Flash Departs

Quick post today. Unrelated to the usual car stuff, my older son, T, reported to the fire line this morning, starting his forest fire-fighting season almost a month earlier this year than last. Currently, the Bootleg fire on the Oregon-California border is 0% contained, has doubled in size over the last 48 hours, and threatens the main electricity transmission lines from Oregon power suppliers to California power consumers. That is just one of 8 fires south of Eugene, where he deploys. I feel both pride and concern for his well-being, knowing that he will be among the hundreds of fire fighters dedicated to containing the threat this summer. On to cars...

Zed Update

I do continue the body work on Zed, but there is little to highlight about it that I haven't already mentioned. My last post was about re-shooting the high-build primer. Since then, I sanded the shell and all of the various body parts with 320-grit. Once completed, I shop-vacuum'd all of the dust and then felt for wobbles for more another round of body filler. This time, I tried something a little different that I hadn't read online: chalk. I took a bar of chalk the kids used to use on the sidewalks and slide the flat edge along the body panels. Wherever the chalk would disappear, there was a small dent or crease/scratch that I had not found before. After going over all of the body panels, I found a couple dozen small imperfections. Considering how much I've worked on this car, I had hoped for better. Still, I persist. I expect I will get these fixed in a few Bondo cycles (read: until I'm satisfied) and then I will set up for urethane primer to seal everything. The body kit has still not arrived, so this saga has still a few chapters left in it.

When a Friend Asks for Help

The highlight around the Zed bodywork was the unexpected departure of Flash, my 2001 TDI Jetta. Since the pandemic started, Flash hasn't really seen much use. I work from home now (driving much less), and with the now mostly-operable fleet, he hasn't seen much action, sitting still while I go for spins in the bus or Nemo or Boo's new-to-her 2009 A4. A few weeks ago, Boo and I were at a family event. Our niece and significant other were detailing a hit-and-run incident they were subjected to, resulting in their commuter car getting totaled. Their other "car" is a big diesel truck needed for their construction business. While it is a great truck, the mileage sucks and it is a poor match for longer drives or A-to-B runs that do not include hauling stuff. So, Boo and I offered up Flash to them. They are familiar with and like diesels. They have a project VW Beetle, so understand VW's. In preparation, I re-installed the Panzer-plate (5 17mm bolts) that I had removed when I was planning to install it onto K'Lack, which is also on long-term loan / rent-to-buy to a family member. Turned out, K'Lack rides higher than Flash, and our niece's place has rougher roads, so Flash is the right place for the plate, since I only had one.

You Help Them

They were recently local, visiting in their big hauler pickup truck, and dropped by to collect Flash with a U-Haul flatbed car-hauler. Flash could absolutely have made the drive to their place, but they like riding together, and have the ability to tow, so why not? In classic Flash form, he pulled onto the trailer without incident. Because of the low front bumper, we needed to remove it so it would not get hung-up on the front of the trailer when Flash was backed off. There are 4 Torx bolts that hold it on at the nose, and, if your car is all in one piece, there are a few screws from the wheel wells. The front bumper cover went into the bed of the pickup, and we inched Flash forward the last little bit. The U-Haul flatbed car-hauler have straps to cinch the front wheels down, and they secured Flash into place. With the ramps set back into their respective slots, Flash was ready for his next adventure. He arrived at his new home without incident.

Actual ownership is blurry; this is a try-before exercise. Also, Flash will need to have his timing belt replaced in the next few months so he will be visiting our friend Justin before the rains return. Net-net, Flash is not completely gone, but it sure felt like it when I watched him trailer away.

The Zed body work continues, but it is not terribly photogenic nor are there any really new learnings coming from it. It is just a lot of hours of work. Accordingly, posts will continue to be sporadic until I shoot the urethane primer and get into the base color or the body kit shows up. Thanks, as always, for following along. 

Bye Jaws, Hello A4

Our stable of cars has had a small change. Today's post covers that, and the fun a new car brought with it.

Bye Jaws

Jaws

I didn't really post much about the '87 Jeep Cherokee, except during a complaint about having too many cars (See Oh Clutch). Jaws was T's daily driver, transporting him back and forth from home to Reno Nevada and back multiple times, back and forth to Sacramento, the mountain and his job for over a year. He poured plenty of money and love into that Cherokee. Brakes and oil, like any other car, of course were changed. He also replaced the clutch, and I replaced the rear window. He installed a bluetooth stereo and other creature comforts. In the end, though, he didn't want to put any more money into it, and at over 330k miles, I can't say I blame him. Within a couple days of posting on craigslist, he had multiple respondents and he sold it off.

Our A4 History
T's first car was an A4. It was a 2.7L non-turbo, but he loved it from the day he bought it (See Gotta Keep Moving). The guy he bought it from was the original owner and he babied it. Unfortunately, the timing belt needed to be done (see Planning Winter Break), but that wasn't obvious until much later. He got a stereo earlier and had it butchered by Car Toys (see Flash Gets Sounds), but moved it into the A4. Ultimately, he decided he wanted something different, and traded it for a Subaru. The guy with the subbie said he was an Audi guy, but ultimately, the trade may not have been a very good deal for either of them. We saw the A4 back on craigslist a few months later with a blown engine, so we guessed that the "Audi guy" didn't heed the warnings about doing the timing belt immediately. The Subbie got broken into in Reno and totalled by the insurance company so neither car fared especially well. T did learn some things through the ownership of both cars, so, maybe it wasn't all bad.

Hello A4

the 2.7L at purchase

This brings us to the newest member of the herd. Once Jaws was gone, T drove Dude (our 2000 Saturn) to work while he saved up some money. He wanted a black A4 again. He found one without having to look for too long. Same make/model/year as his old one, but the new one has a 1.8L turbo and a deep brown leather interior. So nice. T is the third owner, and while it has higher miles than the last one (225k), it has lots of fancy bits like an upgraded suspension and a bigger exhaust. It needed a timing belt done, had a really bad coolant leak from the pump and has a leaking power steering system. Of the issues, the timing belt and cooling pump were most immediate. T bought it and had it delivered on a wrecker on a Friday night. T and I attacked the coolant pump and timing belt the following morning.

Timing Belt Discoveries
We shied away from the 2.7 timing belt job a couple years ago because it was a dual-overhead cam. Keeping everything aligned and getting the belt on correctly with 3 gears (2 cams, plus crank) felt too big. Yeah, we got a-scared and begged off. T wanted a different car anyway, or so he thought. Anyway, one cam felt do-able.

We followed internet directions, but there were things that we discovered that were unexpected. For instance, I was really surprised how easily everything came apart. Seriously, after working on VW's, I expected the Audi to be equally difficult with a gazillion different fastener types and weird tools needed. Nope. We needed a big Allen key for the large serpentine gear on the end of the crankshaft and Torx for getting the front radiator / core support and a few other things off. Otherwise, it was pretty common hex nut/bolts. The internet directions were spot-on. I'll find and share the link. We suffered no rust, but there were a couple fasteners that were torqued on so tight, we needed to solve for a breaker bar. For example, those Allen bolts holding the serpentine belt gear. We took the pipe that is used on the floor jack and slid it around the Allen key. That allowed for a smooth application of force, and the bolts released without stripping.

Zoom Zoom
After a Saturday of pulling it apart and starting to put it back together, we spent a few hours on Sunday finishing the put-together. To be fair, T did almost all of the work while I continued the tear-down of the donorZed. Still, the timing belt parts fit cleanly, and after flushing the cooling system we were ready to test fire. It started right up. Seriously, it started like it hadn't sat for 6 months and then gotten towed and a timing belt service. The aftermarket exhaust gives it a nice low growl. So, after a very short test drive where a charged-air hose popped off, the rest of the front end was put together and T took a longer, more spirited test run. In his words... "that thing can pull!" Clearly, he likes the turbo. It's his first turbo, and now that he's felt it, he probably won't ever willingly go back to naturally aspirated.

Well, that's it for today. T did discover that the sunroof is not operating correctly. With the rainy weather not going away and 2 cars already occupying the garage, we'll be tackling that soon. Outside... in the sprinkles. Neat. Oh.. and there's a coolant leaking from somewhere. Ahh.. the joy of new-to-you cars.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Flash Lives again

Well, that was interesting.  Two days after that last post, Flash the Jetta broke.  I'll cover that today, more than anything else.

Putter... sputter... sput
It's funny.  I was looking back on a posting from about a year ago (How Diesel Gets Expensive) when Flash stopped working because of a dangerously low coolant level which led to rebuilding injectors, the IP and a timing belt change.  Back then, the driver of the Jetta was my step-son, and oddly enough when Flash suddenly stopped running on Allen Blvd, it was him again, but again, not his fault.  For the third time in a year, I had to have the Jetta towed home.  Enter a plug for AAA.

Attempts to start the engine were not fruitful.  I checked for codes, and got a P1248 (Injection Start Control Deviation).  Concluding there was a fuel delivery problem, I checked the case relief valve in the IP first.  Since the pump was just done, I didn't expect anything unusual, and it was all together like it should have been.  Sometimes, those valves get gummed up and slip out so the pump can't create pressure.  Not the problem.  Then, I swapped out the fuel filter.  After priming the lines and the filter, it still wouldn't start.  I concluded the timing of the IP was off, like the code was saying.  Enter Justin.

Diagnosis Negative
Justin stopped by mid-week after a regular workday to just peek into the situation.  Inside a minute, he spotted a flash of copper/bronze behind the timing belt tensioner, telling him that the tensioner was trash.  Concerns about the timing were spot on, but the timing of the IP was the least of our immediate concerns; one of the valves could have been struck by a piston, turning my TDI engine into a paperweight.  We got the valve cover off, and after a careful inspection, Justin concluded the valve train and pistons were probably okay.  Still, we needed to do a timing belt job.  He ran that through today.

Belt and Suspenders
Turns out the effort to pull off the old belt, replace the tensioner and put a new belt on is pretty much the same as doing a complete job.  So, while Justin started tearing down Flash, I went digging through my deep files to see what parts were replaced when Johnny did the belt as part of the IP swap-out.  I remember the receipt had all kinds of tings on it, but I never found it.  I did find the receipt for when I got towed into Bay City (Bay City Blues).  Ha.  So, in the interest of being safe, Justin and I agreed that a complete timing belt change was the best plan.  As Justin removed rollers and the coolant pump, it became increasing clear that we'd made the right decision.  Even though we only put 10k miles on the belt, an incorrectly installed belt will prematurely wear the parts it touches.  In a few hours, the belt was on, the timing was set and we'd taken a test drive to set it in.  Flash Lives.

Daily Driving
The broken Flash created a force to try driving Hapy to work.  After suffering a dead battery on the attempt on the first day, he responded very well every day after that.  I even ran errands in him one day this week.  He's been starting right up, idling a little high on the colder days, but settling down into the low 900's for idle after a few minutes.  It has been a great pleasure.  I do need to adjust the shifter a little to left to improve the gear selection in/out of 1st and 2nd.  I hope to find time to do that Sunday (tomorrow).

I think that's it for today.  We now have more working cars than drivers for the first time in months.  So, as I look forward to Monday, I have to make a decision about which TDI to drive to work.  Ha!  Thanks for following along, and for those who like the pictures, I'm sorry I didn't take any photos of Justin's labors.  I'll take pictures of the removed parts and update this posting later.

The rounder we go....

... the faster we get.

Its been a busy week for the dog days of Summer:
The band started up again after taking 9 months off. That ate up my Monday night.
I broke out the grill and hosted my folks on Tuesday.
Wednesday, I got my other TDI's timing belt replaced (on my '00 Jetta). We had long design conversations about the bus that will influence what we do over the next few weeks.
Friday, I went partying (great party, Ed), Saturday I went canoeing all day, Saturday night I celebrated my mom's 75th birthday and Sunday I spent the day moving a shed, and cleaning a 20' x 30' area of junk. Yes, I still hurt.

Basically, I had no time to do bus stuff, so it was kind of a "break". Today, I'll cover the design discussions.

Mount Brackets
Justin reminded me what my original design was: use the timing-belt bracket with a stock TDI mount, then retrofit a dogbone mount on the driver's side to handle the engine twist during acceleration. It was during this conversation that I realized how far from that plan we had wandered with a small decision here and a small decision there. I found a guy on TDIClub who was selling his just-rebushed stock dog bone mount. He had the work done, and then switched to a performance one. His loss = my gain. I hope to have it in-hand by next weekend so we can integrate it.

Vacuum sucking
The vacuum lines on my Jetta are just about toast. Since I have to replace all the lines on the bus engine, it seems like this is the best next thing to tackle. I suppose I'll order close to 20' of vacuum line and do the Jetta. Then, with that knowledge in-hand, I'll do the bus engine. Remember, the bus engine doesn't have the same visual cues that the Jetta engine does when you look at a Bentley.
We talked about the vacuum pump, and both regretted the tossing-out of the old broken vacuum pump I had on the engine when I received it. I could have used the engine-side half of that pump with a simple plate and been able to sell the good pump. I may have to sacrifice the good pump to make a good block-off plate. Bummer. Last, there was the brief discussion about a belt-driven pump versus an electric aftermarket pump. We both felt the aftermarket would be less expensive (at least in terms of hours spent), and potentially more reliable than a belt driven pump. I'll be ordering one once the next paycheck clears.

This week, I'll be going throguh the garage looking for the vacuum line I bought a couple of years ago. If I can't find it, I'll be ordering more (yeay). If it turns up, I'll replace the lines in the Jetta, taking note of what I'm doing, so I can repeat it with the bus. Maybe I shuold reverse that order so if I ghoof it up, its on the engine that isn't depended upon. Anyway, there's always filing the hole and the engine cover. More when something happens...

TDI engine timing belt replaced

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

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

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

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

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