I had a good, albeit prematurely-interrupted weekend with the Vanagon. I had to go in to the office on Sunday, so I knew that I'd only have Saturday to get things done. Even then, I had to give the Outback a little attention. Specifically, I had to do solidify an exhaust patch I made the previous weekend.
As soon as I was done with that, I turned my attention to the Vanagon. I knew all the "heavy lifting" was done. At this point, I just have to power through reinstalling the remaining bolt-on items. In short order, I reinstalled the thermostat housing, hooked up all the disconnected cooling hoses, finished installing the power steering pump, and installed the intake manifold.
At this point, all I need to do is install the throttle body and airbox, install a new oil filter, fill it up with oil and coolant, and then start it. Once it's running again, I'm planning to flush the cooling system before driving it again. If I hadn't had to work on Sunday, I'd probably be done. As it is, I'm hoping to wrench on it a bit this week and, with any luck, be able to drive it sometime this weekend.
This past weekend, I finally got the exhaust off the van... without breaking anything. I had to cut some bolts. There were copious amounts of flame and penetrating oil involved. And my angle grinder.
But, I got the exhaust off. All the pipes survived and looked in good shape. I have new gaskets and a new bolt kit for when it's time to reinstall it. Once the exhaust was off and the cooling system was disconnected, I got to removing the driver's side cylinder head. I had everything disconnected and the head itself unbolted, including bagging and tagging all the small parts, in under a half hour.
Unfortunately, the head was stuck to the cylinders. On a Vanagon, the cylinders are 4 separate individual pieces from the actual engine block. I worked on it again Monday and Tuesday evening, which is when I eventually got the driver's side head to separate from the cylinders with some gently prying.
Once it was off, I got a good look at the cruddy, corroded surface. I cleaned it up last night (which helped a lot). Tonight, I filled the pitting with JB Weld (a common fix for this). Once it's cured, I'll sand it flat, and I'll be ready to start reinstalling the head on that side. When that's done, I'll start on the passenger side. Hopefully, that side will go more quickly.
Head separated from block
Head off block. Cylinders pushed back into water jacket.
Driver's side head off. Dirty and corroded. Need to clean it off.
Head cleaned up. Lots of pitting, but starting to look better.
Pitting filled with JB Weld. Still needs to cure so I can sand it flat.
Egad! It's been nearly a month since I updated the old b-log. And what an unfortunately eventful month it's been.
I'm not going to beat around the bush. The Vanagon is dead. Well, "mostly dead" anyway, to steal a line from Billy Crystal. As per my last post, I was having suspected oil pressure problems. I plumbed in a gauge and drove it locally a bit. Everything seemed more or less OK. I even attempted to install a tachometer:
The results of the second oil pressure test with the tach installed were inconclusive, due to poor quality aftermarket gauges. So, I decided to drive a little more locally to test the van. I was planning a trip to New Jersey, which should have happened this past weekend, and wanted a few more local miles under my belt before I took a long trip in the van. So, a week and a half ago, I decided to take the Vanagon to Transporterfest, a VW bus show at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA.
The van handled the first part of the trip OK, but as it really heated up at highway speed, the oil pressure began to drop. By the time I got there, the light was going off intermittently. Not a good sign. So, I enjoyed the show, and when it was over, I decided to head home. It was a 40 mile trip there and back. Well... I didn't make it back. Actually, not true. I did make it back home, but with the help of AAA and a ride from my wife:
Long story short, the van will probably start, but a scant 300 miles or less since I completed all the work, and the engine is pretty much dead. As I don't have the money to fix it (yet), I de-registered it, de-insured it, and am preparing to get it into the garage for long-term storage.
Bottom line, I don't want to sell the van. I don't need to, and in its current mechanical condition, it probably wouldn't sell for much. So, I'm a bit sad. After almost eight and a half years, the van is no longer usable. But, this is where we get to the point of this particular blog post.
In the past, every time I've had major car problems, I've learned something or otherwise gained from the experience. Conscious of that trend, I'm trying to take as many positives out of this experience as possible.
Most of all, I'm going to use this to complete a long-time goal of mine and learn how to swap a Subaru engine into the van. Once I can save enough money for the conversion parts, I'll be dropping in a Subaru EJ22 engine, just like in my Legacy. I know the engine very well - even better than I know the Vanagon's engine at this point. Putting one in a Vanagon, though... that's going to be a learning experience.
But, it'll be a long while before I have the money for the project. So, in the meantime, I'm going back to working on the Mercedes 220D project. I dug it out this past weekend:
It hasn't even been started since April, 2010. I'm hoping to have it running again this weekend so I can get it out of the garage and clear up that space for the Vanagon. I'll be resuming work on the Mercedes outdoors. As much as I didn't want to work outdoors in the winter again, I'd prefer to do that rather than leave the VW outside. When it's done, I do plan to enjoy it a bit, but will eventually sell the Mercedes to help fund the Vanagon engine swap.
As of my last blog post, I've covered all the cars I've owned. So, as you can see, I'm a car nut, and a do-iy-yourselfer. I'd much rather tackle a repair job myself than pay someone else and trust that they'll get the job done right and not rip me off. With 100-ish miles of driving daily each between my wife and myself, routine repairs and maintenance add up quickly.
The downside of this is that I have little free time for anything other than fixing my cars.
The upside of this is that I have plenty to film and write about for you fine folks.
With so much on my plate, my projects need to be handled in order of priority. Sometimes, one car gets a bit neglected in favor of a needier one. That's just the way it works out.
If you've been following my blog, you know that my second car was the Vanagon. I bought it back in 2003 and it's currently the second place record holder for the car I've owned for the longest amount of time. The first place record holder is still my first car - the 1982 Mercedes 240D, which I had for a hair shy of nine years. The Vanagon will assume the first place slot next Spring. Despite this, it's also the car I've driven the least (only counting among cars I registered and actually drove). Although I do take it camping and use it for hauling on Home Depot runs, it's in pretty amazing shape for its age, and I've tried my best to keep it that way, despite living in New England.
Shortly after buying the van, I joined a VW club. My original motivation was to meet some people who knew about these vans and maybe abosrb some knowledge to help me fix the van myself. I really liked the group. The club is now somewhat defunct. We were all in the same age bracket, and over time, we've all been less active on the car "scene" as we've moved away, gotten married, or miscellaneous. We're all still good friends and in touch, though.
Anyhow, although I didn't learn anything maintenance-wise from the group, we had a lot of fun, and attended a lot of car shows together. Eventually, they convinced me to start entering the van into shows. I didn't think the van was show-quality, but others disagreed. I entered the van into competition for the first time at H2O International in Ocean City, MD, in 2003, and walked away with first place in my category. I kept entering it in shows and I kept winning for two reasons:
Almost nobody brings Vanagons to these shows. I had very little competition in my category.
When I did have some competition, I usually won. The van is just that nice.
Of course, it's been more than a few years now since I showed the van competitively. Other projects got in the way, and New England weather and road salt started to take a toll on it. This past winter, as my Jetta was constantly breaking down, I drove the van a lot, which I hate to do in the winter. It handles poorly in the snow and I hate exposing it to road salt.
I knew the van was dripping oil, but the drip had gotten much worse. On top of that, the van was dirty and grimy in and out, and very small surface rust spots which I'd ignored for years were really starting to bother me. So, as soon as the "new" Subaru was on the road, I got serious about repairing the van, and bringing it back to a condition approximating the way it was when I bought it.
First up, I tackled the oil leak. I replaced a bunch of oil seals, but the problem turned out to be one of the oil pressure sensors, which had developed a large leak. After that, I got to the bodywork. I pulled a dent that had been on the van since before I bought it (back in 2003, I simply Bondo-ed over the dent) and did some touch-up painting. I also removed the surface rust spots and coated those areas in Miracle Paint before applying the final touch-up paint. I also pulled the bumpers and brush guard for repairs and touch-up painting.
When all that was done, I gave the interior a massive cleaning, including all the interior glass, which hadn't had a good cleaning in a couple of years. As of this blog post, I'm not done, but am NEARLY done. I still need to do a final bits of touch-up on the brush guard and need to give the van a good wash and wax.
But, when I'm done, the van will once again be a pleasure to drive, and I hope to take it to a show or two this season yet.
(before - old touch-up paint failing and seam rust showing)
(Bondo ground away and dent PROPERLY pulled)
(completed repair - light gray on left is dust)
(rear emblem chrome had flaked off - repainted it black)
I guess it makes sense that I ramp up this blog by telling you about each of my cars. I think the how, where, when, and whys of each will give you some insight into who I am and where I'm going with this. Once I'm up to speed on this, I'll focus on more in-the-moment items.
But, I digress (a bad habit I'm trying to kick). As I mentioned in a previous post, I'd always been fond of the VW vans my parents had. When I was very young, they had a yellow 1973 bay window bus, which they sold in 1985 when they got a brand new Vanagon. Some of my most vivid memories from growing up involve the family taking road trips in the Vanagon. They eventually traded up to a 1989 Vanagon (which, incidentally, is still and the family and pulls delivery truck duty on behalf of my father's business) which took us on even more trips.
The Mercedes 240D followed me off to college. Shortly after graduation I got it in my head that I wouldn't mind a Vanagon of my own, to use as backup transportation, for taking weekend road trips and for camping. It wasn't a serious thought, but I decided to keep an eye out and asked my parents to keep an eye out, also. Not long after that, I more or less forgot about it, until...
One day my father tells me he'd met an older couple in a parking lot where driving a very well-kept Vanagon (original owners). He asked if they were looking to sell. They said no, but maybe in a year or so they might. My father gave the Vanagon owners my contact information and left it at that. He told me the van was silver, but other than it being in very good condition, he didn't know much about it.
Around a year and a half later (May, 2003), I got a phone call from the van's owners, asking if I was interested in buying it. Even though I hadn't seen it in person yet, I told them I was interested and wanted to check it out. A few days later, I went with my father to check it out. It was a bit rougher than he'd remembered it. It was in need of a wash and wax, most of the interior had been removed, it had a large dent and a mangled bumper, and it ran roughly and loudly. The test drive was somewhat interesting, as I didn't know how to drive stick shift very well at that point. I think I put a bit of a scare into the seller.
Seeing as how the van was rougher than he imagined, my father advised against me buying it, but told me the decision was mine. I thought about it and decided to pull the trigger. Money exchanged hands, and the seller started loading the van up with parts. The missing interior had been removed back in 1991 when the van was new, and had been kept in showroom condition. All the necessary nuts and bolts had been bagged and tagged.
(right after purchase)
I spent that first weekend putting the interior back together and the rest of the summer doing various repairs - mechanical and body, on the van. Since I had no training, and only a shop manual, I decided it would be a good idea to make some friends who knew something about working on Volkswagens. I searched the internet, and happened upon the website for a local VW club. I joined up, and made some friends I'm still close with to this day.
Eventually, the van followed me up to Massachusetts along with the 240D. Although the van has its moments when it's a bit fussy, I still have it to this day and am planning on keeping it for the long haul.
