ROOF ON!

So today the roofers arrived at about 7:30 am, totally unexpected.  However graciously welcomed!  This means Garage time for me in the near future.  So I went about my day, grocery shopping, and pet food store.  We got home and the roof was mostly finished.  It was around 4 on a Thursday I think.  I was so excited.  I grabbed the keys to Ruby, and the new jack.  I still had not opened the box the jack had come in, so I had to do that.  I pulled Ruby into my garage with a partial roof.  It was absolutely freezing outside, and snowing.  I think we actually got about 4 inches that night.  So bus is in garage.  I jacked it up, put it on jacks stands for safety.  You don't want a car to fall off a jack while you are working.  I have personally had it done while changing a tire.  I was not under the car, but the rim was.  The damage to the rim was fatal, and it had to be replaced.  So Ruby on stands so I can safely get underneath and move around.  Now the garage is not finished.  I do not have heat, I do not have electricity.  Extension cords run my lights at that moment, and there is snow coming down.  Work day over.  No sooner I picked up the extension cord the snow had completely covered the yard.  Lucky Ducky I was I stopped when I did.
So Friday I had to work, which is alright because it was bitterly cold outside.  And I had to clean up that giant pile of trash on the left of the table.  If you notice on the table is a small propane camping stove.  I desperately tried to warm up enough room to do some work.  I even took a baking sheet and put it on top of the stove to make more surface area.  Then I poured water on the tray to steam hoping that might help.  I could have gone through 100 dollars in propane NO WAY would it get warm in this place.  So Saturday Lynn and I head out to the garage in the morning and we remove all the wires and hoses going to the motor.  Then following the directions in the Bentley manual we removed the bolts holding the motor in place.  It took a little fighting.  Actually that is a lie it took a lot of fighting.  The Bentley says that in 1971 there are only 3 bolts going through the transmission bell to the engine.  This motor must have been removed at some point.  It has 4 and one of them is totally different than the other 3.  And not the one that goes through the starter.  That one is different due to the fact that it sits in the starter housing a certain way.
Anyway after much fighting and freezing and pulling my hair out I got it to come out.  Also we pulled the bolts completely out of the mounts to the frame in the rear of the motor causing ourselves a headache.  Good idea to read all the directions before tackling something you have no clue about.  But we got it.  Look!

If you look to the back right side of this photo you will see a work bench.  We built that yesterday in the cold, that took a better part of our day due to the fact that we are wimps and went back inside every 4.3 minutes to warm up our fingers...  But Lynn and I took that motor on the jack all the way to the bench, jacked it up as high as it would go and we lifted it to the bench.  It was a bit heavier than I was expecting.  However not as bad as other engines I have worked with so all in all not that bad of a deal.  So now with the motor on the bench..

I spun the motor by hand and looked for an oil leak.  Where the spray I had mentioned earlier in the blog comes from.  That butter spray type oil leaked.  It was hissing and spraying on both sides of the motor.  Just at the base of the heads it seamed.  I stated to disassemble the engine removing all the exterior parts so I could get to the problem.  I removed the valve covers and found that the head bolts were very loose.  These bolts have a factory specified torque.  They certainly were not at it, so I hoped that this was my issue.  To be safe I remove the heads and inspected them by eye for cracks or breakage.  I did not see anything.  So I removed the cylinder number 2 and I found a broken piston ring.  My heart fell.  There is no way I will find a set of rings in the Cleveland area on a Saturday afternoon.  WRONG HAHA I did find a set.  There was a number on the refrigerator given to us by the previous owner of Ruby.  I drove like the wind and got a set of stock 85.5 mm piston rings.  I checked the Advanced Auto to see if they had a clutch alignment tool and a piston ring compressor tool.  Neither so I quickly before leaving for the parts made a post on a Vw forum asking if anyone in the Cleveland area had the tools I could borrow for an evening.  I offered a case of beer, or a few dollars.  While driving to the parts store I got a phone call and a guy that would be on my way home offered me the tools.  I went there and drooled over his buses plural! Gorgeous both of them.  Such a cool guy.  He told me about the huge Vw crowd in the area of Ohio, and the group dedicated to Vw owners and enthusiasts in the area.  This was such a help.  We talked about a few different things, all Vw related.  Tips on getting my motor in, and getting it tuned properly.  Really an awesome guy, I am super glad to have met him.  Thanks Dan for helping me out.  I am sure at some point he will see this blog.  So on to home with my rings and the tools I need to finish the motor.  I had stopped by Advanced Auto and rented a Torque Wrench so I could tighten everything to the proper specifications earlier that morning.  So hope to put the rings on, and they do not fit.  My pistons are not 85.5, they are 85.96.  STRESS. I closed the garage and left Luna standing guard.

 So I go inside and search and search and search and search.  NOTHING I can not find these anywhere at all.   Back to the garage in the cold.  I built a set of rings out of the ring set that I purchased for the one broken cylinder.  It worked for now.  I just wanted to see if loose heads was our problem after all.  We have been working on this thing a while now and it is making my head hurt.  So we finish the motor up, tighten the bolts.  Lynn had to go babysit Dylan, I stayed home to finish putting everything on the motor.  I wanted to put in back in Sunday before work.  So I worked and finished up just about 7:30.  Lynn was set to be home around 9:30.  I waited for her to get home, and we bundled up set up the lights and got to work.  We put the engine in the wagon and brought it over to the bus. Set it on jack from there, and rolled it into the bay.  We jacked the engine up, and slid it back into position.  I bolted everything up, and we removed the jack.  In about 5 minutes I reconnected all the wires and hoses, and we cranked it up.  Fired right up. I had Lynn shut it down immediately because it was now 11:30pm.  So quitting time for the day.  We will check on it in the morning.  So bright and early coffee, cigarette, pajamas, slippers, BUS KEYS.  And Luna she sometime got over her fear of the bus, I don't know when really bus she just jumps right in.  I cross my fingers, Turn the key VROOOM yeah its idling really really high tho, choke must be set wrong.  I tap the throttle and its stutters and stalls.  ??  Start again, or try to.  I turn the key nothing it just cranks and cranks does not even sputter.  WHAT THE BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP.  It is too early.  Back inside to relax on Sunday before work..  I can not relax, what did I do wrong.  Something is not right, but I did not change anything.  Bus will not run. So I do research and read up on tuning and timing and I try everything.  I spent about 2 weeks trying to get this thing tuned.  I went out and bought a timing gun.  I had the Bentley manual at home so I could go through and time it properly to specifications.  Except Luna got out while I was at the store.  She did some damage.  I was OUTRAGED.  She ate the Box from the Grateful Dead Box set on vinyl I bought Lynn for her birthday, and Europe 72 the other GD record I bought.  On top of that she had her way with Bentley.  I am missing about 25 pages. UGH!  Lucky I love that dog.