1984 Vanagon GL

[Busjunky]

here we have a piston seated in the cylinder and ready to slide into the crankcase

while doing that you have to center the connecting rod with the piston and slide the wrist pin thru the rather small water pump hole. in order to see what i was doing i had to use a mirror. imagine trying to align a wrist pin thru a 1.5" hole sides ways with a mirror and a flashlight also while holding the connecting rod from the opposite side of the crankcase. holy $h!t that was intense, but i got it

this is looking into the mirror into the water pump hole before i put the wrist pin in.

heres another look with the pin in place and the cotter pin locked in place. u DONT want to drop that inside the crank case or you'll have to start all over again and remove everything to get it out. i didnt do that but i would imagine that would make you want to take a sledgehammer to your block in a heartbeat!!

heres a look with both cylinders in place again. NEVER let these come out with the heads!!!! this was the most challenging thing ive ever had to fix. im pretty sure theres nothing i cant do after fixing this mess lol!!

[Six Volt]

Good job. I admire your tenacity. I need to borrow some of it to get through all my projects.

[Busjunky]

Good job. I admire your tenacity. I need to borrow some of it to get through all my projects.

Thanks Sean! After this i can finally get back to the 61. Its only a set of tires a good brake bleeding and a couple of seats away from being on the road

[wwebner]

waterpumpers

[framingsilly]

Rock on David. I think your going to make a turn for the better real soon here. Glad you Got the rings on. That was a huge challenge to overcome. Everyone that hasn't met David yet, he is a very motivated inthusiest and will be a great addition to the group. He is going to good e Nick and I some lessons on welding, which We really appreciate. Since I only know how to work with wood it doesn't help a whole lot with old VW's.. Anything start rock on David. I know your probably timing the engine at this point

[Ken]

Good job. I admire your tenacity. I need to borrow some of it to get through all my projects.

2X to that. David gives new meaning to the word "tenacity".

[Busjunky]

Ok so i got it running again. Its incredibly sluggish and theres alot of lifter/valve noise on cylinders 3 and 4. Its also blowing oil out the exhaust. I dont know if the valves arent set right or im getting blow by or what? Any thoughts? I have a bentley here but its alittle vague as far as setting the valves. It says after the arm touched the stem continue another 2 turns. Is that 180 degree turns or 360 degree turns? Its also almost unresponsive at the dizzy. Im tired and this van has sucked the life out of me. Im not sure how much more abuse the old soul can take.

[Busjunky]

It just occurred to me that theres damn near 5qts of oil in it. This could deff be a prob. It showed in between on the dipstick tho. Im thinking that the housing for the dipstick may not be seated all the way. Ill find out tomorrow. Any other thoughts?

[Don from Canton]

For hydraulic lifters, put the cylinder to be adjusted at TDC and completely back out the adjuster. Screw it back in until it just contacts the valve stem and then go 1 and 1/2 turns ( 360 degrees + another 180 degrees ). Most think the Bentley recommendation of 2 turns is too much.

Good luck!!!!

[wwebner]

If the lifters have bled down during your repair process, The Bentley procedure (or Don's) Will not allow them to pump up. The best way I have found is to adjust them at about .006 and run the bus. Once they have pumped up,you can tell by pushing on the push rod end of the rocker and they are firm, You can go ahead and adjust. I usually stop when I see the valve spring start to compress instead of counting turns. This usually is about 1 to 1 1/2 turns as Don described.