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.
Apologies to anyone who's been reading along. I've been busy the past few weeks and haven't had a chance to update the blog.
I was able to finish up and install the driver's side cylinder head. While I had it all apart, I opted to do the passenger's side head gasket, too. When I pulled the AMC head, I was surprised at how much pitting there was.
I got that side done and then reinstalled the rocker assemblies and pushrods (hopefully correctly). The pushrods can hang up a bit on installation. You need to be careful to properly seat the pushrod in the hydraulic lifter.
After that, I installed the exhaust. Not in one session, mind you... but more like piece-by-piece as time allowed. In the past month, work commitments, family commitments, and much-needed work on the daily driver Subarus have kept me from working on the Vanagon. Hopefully, I'm past that.
My (ambitious) goal is to have it back on the road for the 4th of July.
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.
Apologies to anyone who's been reading in the past six weeks looking for updates on my regular projects. I really haven't touched the Vanagon or the 240D since early April. I've been busy with the Legacy.
Right around the time of my last blog post, the Legacy started running poorly and throwing a P0302 trouble code. I threw a few parts at the car, hoping it would be a simple fix (spark plugs, wires, a new coil, and finally, a fuel injector). None of this changed how the car ran, and no matter how many times I reset it, the code kept coming back.
So, after throwing money down the drain on non-returnable parts I didn't need, I did what I should have done in the first place - I ran a compression test:
The results were conclusive, showing low compression in cylinder 2 as the cause of the misfire. From the specifics of the test, it looked like a burned exhaust valve or a worn valve guide was likely the cause of the problem. So, after some brief soul-searching, I decided to go ahead and repair the car. The clearest path to that goal was replacing the cylinder head. Learning how to do that was enough without having to learn how to rebuild it myself.
I ordered a rebuilt cylinder head from F&S Auto Parts in Roxbury, CT, who I found highly recommended on several Subaru message boards. They rebuild cylinder heads to order, so I had to wait a little over a week for the part. In that time, I did something I hate to do - I commuted to work by train. Frankly, it's crowded, overpriced, uncomfortable, and the schedule is horrible. But, at least I was able to get to work.
For a while, I felt like an urban redneck. I had three cars at home, none of which I could drive. Finally, my cylinder head arrived, but not without difficulty. Let me paint a picture for you...
It was a sunny Saturday morning, around 11 AM. I was home, and, anticipating the arrival of the cylinder head, I went to look out the front door to see if the local mail carrier was on our street yet. I saw no sign of the mail truck, but found the day's mail in the mailbox, along with an attempted delivery notice indicating for my cylinder head. I needed the part, and in a panic, tried calling the post office (I got no answer). Not knowing what else to do, I started searching the neighborhood in my wife's car, looking for the mail carrier. I found a succession of trucks and carriers, none of whom were my mail carrier, but who were all helpful. Finally, one of them directed me to a street around a half mile away from my house, where I found another truck. I waited like a madman (as politely as I could) for the carrier to return. When she did, I was happy to find that she had the cylinder head, and was happy to let me have it just so long as I signed the delivery notice.
My prize in hand, I sped back to the house and started tearing into the Legacy. By the end of the day, I had the intake manifold off. By the end of the weekend, the new cylinder head was installed, but the engine wasn't buttoned-up yet. By the middle of that week, I had the car back on the road, running better than it ever had since I bought it.
So, on top of that, another weekend that I was horribly sick, and this past weekend, when I replaced a CV axle on my wife's car:
...I haven't had any time for the Vanagon.
But, I've budgeted most of the upcoming long weekend to wrench on the van. I am still planning on having it back on the road for the summer.
