1-11-06
So.. I decided to tear into the bottom end. I decided I can live with having to replace the repaired heads at some point, but I'd rather not find myself installing new heads on a "old" bottom end. I have both the heads cleaned up, but havn't gotten any farther on them... I have two pistons, cylinders, and connecting rods removed. I was having some problems removing the wrist pins,they were rather stuck. By heating the piston w/ a hot air gun and applying some penetrating oil I was able to free up one of the wrist pins, but even then they didn't want to come out.. as I was exploring my options I found (to my delight) that the connecting rod caps house the bolts, rather then the rods which allows access to the nuts while the piston and rod is still installed. You can remove the nuts using a flex-joint socket and manuvering it carefully around the piston. The bearings on the two removed connecting rods looked good, with minimal signs of wear.
1-2-06
Happy new year! I thought it best to start the new year off right.. and with the 60+ temps outside I knew what needed to be done... about a month ago I got the van engine all ready to pull out and its finally in the trunk of my Jetta... I had some help pushing the van back over the concrete pad infront of the garage, jacked it up and with 2 pieces of 2x4 under each rear tire there was enough space to slide it out from under the van. I also cleaned out the instrument cluster and replaced the bulbs with new ones since the speedo bulb was out, and I checked to make sure the odometer drive gear was intact and working properly. I also found out that the front corner/turn lights are a total loss.. water was in them and had rotted away the bulb sockets. I'll have to add some to the list. I'm also missing the light bulb for the flourescent light over the sink area. Looks like I am planning to delete the fuel injection and run a progressive 2bbl carburetor instead, along with an 009 distributor, but I'm not totally sure yet. This will save me some $ in the fuel pump area, and will take some failure prone/problematic items out of the picture.
10-1-05
So I drained about 4 gallons of "gas" out of the van today and dropped the fuel tank... accidentially ripped the grommets on the top connections, that or they were already half gone.I drained the tank out the rest of the way, it still had about 2 gallons in it... looked like 2 gallons of coffee. Thoroughly washed off the exterior, it looks pretty new... no rust anywhere on the outside. pulled out the fuel gauge sending unit and looked inside with a flashlight...it looks like something died in there and turned into scale, varnish and goop. definitely the most scary looking gas tank I've ever seen. It almost looks like a cave in there with little stelagtites and stalagmites all over the place. Oh well. Better to find out now.
9-29-05
I brought the fuel pump into work and soaked it in some carburetor cleaner and was able to free it up, and I allowed it to run some gas and cleaner though it for about an hour and produced what looked like several cups of black coffee
9-28-05
I tried to fire up the van but I found that the fuel pump wasn't working... gas smelled horribly old, as I expected. I pulled off the fuel pump and tried to bump it into submission but it didn't work...
9-27-05
I cleaned up the brown section of the tailgate with some zymol cleaner wax.. using a speed buffer and some polish should bring the paint back nicely. It'll be ticky keeping the wax out of the body seams tho. I haven't tried anything on the biege sections.
9-25-05
I cleaned up the inside and outside of most of the cabinets with some bleach type cleaner... cleaned out under the bench seat, removed the mattresses and set them aside in the garage... removed the battery, removed the bench seat and seat rails, cleaned out where the seat rails go and put the bench seat back in... cleaned out the fridge while the bench seat was out and scrubbed the floor as well. Everything was pretty clean, but a mouse or two had been running around and I was more or less trying to kill germs and such. I washed the exterior and engine a bit. cleaned out the lower sliding door track and lubed the upper and lower rollers.
9-25-05
Unloaded the van from the trailer...