New Front brakes for the Touareg

I ordered new front brakes from Arletta Truck parts online from Club Touareg. These cost me $480 for rotors, pads, sensors and hardware. I received them today 11-16-09.

Limped home

The bus limped home yesterday when coming home from work. The 2 year old gremlin struck with a vengeance. I tried shutting off the motor and checking spark in all cylinders. Nothing made it run right this time. So I just left for home about 22 miles. I made it without issue but the power of the motor was way down. I needed to pull the motor to see if I could find anything in the ignition or carburetor systems. So I took Friday off work even though I really needed to work but no car so what are you going to do.

I pulled the motor then removed the spark plugs. I found the #1 spark plug seemed gas fouled as it appeared wet but was not wet. It had a glazed look to it. I also found the spark plug (#2) with the CHT sender under it was leaking. I replaced the glazed plug and moved the CHT to the #3 spark plug and hopefully it will seal better there.

I also removed the tops of the carbs and remeasured the float positions. The left side upper position was correct but the drop position was too much (about 15mm). So I adjusted it to about 12mm. The right side seemed out in both positions. I adjusted them into the proper positions of about 5mm and 12mm. But I also found a clip that holds the float in the bottom of the bowl. This may have been the 2 year old gremlin giving me issues intermittently. So I will reinstall the motor today and we will see if I indeed fixed the gremlin.

More tuning

I just ordered more Brad Penn 10w/30 motor oil. I tried to order from LN Engineering but their website does not seem to work so I ordered it from another site. I can not remember the site name so I will have to get back to it later. I will be doing an oil change in a week or so.

I also ordered some jets for the carbs. Right now I have 1.25 mains and .55 idles. I ordered 1.20 and 1.22 mains and .58 idles from CB Performance. My motor seems a bit mushy on the top end hence the smaller mains. With the .55 idles, the idle adjustment is about 5.5 turns out with a hint of spitting from the carbs once in a while. So I will go with the next half size larger to get the number turns out down a couple of turns and to see if the motor will run without any spitting from the carbs.

Another Trip to McCain Valley

Cibbets Flat would not allow fires, we ended up at McCain Valley. Here are some pics.

This is a pic of me and my girl friend.

                                                                            

Kicking it at McCain Valley

My girl friend on the right and our good friends on the left.

Minor tune up before camping

The bus seemed to be a bit sluggish lately. I changed the spark plugs and wires this weekend thinking that the plugs were fouled. The plugs looked good in regards to color and were very clean. It appears that they were not fouled. However, after the change, the bus was markedly more responsive. So it appears that maybe the spark plug wires were worn out. We will watch how long the responsiveness lasts. Unfortunately, one of the new wires was broken out of the package. They are Taylor wires and one of the short wires ends that go into the distributor was broken off. So I had to use one of the old wires until I get another new set.

Cibbets Flat Camping Trip

Another camping trip is planned at Cibbets Flat on Laguna Mt in San Diego County. We will going on 10-16-09 and coming back 10-18-09. Ray and Elsa will be joining Jessieca (my girlfriend) and myself. Excellent hiking at this location. There is a stream near by that runs through the campground. No hook ups but the vault toilets are clean. I believe there are water spouts scattered about. Overall a very nice campground that no reservations are needed or taken.

My Father

Yesterday was a sad and tough day. My father passed away at approx. 5:45am on 9-27-09 of a massive heart attack. He has had heart disease so this was not unexpected but not easy none the less. My parents were the ones who got me into camping. My father was the one who influenced me to take on mechanics as a hobby. I will miss him.

McCain Valley view point

The bus parked at the view point.

The dirt road you can see is the road I had to take to get there. Doesn't look bad from here as it really was.

The bus parked at the view point.

More from the view point.

More from the view point.

There is a view point on the way to the camp spot. This is some of what can be seen from the view point.

These are wind mills producing electricity. This pic was taken about 5 miles from the wind mills.

One of my favorite camp spots is McCain Valley close to the town of Boulevard.

Grand Canyon Camping

Here are a couple of shots of the Grand Canyon. The second pic is our camp site for a week (5 days).

Green Valley Falls Camping

Ok, we have a camp trip scheduled for mid Sept. So far my girlfriend and I are going along with a buddy of mine and his family. We will camp at Green Valley Falls on Cuyamaca Mt. in San Diego County. Will post some pics once we get back. We will be going in my bus on this trip since it is just a camping trip and not a riding(quads)/camping trip.

I forgot to bring my camera camping saw the only pics it took were with my phone. So they will be not as good as I would have liked. I will be posting those and past camping pics soon. Stay tuned.

Here are a couple of lame pics from this weekends trip. I had forgot my camera so this is all I took. This is at Green Valley Falls on Cuyamaca Mt. in San Diego County.

Oil pressure issues

9-1-09

I have 2200 miles on the motor now. Oil pressure was a bit high so I changed oil pumps. I did have a 30mm pump from Berg but now I have a 26mm pump from aircooled.net. Since then, I have been low oil pressures at idle. I did face the oil pump cover and blue printed the pump according to the How To Hotrod you VW book. Then I found that my oil pickup came loose. The tab that holds it to the drain broke. I had to fab up and attach something to hold in place. I also swaged the other end in the case. However, my idle pressure was still low. I then looked at my oil reliefs. I did have a custom oiling system by Headflow Masters that uses a steel ball in place of the original piston. I removed the custom components and reinstalled the stock components. I also had 0w-20 oil in an effort to reduce oil pressure initially. I removed that oil and used 10w-30 Brad Penn oil. All of this finally got my idle pressure to about 7 to 10 lbs when hot.

9-6-09

I changed the oil relief piston back to the ball. What I found is that it was not sealing well and therefore much of the oil was bypassing the cooler and therefore the oil was getting hotter than normal. I changed to a stronger spring also. I will have to make sure that the idle pressure stays where it should. I will report on that in a couple of days.

9-24-09

Well I'm back from camping. My oil pressure seems to be under control now. I actually reinstalled the oil control piston and still using the ball valve for pressure relief. I have several oil control pistons in my spare parts. However, one was taller than the rest. The diameter was the same but longer by about .050". This seemed to make a difference in idle pressure. So that is what I ended up with.

Carbs and last few items

Getting close. Carbs now installed with linkage.

The motor is ready to install into the bus. Notice the SS heater hoses. Best investment in heater hose I ever made.

This motor is a 1915cc with dual 40mm Delorto Carburetors. Heads are 040 with mild p&p with 40x35.5 SS valves with HD springs. Case and heads were done by Headflow Masters. The cam is a Engle 100. Crank is a CW 69mm. Distributor is a 019 refurbished by Glenn Ring. CR is 8.2 to 1.

Exhaust and fan shroud

Painted and installed the exhaust and all of the tin is now installed.

Fan shroud going on along with flaps and thermostat (can't see).

Heater boxes

Differences in heater core of aftermarket boxes and OEM boxes. Notice the size of fins inside. The aftermarkets are larger and less of them.

Heater boxes getting installed.

More views of heater boxes and now lower tins installed.

Cylinder tin and thermocouples

Here the cylinder tin is installed. Also, CHT senders are installed. I JB welded them adjacent to the spark plug hole just enough to get the spark plug installed. One sender per cylinder.

Rockers and pushrod tubes

Rocker geometry being verified.

Pushrod tubes now installed.

Rockers installed with valve covers. Also the oil pressure sender now installed.

Oil cooler and crank pulley

Installed the oil cooler.

Installed pulley tin and pulley. The pulley is a steel pulley rather than aluminum.

Oil Sump

This is the extension for the 1.5 qt sump. I added the screen since I will not run the stock screen. This will keep bolts and other large objects out. I will have a magnetic drain plug. I will also have a remote oil filter.

Adding a 1.5 qt sump. As you can see, I also installed the full flow fittings on the case.

Piston and Cylinders

Here the 1 & 2 pistons and cylinders are installed with the air deflector.

















Now the 1 & 2 head is now installed.

The 3-4 cylinders and head are now installed.

Installing components onto closed case

The case has been closed. The distributor drive shaft end play was set to about .035". Installed the distributor and fuel pump block off plate.




















Here the alternator stand is installed as are the head studs. Flywheel is also installed.





















Here the oil pump is installed along with the oil pressure relief valve and oil temp sender.

Installing components in case

Case has been decked and align bored. I cleaned up the push rod tube openings so they don't leak.

This case is what I used on my orginal motor. The original had approx. 45K miles before I found the thrust bearing rotating a little. I was in there to repair an oil leak at the main seal. The case is an AS41.

Just installed a German oil pickup tube and started installing cam bearings. Rubber o-rings were installed on the main bearing studs.

Lifters are installed. Cam and main bearings are also installed.

Crank shaft with cam and distributor gears installed.  I blued the cam gear a bit heating it up to get it on. Hopefully it will be ok. We will see.

Crank shaft with rods. Cam and cam gear installed. Greased up ready to close the case. I have already check clearances with oil pump and cam gear. Rods were statically balanced.