aluminum frame (See bracketing the radiator and rad brackets continue) and put sides on it (See Radiator shrouded) to reduce the amount of air allowed to slip back around from the rad exhaust back into the rad intake. This sort of worked, though I always had my eye on the temperature. Along the way, I removed a bunch of extra wiring from the original harness that was part of the air conditioning circuit, and added a switch to the dash for turning the fans on.

Troubles

Then the leaks started. I spent many hours trying to solve outlet flange leaks (See Reality Strikes, for example). Ultimately, I learned that the plastic parts were designed to fail first, so more expensive parts didn't fail when the engine got too hot and the coolant expanded faster than the expansion tank could handle. Still, replacing that outlet flange and getting the coolant temperature sensor to seat properly are two of the most patience-testing things I've done on this conversion. Having these components by the fuel tank makes the reach and visibility particularly difficult.

Still, with the system seemingly in-tact, the engine temperature would still climb and not come back down easily. As the miles and years passed, the engine would heat up faster and cool down slower. We had a super-long return from 4Peaks in 2017 (See 4Peaks 2017 - Road Report), and had our first vagabonding experience when we were unable to make it to Frog Lake due to an overheat, and big coolant loss (See Almost Frog Lake Part 1 and Part 2). The whole time, Boo was incredibly supportive, and heroically kept my spirits up. My last, most tragic failure was when I added the wrong kind of coolant. That amplified the problems, and ultimately led to the troubled drive to Newberry this Summer (See Newberry 2019 - Getting There).

Resolution Path
I promised Hapy that I would start fixing the cooling system when we were on the side of the US-26 outside Rhododendron, unable to make it to Frog Lake. So, that next Spring, I replaced the old Jetta radiator with a Mishimoto all-aluminum radiator (See Back to the Bus: Rad Swap Part 1 and Part 2). Things were not that much better on the way to 4Peaks in 2018 (See 4Peaks 2018 - Road Report), but with the ignition fire on the way home, it quickly moved to the back burner. I removed the wiring for the heater fan controls when I did the ignition replacement, believing it was causing large load spikes. While that didn't really change the cooling system, its a change worth documenting. By the time the ignition was done, festival season was over. But before I covered Hapy for the winter, I replacing the fans with a real dual-fan shroud (See Cowling the Hapy Radiator). I thought this was the final solve. The drive to 4Peaks seemed fairly good (See 4Peaks 2019 - Road Report), with temperature spiking at 196*, but the drive home was again spent watching the temperature gauge. We peaked at 205*, but the alternate route through the farm country allowed us to keep our speed (and therefore temperatures) down. The drive to Newberry, though, was enough for me to know that I had not solved the problem, and I really needed to fix it right if I was going to truly enjoy driving distances with Hapy.

Last Solve

In my last post, I described the issues with the fuel I bought in Oakridge (See Green Diesel isn't BioDiesel). That bad fuel held my speed so low, I didn't have temperature issues the rest of the way home. I knew they still lurked, so after the fuel system was drained, new filter system installed and new fuel added, I shifted back to my nemesis: the cooling system. I started with a basic drain and water-flush. Then, I removed the thermostat and filled with water, ran the engine, and drained. I did this a couple of times. Then, I went nuclear and did a chemical flush with Thoroflush. The Prestone radiator flush is weak tea compared to this stuff.

The directions are hard to find on the internet, but it's fairly clear:
Remove 1 gallon of coolant from your system
Mix one gallon of water with the right amount of Thoroflush mix for your application
Add mixture to cooling system
Get engine up to temperature (to open thermostat) and run for 10-15 minutes. DO NOT RUN LONGER THAN 15 MINUTES
Drain and flush with water until drainage is clear (no pink from chemicals)

Seems fairly straightforward. But, I pulled my thermostat, so how long do I need to run it? I was unable to find any direction for this case. I concluded that since my engine was fairly warm (upper 160's), if I added the mixture and ran it for less than 15 minutes, I would do no harm, but might not get maximum benefits. So, that's what I did. I used the water from the 2nd rinse-flush and added the mixture to that, ran the engine for just shy of 15 minutes, drained, flushed, and flushed again. After flushing everything out, I re-installed the thermostat with a new housing and O-ring. I determined that the old housing was slightly warped (possibly from the flushing efforts), and found that removing the hose from the thermostat housing makes re-install 100x easier. I filled with G40 and distilled water, clearing the bleeders so there were no air pockets trapped in the system.

Testing and Proving

gmap image of 99W steep

I wanted to demonstrate that this was the fix. So, I drove around town like a total dick: jack-rabbit starts, rapid accelerations... basically zooming around West Beaverton pushing the bus as hard as I could for a good 15 or 20 minutes. It wasn't until I pulled over onto our quiet street that the temperature raised above 185*F (to 188*F), and even then it was only for a second before it dropped back down to 185*F. The real test came later in the week when we drove to Honeyman State Park, up to Newport, through Lincoln City and home again. I'll post on that trip later, but I'll summarize the coolant test with a simple number: 194. 194*F was the highest the temperature ever got the entire 300+ mile road trip, including climbing the coast range and driving in slow, heavy traffic. At no time did I need to pull over because of the temperature. I did not drive especially gingerly either.

There is a hill climb on 99W between Newberg and Sherwood. Every time we take the back road alternate route, we drive up this hill as our last big pull. Accordingly, it is a consistent gauge for how Hapy is doing. When I drove this hill after Newberry, I barely kept the temperature under 203*F, driving with the flashers on in 2nd gear (25mph* tops). This time, Hapy's temp peaked at 194*F running at the speed of traffic (55mph*) in 4th. In both cases, this was at the end of a multi-hour daytime summer-heat drive. This feels like strong evidence the cooling issues have been solved.

That's it for today's saga. Sorry there weren't any real pictures, there really wasn't much to take a picture of, except, maybe, a picture of the cooling system map. That reminds me, I never did document system-by-system how the conversion was done. Hmm.. maybe I should dust off that documentation effort over the winter. Anyway, thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB leaking leaking leaking

While solving the missing emission control issues (See eMission Control We Have a Problem), I took a few test drives to shake out each change. Today's quick post covers 2 things I discovered on that first test drive.

Leaking Fuel
The MGB had been stuck in the garage behind the donorZed all winter. I didn't have much cash to do a lot of work, so in some ways the winter was kind of lost to the donorZed. Still, with it finally gone, I was able to restart the MGB efforts. So, for my first test drive, after getting it unburied from being stuck behind the donorZed, was to get some gas. The drive there was similar to my last drive last Fall: loud with squishy brakes. Lovely. Still, I was almost completely out of petrol, so I stayed the course. This time, though, all of the signals worked, the brake lights functioned, the temp gauge worked, and the fan came on when I flipped the switch, so things were looking up.... until I started filling the tank.

Here in Oregon, we're not allowed to fill our own gas (but diesel is okay), so while the attendant started gassing, I washed the windscreen. Within a minute, the gas attendant started freaking out about gas dumping out under the car. Neat. I looked under and could see that the fuel level float was leaking. Not one to test drive without a trunk full of tools, I grabbed a slotted screwdriver and pushed it the rest of the way, stopping the leak. The gas man was too freaked out, so we called it "full enough" and I drove home. It didn't leak again, and a quick shot with carb cleaner got the gas off the underside of the tank.

The fuel level gauge wasn't working 100% reliably, and I concluded that the sender was not getting a good enough ground. So, I ran a short wire from the side of the float to one of the bolts holding the tank in-place. Whether that was a factor or not, the level looks much better now, showing over 1/2 a tank.

Leaking Coolant
When I got home, I saw that the thermostat housing was leaking again. Grr... so much for a fun drive about. Instead, I removed the housing, applied more gasket sealer and actually followed the directions: apply liberally, hand tighten and let sit for an hour, torque down to spec and then, most importantly, no liquids or back-into-service for 24 hours. I'm pretty sure I did the first 2 steps and then forgot about the torquing the last time. Duh. The following day, I topped of the cooling system and took a test drive. No leaking at the thermostat. Sweetness.

Unfortunately, a few days later, after another test drive, I noticed leaking coming from the block drain. Apparently, this drain is the source of one of two common troubles: either it is completely clogged with cooling system gunk (rust particles, and general sludge) or it is a leak source. I'm in the second camp, but my leak is special. Usually, the leak is from the spigot not sealing because of a design flaw. No, mine is leaking from around the edge. So, rather than get a replacement drain, I'm just going to remove it, wrap the threads in plumbers tape slobber on some blue gasket-maker and thread it back in. Of course this time, I'll follow the gasket-maker instructions right the first time.

Leaking Voltage
It turned out that the battery that came with the car was 7 years old. After many cycles of short drives, I found that I needed to put the battery on the trickle charger more and more often until finally it just stopped accepting a charge. I went out and got a "gold" battery and new ground cable at Advance Auto Parts. We get most of our batteries from Les Schwab, but their hours are just not well suited to people who have day jobs, so Advance got the business.

Now, the little car fires right up, the gauges all work, the lights and fans come right on... its almost like a "real" car.  The brakes are still spongy, and it is still really loud. I got after those next and I'll post about what I did.... next time. Thanks, as always for following along.

MGB - coolant pump replacement (Part 1)

Last Fall, before I got too deep into fixing things on the MG, I took it to the specialists at British Auto NorthWest in North Plains. After addressing just about everything else, I am finally getting to the most important thing they called out: the coolant pump. Today's post covers that effort. This got really long, so I've split it into pieces. So, today we'll cover parts and the tear down.

Parts
Like any project, replacement parts are needed. At the very least, we need a new pump. These pumps aren't nearly as expensive as you may fear: $40US. These usually deliver with a replacement gasket. Verify before you commit.

Hoses. How old are your hoses? You don't know? Well, they're probably really old then. Best to assume that anyway. The hoses to/from the heater and the larger ones to/from the radiator are car-specific. Again, they are not terribly expensive unless you choose to go with silicone. Even then, the set is around $60US. The other hoses (from rear of head to pipe, and the smaller ones connected to the overflow bottle) are standard 5/16" hoses and can be purchased by the foot for next to nothing.

Hose Clamps. Look at the hose clamps. Rusty like mine? Get a slew of new ones. You'll need 4 larger ones for the hoses which route to the radiator. There are 4 smaller ones for the hoses leading to/from the heater plus 2 more smaller ones for the hose leading from the rear of the head, 2 more for the smaller hose from the radiator to the overflow bottle and one extra for the overflow bottle overflow hose. The other end of that hose on my MGB routed through the radiator mount, which seemed kinda weird. I'm not sure where it's supposed to go, but it probably doesn't need a clamp on that end. I found all clamps at Ace Hardware and they cost around $1US a-piece, so around $15US all-in.

Thermostat. If you haven't had any temperature issues, you probably don't need to change it. They are very inexpensive though, and getting the system apart for a thermostat afterwards just seems needless. So, I encourage spending the extra $8. I also replaced the thermostat housing ($6US), because mine was rusty and I replaced the housing gasket ($1US). The gasket does not ship with the housing, so buy them both. You may find it necessary to change the gasket even if you aren't swapping out the housing. My original gasket was smashed up against the housing and didn't look reusable. Often things like this are one-use-only. Also note that the housing does not deliver with the filler plug in the top. For a small brass cap, this is actually kind of expensive relative to everything else at $4.50US.

Temperature Sender. If your engine temp gauge isn't working, now would be the time to replace it. My gauge worked fine, so I didn't do this. They are around $7US, so in retrospect, I probably should have.

Fan Relay Switch. If your radiator fans are still triggered by the sensor in the radiator, you may want to replace this while you're in there. These range from $15US to $40US, representing the most expensive part so far. My fans are activated by a switch on the dash so I didn't need this. I highly recommend the dash switch. From talking to the British Auto Works guys, it sounds like those thermostatic fan switches are the system weak spot.

Fasteners. Of course I'm going to advocate replacing all fasteners. The thermostat housing is held on with 3 studs. These are 5/16-18 on the head-side and 5/16-24 pointing up. All of the bolts I replaced are 5/16-24 as well, just different lengths. I did not replace the tensioner bolt for the alternator, but did replace the 2 mounting bolts, the studs and nuts for the thermostat housing and the bolts for the coolant pump. Get stainless, if you can, so they don't rust-up on you again. And, they look pretty.

Tear Down
I was fortunate to have my step-son K2 available to help out again. So, while I finished routing and re-routing the fuel lines, fuel filter, flip-over shut-off valve, etc, he started the cooling system tear down. We had pushed the MG back into the garage for the Fall, with fears of the rainy season starting before we had a top. Our fears were met with sheeting rain on the other side of the garage door transom. Since we're dealing with old-skool coolant that animals like to drink (and then die from), it was all the more important to keep the cat out of the garage and the liquids well contained. Since I was working on the fuel system at the other end, we decided not to lift the front end, and used a dishpan to catch coolant.

K2 attacked the lower radiator hose from above, loosening the rusty clamp and then pulling off the hose from the lower radiator bib. Once the gush slowed to a trickle, he removed the cap from the overflow bottle. This allowed air into the system and more coolant came out. The coolant up to this point was really nice and green. I'd expected much worse. We poured the coolant into an empty coolant bottle for re-use and then returned to the job of removing hoses. Some of the hose clamps were very rusty. We used a WD-40 product for rust penetration to loosen them up. It worked for all but one which needed to get cut off.

old rusty pump on its way out

With the hoses off, and the coolant stowed away, we moved on to removing the coolant pump. After doing the work, I found a step-by-step on the MG experience forum, but I'll detail what we did... which, of course, wasn't what they had written down. First, we loosened the mounting and tensioner bolts for the alternator. These are 1/2" bolts. We released the tension on the belt and pulled the belt. We noted that the coolant pump shares one of the bolts with the alternator so we pulled both mounting bolts completely and moved the alternator out of the way. Now, we could get after the coolant pump. The pulley is reusable and the four bolts holding it to the pulley loosened by hand. I held the pulley with one hand and a small socket ratchet in the other. I still had the smog pump pulley, so in order of removal they go: bolts, pulley cap, smog pulley, accessory pulley. I set the cap and accessory pulley aside for clean-up. Once the pulleys were off, I could get after the coolant pump, using our 1/2" socket again. We were reminded of gravity as we loosened the last bolt and coolant started to flow from behind the pump. Considering how far we'd gone, this was our first spill.

We set the pump aside and shifted to the thermostat housing. The rust on the studs and the nuts on top was so bad that all three studs spooled out of the head rather than the nut threading off. The gasket was a mess and the thermostat was stuck to the head. Some quick work with a putty knife removed both. Last, I removed the overflow bottle by removing the 2 nuts from inside the passenger-side fender/wing and we were ready to clean some stuff up.

That's it for today's portion of this work. Next time, I'll cover cleaning up various parts, including the inside of the radiator, and re-assembly. Thanks, as always, for following along.

Planning Winter Break

My employer shuts the offices down for the week between Christmas and NewYears. Half of my team will be taking the week of Christmas off as well, so I figured I would too. Today, I'm going to try to string together a plan for how to get some bus stuff done over the 2 weeks without spending all (or none) of my time wrenching. I have 16 days from this Saturday through the final Sunday. I added actual time spent edits in orange for my own benefit for when I want to make estimates next year. Goes to show that high level planning is wise, but getting too deep into detail is a waste.

Holidays
It is the holidays, after all, so I should expect at least one family event. Bowl games, the Winter Classic NHL game, etc. Assume another day there. Instead of 16 days, now its 14 days. One family event plus shopping for gifts. NHL Winter Classic plus a bowl game and some NFL. All in, there were probably 4 days "lost" to actually taking a break. Actual burndown at 12.

Snow
I've been pretty transparent about my love of playing in the snow. Snow has a peculiar sound when you're on the mountain away from the crowds and the bustle. I fully intend to visit the mountain a few times, so there's got to be room for at least 2 day-trips to snow. I'd love to make one of them in the bus, but I've posted enough on that score. Playing it safe, I'll assume 3 day trips so reduce to 11 days. EDIT: went twice. Burndown to 10.

Regular chore stuff
Any break brings with it hopes and dreams of some non-vehicular job getting done. Clean this, fix that, etc. Reduce to 10 days. This was an ongoing affair, but all in, there were probably 2 days worth of time spent doing this kind of stuff. Now 8.

Kid's Car
The A4 has a few problems, including a bad thermostat. Since everything takes longer cuz I"m slow. I'll set aside a day, even though it shouldn't take more than a couple hours. Now 9 days. EDIT: didn't fix the thermostat, but fixed a few other things and changed the oil. Thermostat on an A4 is a huge deal, like change the timing belt huge. Maybe in the Summer. Regardless, days now at 7.

Mrs.
Inevitably, I'll want to do stuff with my wife. I love spending time with her, and she works a lot, so there will be time spent dilly-dallying in front of the fire while she works. Maybe this is where I fit in the regular chore stuff. Assume a day lost, so now we're down to 8 days. We fit time around the edges. She worked every day except Christmas Day, and we spent that on the mountain (See Christmas at SkiBowl). She works too hard. Still 7.

The Painted House
I think I posted pictures last year or the year before of my usual Christmas tradition of painting a ceramic house for one of my family members every year. With the intensity around work, I haven't started yet. It usually takes me many many hours. While the one I have selected isn't crazy complex, it will still take me a while. Figure 3 days lost there, so now I'm down to 5 days. EDIT: this actually took over 4 days. Looks great though. Down to less than 3 days.

What Fits?
Like anyone who owns a project car, there is a long list of stuff to do and a short list of hours available to do it. Estimating can be a challenge because you never really get a big block of time to do things. Looking back on things, it's hard to tell how long it took, so you can't use past experience to help estimate new things. Awesome. Here's my list of things I want to do in approximately the order in which I'd like to do them, and my rough guess of how long it will take.

 - Fuel Gauge. I haven't found any how-to's on the internet. All links lead to replacing the float in the tank, which isn't the problem. Since I'll have to figure it out (and then post about it), figure 1/2 a day. I fiddled with this a few times (see Fuel Gauge Replacement), but in the end it's an issue with the float, not the gauge. Awesome. Down to about 1 day.

- Heat / Leak. Like the fuel gauge, there's no roadmap to follow. In order to really test it out, I need to get the bus engine up to normal operating temperature (NOT) and look for leaks. 1/2 day. I was able to identify and solve the leak (see Vanagon Rear Heater Leak Fix), but it took me most of a day to do it. This left no time for anything else.

 - saggy butt. There are lots of how-to's on fixing the saggy butt problem on a bus. Since the rear end hasn't ever been apart, I expect this to take a while. Knowing my ability to take much longer than everyone else, I'm saying a day per side, so 2 days. Early during the break, I went to Discount Import Parts (VWFLAPS), but with the holidays causing such disruption to deliveries, they couldn't have my bushings until almost NewYears. cancel this job until the Jetta's are solid runners. I have the bushings in-hand now, though

 - Rear brakes. I haven't really addressed the rear brakes in years. I'm sure they're over due for at least new shoes. I have complete brakes innards, so I'd like to just completely replace everything. The first side will take most of a day while I figure it out, the other side will take 2 hours. So, 1 day. Never touched them, but I did find all the hardware I had and remembered that I did the shoes a few years ago. Since the bus doesn't see much travel, they could be okay. I need to pull the drums and see, though.

 - wheels / rims. Remember those? Yeah, me too. What happened? Life, and now they're sitting patiently for me to get back to them. They need sanding down and another coat of primer, maybe some filler. Then I need to finish sand them, color and clear coat. Figure a 1/2 day per rim, so that's 2 days. Didn't touch them other than to move them around the garage.

Hmm... math says I'm down to -1 days. Something has to give, but knowing I have more to do than I have time ahead of time is better than regret at the other end. Maybe I collapse the chores into one of the "holiday" days of watching football and hockey. Maybe I leave the brakes or the saggy butt (or both) for a weekend. We'll see.

That's it for now. I expect to spend close to a week working on cars and some time playing in the snow, so there will be plenty of raw material for future posts. Thanks, as always, for following along. I hope you have a happy, rest (or project) filled holiday season-

Post holiday, I did things around the edges that I hadn't planned on: changed the air filters on 2dot0 and Flash, replaced the glow plugs on Flash, fixed the slider door (the cable became detached) and started working on a new shelf idea or the bus. I took a stab at constructing my own kick panels but decided it wasn't worth the work compared to just buying a pair, clowned around with the stereo in the bus and got the unlock codes for the junkyard stereo I got for Flash. I also went out to a movie with my wife (that Hunger Games one) and a movie (Star Wars 7) with one of my boys. Overall, it was a great break. One thing to remember for next year: the week I have the boys I really can't plan for much of anything. They need my time.

Couldn't Stand the Weather

Car stuff today.  Brief?  Is it ever?.  Complains about no garage?  No, actually.  I have to remind myself that owning cars that are over 10 years old with more than 150k miles on them requires owner responsibility.  In that spirit, no complaints; just doing.

Silence Canyon at the pull-out.
Note the snow line in the trees

Cold Shot

While I was getting Flash back from Johnny, he pointed out that the he (Flash) still didn't want to start first thing in the morning.  I thought it had something to do with the vacuum lines.  So, I spent the beautiful Saturday afternoon re-running the vacuum lines.  Some folks may not see that as a perfect Saturday, but it was in the low 60's (F), sunny and the birds were out.  I have evidence of that last part on the side of Flash, but I digress.  Some of the vacuum lines were original.  Yikes.  Most seemed okay, but I replaced them anyway.  I needed about 8 feet of 3mm and 7 feet of 5mm line to do the job.  I have a few extra feet of the 3mm after over-buying.  Anyway, the cold-start trouble persists, so I'll be hitting the interweb (read:TDIClub) for clues.  No codes, no smoke (except on that cold start) and Flash runs fantastically otherwise.

Couldn't Stand the Weather

Sunday (today) was a day for the bus, and a change in the weather.  I mean that both ways.  The clouds rolled back in, dropping spittle-rain this morning.  After running T over to a youth group meeting in Flash, I decided I'd give the bus a go for the pick-up trip.  Remember, that I hadn't taken a test drive to verify whether I'd actually fixed the leak, but I felt pretty confident that I'd nailed it.  He started on the first try.  No real hesitations, but he was chilly.  The drive over was an exercise in getting the gears all slippery.  Shifting was stiff and he wanted to pop out of second.  I sat with the engine running in the parking lot while waiting for T to appear.  He was out of sight, but apparently heard the rumbly rumbly and tore around the corner, beaming.  e knew exactly what I was driving.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, he asked, "how's he driving?".  I responded with driving the bus like I stole him (well, as much as you can with a microbus).  "Zippy," T said.  At this point, the engine temp finally got high enough to trigger the thermostat and allow coolant to really move through the flange and into the radiator.  The temp climbed to 196* and crawled back down.  It see-sawed from 188* to 194* from then on during the drive home.  We stopped to look at the house we had tried to short-sale purchase last Summer.  We saw a puddle forming under the bus and knew then that the "fix" wasn't.  Back to the condo we went, a little dejected after such a promising start.

germane to nothing, it's a Nutria 

When the House is a-Rockin' Don't Bother Knockin'

As we pulled into the parking lot of the condo complex, I noticed the neighbor walking towards our parking spot.  Now, this neighbor isn't one of the condo folks.  He lives in a house that shares the property line.  In front of his house are parked many cars (some volksies).  They split and sell firewood.  They build and sell picnic tables.  There are always one or two folks out front, and a radio is always playing alternative radio.  Modern hippies?  Maybe.  Anyway, one of the guys who live there walked over and asked if we (T & I) could solve a debate.  Apparently, they heard me drive off, and that sparked a whole debate about whether it had a diesel in it or if it was just tuned crazy.  Big smile.  I pushed back the matress and the engine hatch I cut and watched is eyes bug-out.  LOL.  Made my day. Apparently, he and a bunch of folks he knows are mechanics and they specialize on VW's.... mostly the older ones, but they work at a shop I know if (omitted to protect everybody).  I encouraged any one of them to stop on by if they wanna see the crazy TDI-powered microbus.  I added, "if they wanna elp figure out the coolant leak, I live right there (pointing)".  :-D  I'm no dummy, and I'm tired of trying to isolate the leak.

That's it for today.  I'll revisit the leak next weekend.  Hopefully, I'll have a few extra pairs of hands around, even if they're just there to talk and point and drink beers.  To avoid the questions, I spotted that Nutria in the picture on my way into work as I passed a water hazard / green space.  If you've never seen one before, it was big, like a 16" long body plus a nearly 10" tail, nibbling on the grass.  Sometimes Mother Nature is just plain weird.

AirCooled AfterMarket Axis of Evil (Part III)

It seems like there are 3 different things that all get changed around the same time by folks that mean well, but don't realize they're doing their air-cooled VW a disservice. Maybe they got misled by some flashy advertisement. Maybe they were talked into it by a mechanic that "used to race" so he knew what he was doing. Regardless, if you find one of these aftermarket modifications, the odds are very good that the other 2 have been made as well. This is part III of a 3 part series dedicated to the different AirCooled Aftermarket Axis of Evil modifications. So, if the other 2 were Iraq and Iran, then this one must be my North Korea.

Evil Aftermarket Modification #3: removing the thermostat or more of the temperature regulation system
I've never really understood why people do this, but it happens so often, it has become a practice. Kind of like selling nuclear equipment or materials to non-proliferation countries, this will only come back to haunt you. Eventually. We call these engines "air cooled" which sounds like they're always hot and need cold air blowing on them all the time or they'll melt in front of your eyes. While this is true when you're running through the desert in mid-afternoon in August, most of us aren't doing that. Ever. So why should you care? Your heads can warp if you blow cold air on them when they are not in need of cooling, for one thing. For another, your fuel won't burn properly, driving down your power and your mpg. A thermostat and the air vanes help the engine get to its most efficient temperature, and then helps keep both the oil and the engine at that temperature. "The oil?" you ask. Yeah, the oil. Although we call these "air cooled" John Muir pointed out that we should probably call them "oil cooled" as well because its the oil that transfers a lot of the combustion temperature out. If you don't have the air vanes, you aren't getting air to your oil cooler, and you're heading for an overheating.

How do I recognize this evil?
This evil comes in 2 forms-
First: no thermostat. Get on the ground behind your bus with a flashlight and shine the beam through the exhaust above the lower right-side engine tin so you're looking between the right heat exchanger (manifold) and the block. Is there a cable running from the front end back to a pulley and then up to the top of the engine? No? Someone took your thermostat off and didn't replace it.
Second: no vanes. Open the rear engine door and reach over the top of the fan housing (the big silver thing on the very back of the engine). Is there a bar there that runs the length of the back of the housing? No? They got your vanes too! It is very rare that you'll have lost your vanes but kept your thermostat. This is because the thermostat has a cable running from it to control those vanes, and removing the vanes is much more time consuming than pulling the thermostat plus cable. As much as the removal of the thermostat irritates me, the removal of the vanes is just hazardous to your engine. This needs to be remedied. While you're at it, put a thermostat on there.

How do I eradicate the evil-doer(s)?
If all you're missing is the thermostat, you can no longer get the original styled part. Maybe this is why the old one didn't get replaced. Nah... You can get a newer version type1 thermostat and have it altered to suit a type4 (pancake) engine. I had the fine folks at aircooled.net do this for me and it bolts right in. Tie a small fishing weight to a length of string. Tie the other end to the vane rod and drop the weight through the tin-hole in the top of the engine just to the left of the right-side of the fan housing. If you use a flashlight and a mirror (or stick your head in there) its pretty easy to see that there's only the one hole. Tape the cable end to the string and pull the cable up through the hole. Push the rod all the way forward and thumbscrew the cable to the rod. Wait, you don't have a rod?! Then we need to fix that first.
Replacing the vanes and actuating rod takes a little more time and requires some used parts (theBusCo.com is my personal playground for stuff like this). Its actually easier to do this by dropping the engine, but if you don't want to do that (like I didn't), follow these instructions. You need to remove the exhaust (from the heat exchangers back), and the rear engine tin. Do you have a heat reflector between the muffler and the lower engine tin? No? Yeah, that's not surprising. As long as you're there, you should find and install one of these. It will drop your engine temperatures a few degrees when the engine is running it’s warmest - when you want the temp drop. Anyway, remove the alternator tin (leave the alternator there, though), and remove the fan grill, timing scale and fan. Remove the little tins (covers) between the heat exchangers and the fan housing. There's one on each side and they're about 3 inches by 1 inch and held in by 2 flathead bolts each. If you have the little flappers in there, grab them. If you don't, add them to the list for the used bus parts place. Now, for the heavy part: support the fan housing with something and remove the bolts (in the hole where the fan was) that hold the fan housing to the engine block. You'll probably discover a few flathead screws that you didn't take out holding you up. Pull them and wiggle the fan housing back. There is just enough space to fit the new-to-you vanes into the fan housing. Make sure the bottom of the vanes click into the little hinge pins or they won't operate correctly. Hold the rod steady and fit the housing back into place. Test the action of the rod. No scraping noise? They move freely and make a clatter-clunk noise at each end of travel? You're good! Put those big bolts back in and take a breath. The install is genuinely the reverse of the install. Don't forget to put the little flaps in where the heat exchangers meet the fan housing, and cut a gasket for the little covers when you put them on. Put the fan on squarely and torque it down in steps, don't forget your timing scale. Make sure you place the gasket between the alternator and its tin properly. When you're ready to put your rear engine tin back on, get your heat reflector ready - it is held on by the same flathead bolts. Its recommended to use new fasteners and gaskets when you put your exhaust together. I use stainless steel bolts, washers and nuts whenever I can so I can reuse them. And they don't rust.

I think somewhere along the line someone in Southern California or in the desert states came up with a few hot-rodder ideas that worked in their area. Everywhere else we have dew points, stop signs and morning chill that we have to think about when tooling on these buses. Once you've removed these 3 demons from your bus you will notice that it runs better in all kinds of weather, has better power and gets better mileage.