Keep us posted!

OK, today the Suby came back to life. I had to cut it short as I needed to get the Saturn back for Noel and had some friends swinging by town that wanted to say hi. Tomorrow I will button up the last bits and Paul will inspect it. I said that if it ends up putting oil into the water again, I am selling it for what ever I can get and buying Paul's 944S

I am about to head out to conquer the bus! Last night I worked until midnight and got the tranz all sorted and installed. I need to button up the little odds and ends, and put the plumbing in place for the oil cooler tonight.

I am stressed as hell and am considering a mental health day tomorrow. If it s not pouring I might be able to take my 914 up to Pauls and help with whatever.

Were you able to get the AN lines ordered?

Zach

DO NOT BUY A 944 S !!! Seriously. They have a one of a kind ( dohc ) valve train and if/when you have an issue within there, you will pay out the arse for a new center shaft or cam if needed. They have a habit of breaking teeth on the center shaft, and the tooth gets tossed around in the valve train.Porsche stuck with a single overhead cam for a reason. 924 or 944n/a or turbo only NO S

Oh and glad to hear all is going back together. Sucks it happend when it did though

The Suby is alive! I also put new tires on it Paul was a great help and he inspected it for me and everything. It is nice having a second working vehicle again

Here are some pics of what I managed to get done on the bus since last time.

I am intending to tow things with the bus so I installed a transmission oil cooler. Not too hard to do.

90* NPT elbows to some nipples
Click to view attachment

Clearanced the mount
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Of course the second part of the mount had to mess up what I had going on. The nut from the mount is right where the nipples were.

Spread them to fit
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Tonight I did the oil cooler install which I can not finish due to awaiting the last major part from the USPS that Root modified for me Here is the AN madness I did.

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Quick shot of the tranny cooler in the left rear pocket.

Thats hot. How easy did the hoses go together? I bought a set of AN wrenches and watched some videos on youtube. Does not look too hard, but curious to know.

Looks good, hope to see it before you move.

Zach

I borrowed the Kool tool hose thing from Paul as well as a hardened pair of tree branch clippers that make cutting the hose way easy. I can make a hose in about 1 min. I didnt use no special wrenches

Mike,
You sure are keeping yourself busy...keeping multiple cars on the road and installing tran cooler.

Dave

I had to call it a night before I finished tonight. Some simple things fought me and cost me time The fan and oil cooler are all in now. All hoses are made and installed only needing to be tightened. To get on the road I need to install the CV axles and the Exhaust (plus a few incidentals). Tomorrow is going to be HELL.

The plan:

Wake up by 9am (going to bed at 3am) so I can have my work bench out of my garage and ready for pickup by 10am. Finish bus. Drive to Zachs and recover my trailer and what ever else I left there that I actually want. Come home, put two bikes on the trailer, load the bus, load other cars, drive to Washington for round one, return home later that night. Wake up on Sun and pack everything else into moving truck. I cant wait to start working 80 hours a week, only, and getting paid......

I miss you guys already.

Zach

By the way, do you need help monday?
I'll be getting home late Sunday, and can drive up to Hershey Monday if you guys need help or want company before you head out. But I don't want to impede momentum if you guys need to get out the door. Just let me know.

Zach

Dude, we will probably need help. Today has been an epic fail with regards to the bus. Every thing that could go wrong did. First, I had to move the engine over again as the axles were not centered, that started shit with the mount interfering with the trans cooler hoses (much time). Then the dam tranz didnt want to match up with the mount in the front. Working on a down hill SUX. The engine and drive train were all hanging down hill and that took up the 1/4" I needed to mount the damn front mount. I ended up putting the suby behind the bus, putting a strap on the engine bar of the bus and tying it to the suby's tow pointin order to pull the engine back the little bit I needed. I am a redneck. THEN the damn engine tin got bent and all of it was now off center. Then the exhaust would not go together and I found that two clips were lost on the road and the stores were closed and I could not get replacements. I stole the two I needed off of the pipe tips as they are only for looks. Finally, I was finishing the hardware hook ups, getting the throttle linkage on the tranz hooked to the throttle cable, I noticed that the lever was bent a bit from the jack going from lift to drop too soon, I pushed on the leaver and it came off in my hand. GAME OVER....

I need to remove the oil pan (with new gasket that I can not replace until Mon so I need to be careful), remover the rod the lever went on, and go to Paul's shop tomorrow and weld it back together

We have resigned to tow the bus on a trailer behind the moving truck. Tomorrow, Noel and Heidi will take the Suby to the new place. I will load it with all kinds of goodies for the trip (garage crap). I still need to come to York and get the trailer and stuff. Probably will do tomorrow of early Mon. We will trailer the bikes with the Vue and I will tow the bus with the moving truck. What a PITA today.

Just let me know what you need. If you need to keep stuff in my garage for a little bit of time, thats fine.

Zach

If you can bring up the trailer and any left over parts in your garage, that would be a huge help as it would save me 2 hours of driving. Let me know if you can.

I can. I'll bring it up Mon Morning. I'll probably be earlyish, as I can't stay too late (maybe getting to your place ~ 10 assuming everything goes smooth and I get the trailer set up tomorrow night when I get home. I want to take Theo to the pool monday afternoon. I've not seen him all weekend, and I miss him!

You should probably get the trailer inspected and properly tagged before you head off across the state. May not be an issue, but with your luck lately, you'd get tagged for it.

Waht do you want me load on it? All the stuff in the attic? Is there stuff that you want left here for staging to go to Scotty later?

Zach

Mike, Zach,
I can help after 6/26 if there's anything you want to leave behind and maybe Zach and I could bring out later? Lemme know.

I will be awake early on Mon. All my stuff from your shop can go. The trailer is inspected, I just need to all the tag and sticker. I will register it on line today so it is legal when you tow it. Thanks for the help. Matt, I shouldnt have anything left over, but thanks for the kind offer.

Today's agenda:

- Remove exhaust pipes, refabricate drivers S pipe
- Get exhaust pipe clamps
- Remove tranz oil pan to get to shifter rod so I can weld the end back on
- Pick up truck at 11:30am
- Pack and clean garage
- Load stuff into bus

Not in any particular order. Noel and Heidi will be taking the VUE and Suby to the new house with a load of stuff. They will return in the VUE tonight about 8pm and start loading the truck with boxes from inside the house.

Believe it or not, I have found a few hours over the last month to work on the bus. I consider it a meditative activity. I put coil over front on, which raised the front up to the correct height and made the ride more firm, like I prefer. Then I added the 7/8" front sway bar which is a big difference Then, I could not help myself, I got some 15x7" wheels and put some 225/70-15 tires on them. These are the biggest that you can put on (I am finding out) with out having to modify the bus. I will get pics, but I am done today, on call tomorrow and out cold for most of the day fri. I got all the wheels on but one as the nuts on the one are freaky tight and I will have to find my 1" drive set That, and it is humid and I need to hit the sack.
I also had time to change and reseal the oil pan, and valve cover gaskets as well as try to seal the cable from the trans that was leaking badly. I over filled the trans some how, so I need to build a tank to suck some out with the vacuum. Probably Sat.
It is running rich now that I seem to have gotten all of the air leaks fixed. Gonna have to change the jets out again Worth it! It drives awesome Being able to do little things here and there when I have the time is great therapy.

I bet.

Looking forward to see how it looks w/o the racked front end. Good to see you on line again.
Zach

He lives! Good to hear that you are getting in some mental health breaks. I am real interested to hear more about the coil overs, the wheels, and the tires you got. I bet it looks mean.

Did we ever get video of this beast? We demand video ya know...

Mike

No video yet, but here are the wheels and tires I will need to take a few more to show the difference.

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The rear.

You gonna make it to Matts? Remind me to bring that hubcap if you are. You know my memory

I like the clever installation of your rear tire warmer for traction on those icy winter mornings. Inspired engineering.

Wheelie bars.... it needs wheelie bars

That looks sick, where did you get those wheels?

Wheels are 15x7 from Go Westy and are close out at $120 ea shipped. Gotta hurry if you want some because they are not scheduled to make any more.

Scott, I am intending to make it to Matt's provided nothing mucks it up.

Gah. Those look awesome with the hubcaps off, but silly with them on. The cap seems too small for the wheel.

Zach

914 hubcaps no VW logo

Well, I ended up using a torch to get the pass rear lug nuts off so I could put the new wheel/tire on. It did not want to go on easy as it was interfering with the outer wheel well I started rolling the body out a bit with a breaker bar. It looks like I will be able to remedy this so no biggie. Minor tweaking is ok. I need to get longer bolts to hold the spare mounted. Its HUGE

Its my bus I like the hub caps a lot

Been a while since I've checked this thread.

I'm drooling all over my keyboard!



Looks really good doc, love how it's all finally coming together.

Yeah ? Well you look silly with a cap on too, as it is to small for your head

Are you talking about Zach's Facebook picture? I'll give Zach credit all day long for having the good sense not to point the bill of his cap sideways.

Scott: I feel sorry for small headed people.

Mike: well, no accounting for taste I suppose.

Ken: Never. Ever.

A little update on the progress of the beast. Last weekend Noel and I took it on its maiden voyage 4 hours, over the mountains, on the freeway to Plasket's house in MD. I was passing people easily, even up hill. The head temps never saw 350* and the oil cooler fan worked flawlessly. Average was 15mpg and 3100 RPM at 65 mph

The only complaints:

1) when I filled it with gas I put too much in and it started pissing out the drivers side vent tube The flex hose there had cracked and I did not have another. I had to drive a few blocks home, pissing gas, to get another. It stopped before I got to my house. Easy fix, though.

2) When the fuel tank is full the front tires do not rub, when the tank is empty they do because the ass end is then lighter than the front. I need to adjust the front springs and maybe clearance some areas.

3) This is the biggest pain, the seal for the rear housing that holds the oil pump and dizzy is not sealing. I have another, but it requires the engine to be dropped, the pulley to be removed, the dizzy to be removed, and the housing to be removed. Very annoying. It misted the back of the bus in oil, but it leaks little enough that it did not effect the oil level appreciably over the whole 8 hours of driving.

4) The carb needs a better tune, but I am thinking of tossing it and putting on better heads that are mated to the 3.0 CIS I have. I did get 15mpg average and that was on very hilly terrain at faster highway speeds. I didnt feel the need to slow down if the engine wasnt limiting me. I could easily get going fast enough to cause Noel to beg me to slow down for fear of tipping over

Gearing in that tranny isn't helping you.

With the Vanagon, ( a similarly boxy shape) 3000 RPM is 70 MPH and mileage at that engine speed/ ground speed is about 22 or so.

I know a guy that knows trannys inside and out...

Wait, I hope that didn't come out wrong......

The tranz is fine. I have 28" tires on it and stock was 24.5. Imagine how high the RPMs were on the OE size. It cruises very well with the current wheel/engine/tranz set up. It is a 2 speed auto tranz and there are no gearing options that I know of that would be straight forward.

Noel and I just went for a drive out to a hiking trail today. A little over an hour there and great country roads

Good to see you are still alive and kicking. The bus is looking good. New heads?? Sounds like you are looking for some more down time in the garage.

OK, it is getting colder and the bus has developed some, er, operational flaws.

Problem list:
- Fix electrical issues (actually not a hard thing to do)
- Find and fix damn transmission leak
- Rebuild the posi so it works
- Fix fuel induction issues (I have ideas, see below)

The above list is what needs to be done, but while I am in there.....

I was thinking of just biting the bullet and switching to the 3.0 CIS system that I have so I can get rid of the carb and get better power with better milage. I need to change the heads for this adaptation. It just so happens that there is a set of rebuilt, large valve heads, with most of the major work done to them on ebay for $1500 nothing is free.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...RK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Next, the posi needs to be rebuilt. This is about $100 with seals and stuff. But, while I am at it, I was considering changing the R/P to a 3.08 from a 3.55. At least a 3.27 which is not custom so would be cheaper. I currently have no overheating issues with big tires, petal to the metal, up hills in 90+ heat. Not even close.

The other thing I may wish to start on is my heating system design. I wont be driving the bus unless I can get it heated. I dont feel like heating it with gas when I am spewing heat out of the exhaust. I want to see if I can capture that heat and transfer it around the cabin. Why not?

That is all for now, and it is enough. Looks like I will be dropping the drive train in my free time

So I called my buddy Jeff at Corvair ranch and looked into some costs for things.

3.27 R/P ~$50

Posi new cover - $40
Posi may just need a new cover, this is common and kinda matches the way things went with the location of the tranz initially putting side load on the diff.

Set of 140hp heads rebuilt without core return = $1200. At that price, I might as well get the 140s done with the intake mods.

914's are always my first love, but love to see builds on other related VW-based platforms.

I'm almost done with my T3: ( I know I gotta finish adjusting the hood)