Spring Cleaning

So with waiting on funds to get my motor back together, I had a little free time.  I decided to paint the engine bay nice new white, and all the sheet metal that goes on the motor nice new black.  As to match the new cylinders I am getting.  So I started cleaning the grease and gunk off the sheet metal.  I used the bath tub while Lynn was at work... I felt that was probably the best time to cover the bathroom in greasy oily parts.  See. This is after I was done, all evidence erased already.  So this started spring cleaning then I thought why not gut the entire bus and clean everything up. After gutting I pressure washed the interior and engine bay.

So I did this.  Pulled the wheels, Oh and I checked my jack stands.  The silver are 6ton, the red at 3ton. So yeah pulled the wheels and checked the brakes.  Both rear wheels need wheel cylinders.  The passenger wheel hardware fell out due to corrosion, and the drum will not come off.  The front wheels need pads on both sides.  Good thing I checked.  I would not want to go for my first drive and not stop.  So I have to fix the brakes.  Anyway wheels off, I started to take the interior components out to get a good deep cleaning.

Here is a shot from outside most of my interior is removed, and in the pile to the right of the bus.  I was goofing around here and set a Super Beetle bumper I found in the woods behind my bus.  Hey it might look good who knows. 

This is the Sink, Rear Folding Seat bed, Closet, Shelf over cargo area, and Fold out table. Also the Seat Cushions are up there against the wall.   

This is a look at the empty bus, Compare that to the picture of motor removal, there is so much stuff in there. 

More things removed.  The hose pipe for the sink, and some wood paneling. 

Jump seat, and Wood paneling Also see motor on wagon. 

All my interior parts after I shop vacd the inside of the bus 

Missing everything but that 1 wood panel on the right, and the one on the sliding door.  

 Empty, so sad looking honestly.

 Notice all the rust spots

I Found some very interesting things in the bus. Things that had fallen down the seat side.  For example Chewels Gum known to cause cancer in some lab animals.  This is on the package.  And a lot of rust.  Take note of the ugly wood panels.  I removed those also.  Refinished those, That will be in an upcoming post.  So  now I have a gutted vw bus with a ton of rust.  I am thinking maybe its time for restoration.  Except it is March.  I want to drive it in \June.  Ugh.  

Timing attempt.

So Lynn and I go out to Ruby and I start to hook up the timing light and tachometer.  I ask her to turn over the motor just so I can check to make sure the connections I have made are correct.  When she did so, I thought I saw a mist coming from the base of my spark plug number 1.  So I ask Lynn to turn the engine over again, hoping so much that I am wrong.  She cranks it, and there it is again.  Mist from the base of my number 1 spark plug.  So I hope that it is just not tight.  I ask Lynn to come back and I show her what the problem is.  We check to see if the plug is tight and OF COURSE it is.  I tried to remove and replace the plug hoping it would set itself right in the threads.  NO WAY!  So the motor has to come back out.  UGH.

Lynn goes inside, I pull the motor out in about 25 minutes.  I put it up on the wagon on a piece of plywood, and stated to disassemble it yet again.  I didn't get far before I noticed this.  If you look close you can see that the carbon build up is cooked and caked around the base of the the spark plug hole.  This was my bad plug.  The one that I saw the spray of gas coming from.   So I stated searching for a local shop to do work for me.  I assumed I needed a Heli Coil.  This is where the spark plug threads are drilled out, and a new piece of metal welded in with new threads.  I was put in touch with a guy recommended on the Vw forum.

So I got in touch with Brotherhoodvw and I drove to Youngstown in the morning to drop them off.  I had incredibly high hopes for the heads.  Mainly that the only problem was the broken threads.  So I had arranged to have the heads cleaned, the valves checked and anything that was wrong fixed.  Withing a few days I received an email with some terrible news.  And pictures to show what was wrong.  Here is a picture of the heads after they were pressure washed with hot water.  GROSS.  I mean really this is after pressure wash, and they are gross.

So after cleaning up, they were taken apart, and this is what was found.  Probably worst case scenario. 3 out of 4 of my spark plug holes had cracks going almost all the way to the valves.  This is bad.  The engine will never properly fire due to the extra amount of air being brought into these cracks.  Have a look.

This one is pretty terrible.  You can see the in the threads and to the valve.  It is destroyed. Next one.

There are 2 cracks in this one.  One goes to the Left and other to the Right.  

Then there is this one.  So I have a pretty well destroyed set of heads.  3 of 4 cylinders are not working properly due to cracks.  I do not know what caused these cracks, but I do know that they are bad.

So I had a few options. I spoke on the phone with Rich from BrotherhoodVw, and he told me that my choices were 1 buy a new set of heads, probably costing over 500 dollars if not more.  Or I could have these ones fixed.  All the cracks welded and everything fixed properly.  That would put me at probably 700 dollars in labor cost alone.  And there was a catch.  These heads were an 040 core, which I am told were not the best quality casting.  Meaning the metal was not as strong or good as it should be.  So I got lucky here, Rich had a set of 113 head cores that would fit my engine and only needed a little bit of work to have in running condition.  So we chose to build the 113 cores with the parts from my heads.  I got some pictures of these too.  Man are they gorgeous.  I am very excited to pick them up.  Check out the pictures

Boy those are pretty!  When I got these pictures I realized something.  I can not put a beautiful motor together and have a dirty engine bay and block.  So I made the decision to do some spring cleaning... 

I will start that post very soon.  We are almost up to date with real time.  I am actually waiting to pick up the heads.  Should have them in a week.  Very Very Excited.

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.  

Move to Ohio

So a few weeks passed of packing and packing and working and waiting.  Waiting to be in Ohio with my girlfriend in Our home.  Waiting to be driving in our beautiful Bay Window Bus, and Waiting to be working on the bus.  So I get all my things packed up, finish my last day of work in Philadelphia, say my goodbyes, pack up my cat and on the road to Ohio.  We drove through the night, so the first day way a lot of nothing really.  We pulled literally by hand the bus out of the garage, and sat in it to eat lunch.  We have a luxurious dining room in here so why not use it! Plus the sun was shining and it was Friday. haha  So lunch in the bus then unpacking blah.  Then came Saturday, we had a big bonfire at the farm planned and hopes of camping out in the bus, but it didn't run.  Lynn really wanted to tow it out, and have a camp out.  I just don't feel right towing my vehicle so we did not camp.  Sunday came and what else do you do when you just moved to Ohio, and Just got a Vw Bus and Do Not Yet have a job.  You get a puppy!!!  You can not have a Bus without a dog!  that is Luna(dog) and Peku( Lynn's cat)

So Monday brought Luna training and Intake Manifold changing.  Took me the better part of 3 hours with the engine installed to change out the Intake Manifold.  I also cleaned the Carburetor so well you would have sworn it was brand new.  So I got everything back together, and I told Luna to go up on the porch, so she was not scared of the bus.  Guess what she was terrified! No sooner the bus fired up she jumped off the porch and over a 4 foot tall fence, then ran down the street.  Luckily she was so happy to see me when I called her she ran straight back to me.  So I took her back to the bus and set her down on the ground.  She immediately ran for the porch and over the fence again.  And the bus was not even running! So one more attempt, I got into the bus with her, and we started it together.  Luna tweaked and peed all over the bus.  We have a problem.  You can not have a bus without a dog, and you can not have a dog who is scared of the bus!  Blast.  So I put Luna in the house, she is only 8 weeks old.  Back to the bus, I tuned the carburetor to specs in the Bentley Vw manual.  I start the bus, Rpm goes to roof, and it stalls out.  Same exact thing it was doing prior to carburetor cleaning and new intake manifold.  Not a good sign.  And when it starts I am noticing a spray of oil on the cardboard and wood I placed under the engine.  It is a spray similar to that of cooking spray.  Fine mist if you will.  So it is quitting time for bus work at this point, I head in the house to cook dinner before Lynn gets home from work.  After dinner I get a phone call from a job I applied for about a month before moving.  I have an interview at noon the following day.  So early to bed with the new puppy, early to wake up.  Back outside working on the bus, Checking vacuum and gaskets, and spark plugs and wires, and going to get a gallon of gas at a time.  This being the largest gas can I have on hand at the moment.  I checked quite literally everything I could at that time.  No change in running.  Quick change and head to job interview.  Wait no I did not change, I went to a job interview for a chef position in a fine dining restaurant with greasy fingernails, and ripped jeans.  Clearly dirty! I explained that I just moved, and am working on Ruby.  The chef was excited about the work I was doing on my bus, and my attitude in general. He hired me on the spot, and even let me start a week later so I could get some initial puppy training time in, and some bus work.  So that is exactly what I did.  Researched blogs about Vw motor work, and running problems and this and that and every other possible thing I could think of.  Still same results.  So I was stuck.  I leaked so much oil that I really just wanted to pull the engine out and rebuild it, and I could not find out why it was running so crappy.  I was beginning to think I had to pull the engine.  So we started our search for a new jack and jack stands.  More importantly a house with a bigger garage.  As this one was way too small.  Between unpacking and settling in, and the new puppy I really did not get anything done by ways of finding a new jack.  Then I started work.  My first day was 14hrs, and my second 15hrs and another 14hr day.  This went on for 14 days straight. During which we found a house with a big garage! WOOOOHOOO.  1 problem...The day we looked at the house was the day of the huge storm that took out power for about a week if you were a customer of The Illuminating Company here in Ohio.  And it did this.........................

 Then I had a day off, I played with the puppy and did not even open the garage door.  Back to work for 8 more 13hr days. This put us into the middle of  November.  I was excited for Thanksgiving, not for the normal reasons, but for the fact that I would have all day at home with Lynn, Luna, Peku, Niko( my cat) and Ruby.  So I worked all morning trying to get her tuned properly hoping that the motor could stay in. I still had not been paid from the new job yet.  Some kind of typographical error in payroll personel or something.  Im not sure.  Frustrating tho.  NO DICE!  So now we are GARAGE LESS! haha, no really the garage at the new house was demolished and we had to wait for insurance and all that paperwork for a brand spanking new one.  So on December first we moved to Berea.  I got paid finally from this typographical error... It was a HUGE check which was cool.  Only because it was for about 300 hours.  HOWEVER it was not the right hourly rate.  It was about 3 dollars and hour short. So we  parked Ruby in the yard on the pad of the old garage, and waited.

  No working on her in the cold for me.  I am a bit of a sissy when it comes to laying on the ground in the cold outside.  So December passed. I finally got paid the right rate for the wrong amount of hours this time.  UGH.   We had to move Ruby, so the new garage could come.  She sat here for January, and about a week out of February.  Then into the garage.  The structure is there in the this picture, just no roof.  About this time I decided to quit my job, the commute and the typographical errors.  So now I have no job, and no garage to do work in.  Still haven't bought a jack.  One day passed and I secured another job.  I had hopes of a roof coming soon on the garage.  Lynn and I went to Harbor Freight and found an awesome jack! On the way home we stopped at a flea market in Oberlin.  I got 2 sets of jack stands for 20 bucks.  I forget the ton size at the moment, I will check on that and post later.  But total score.  They are sufficient for my bus.  Fingers crossed for a new roof!

Intake Manifold Ordered

So I spent about 15 days trying to find the proper intake manifold.  For someone new to Vw it is kind of tough.  I did not know to look for a certain intake manifold with a vacuum port for the brake booster.  Or the vacuum line to the carburetor.  I found a bunch that were the wrong one, because I was in Philadelphia and the part was in Ohio.  So I searched online, checked different forums and compiled a list of Air-cooled parts dealers.  I got down to about the seventh number on my list, having no luck but learning a few things about the part.  Like the vacuum ports that I needed.  I was given a phone number and told to call this guy he would probably have what I needed.  Turns out he had exactly what I needed and for a wonderful price.  I was given the number to WayOut Salvage New & Used Vw parts  www.wayoutsalvage.com   He sent me this amazing used intake manifold.  I was incredibly excited to get to Ohio and get this intake on.  But I had to wait until I lived there, which would be in about 2 weeks.  So this is what showed up.

 
Look at how gorgeous!  So pumped to get this thing in the bus.

First look at my new bus.

So I took a weekend trip to Ohio to visit Lynn, my girlfriend.  I got to see my bus for the first time in the morning time, around the 5th of October.  I got my eyes on it finally! I am super excited.  I have my keys in my hand, and I am heading out to the garage.  You saw it as the wrapped door.  So here is the bus at my first view.  Seems my nephew Dylan claimed Ruby for his own.  I have to keep the garage locked so he does not run out and jump in.  Currently the bus is gutted so it is not safe to play in.  We will get to that in time.  As purchased the bus was not road ready.  It was taken by trailer to the house, and driven into the garage.  I'm told it stalled out about 25 times going from the street to the garage.  A distance of about 25 feet.  So I knew from the start I had some motor work to get into. 

 Above is Dylan.  He is in love with the bus.  Honestly, so am I.

So this is Ruby, in her new home of Newburgh Heights Ohio.  In a cramped garage, but hey it has electric.  And for the most part keeps her dry.  However it is hard to open the doors on both sides. The work room here was quite small.  So on my first visit, I went to start Ruby for the first time.  Turn the key and ZILCH.  Dead battery.  Booo, and Dinner plans.  SO no work on the bus.  Off to dinner and thoughts of greasy finger nails, and wing windows.  After dinner I went online and looked up parts. I ordered my first catalog too.  EXCITEMENT!!!!!  So with the morning came a new battery, and a couple cans of carburetor cleaner.  While I was at the auto parts store I bought a new inline fuel filter, cause I figured if I have a dirty fuel filter it will never run right.  So back home new battery in I start the bus for the first time ever! So exciting and scary.  It ran but barely.  I backed out of the garage, and down the driveway to the street.  It stalled out, I started again, and it stalled out.  Once more, and yet again stall.  So I fire it back up, pretty much flooring the throttle, back up the driveway and in front of the garage.  Lift the rear hatch, and removed it.  I took a look at things, and to be honest they did not look good.  This is my first air-cooled Vw so I am learning as I go.  First things I noted where the broken hoses going to the fan shroud.  Then the grease and grime everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  The motor is CAKED with years of leaked and burnt on oil.  At this moment it is still leaking, and dripping oil, you can see I placed a piece of wood and cardboard down on the ground in the photo.  So I started by removing the broken piping to fan shroud and found that my INTAKE MANIFOLD was rusted out.  On the right side of the motor.  SO that put the brakes on things.  So I went ahead on what I could do to get ready for the new INTAKE MANIFOLD once I had located one.  I removed the air cleaner, and carburetor,  disconnected the battery first of course so as to not shock myself.  Since I had removed all these parts I could not start the bus to put it back in the garage.  And as I had to leave in the morning to get back to Philadelphia, I pushed the bus back into the garage, and closed the door.  This is not seeming to be the easy camping trip I thought it would be...
   

Happy 29th Birthday

 This year on September 18th I received an Incredible birthday gift.  This is the wrapping paper. My girlfriend bribed me to move to Ohio.... Not really I was not bribed at all.

Yes that Is the Garage Door.  Wonder what could be inside.  At this point I was living in Philadelphia.  I was all set to move the beginning of October, and quite excited to see what in fact is behind this door.  I had received pictures at this point, but still had not put my eyes and hands on this sweet vehicular gift. 

 The picture I received at my birthday dinner.  A 1971 Vw Weekender.  It came with a 1600 dual port engine and years of rust and grime and dirt and weekend camping trips.   As purchased we were super excited to get into our bus and start camping.  It is a miniature house on wheels!  I could not wait to get in and start driving it.  Camping visions swirled through our dreams.  Weekends in the Mountains, looking at streams, and trees and every beautiful bit nature has for us.  I could see us walking the dog tho we did not have a dog just yet.