splitbusaustralia Wolfsburg Wizard
487 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·
Last weekend I decided to get Leo’s type 4 engine starting, running and give it a tune. The plan being I would then bleed his (new) brake system and take him for a bit of a drive up and down the street. Estimated time was an ‘easy’ day to do the lot.
I bought a new Bosch starter for him and charged up what should have been a good battery overnight on the Friday. Woke up Saturday and went and had coffee (large caramel latte – yum sugar and caffeine) and breakfast with the kidz at GJs in Pako….read papers in between helping kidz with Take5 magazine puzzles and daydreamed about an easy and quite satisfying afternoon getting Leo running and having a little drive (I’ve never actually driven him).
Go home full of caffeine and sugar (as previously noted) ready to go. The battery charger’s indicator light was showing fully charged (as was I dues to caffeine and sugar as previously noted) - sweet!
Filled new oil filter with oil and fitted. Pulled one of the lines to the remote oil cooler and filled that with oil too. No oil spills very pleased about saving the environment. Fitted the battery and disconnected the coil lead and the electric fuel pump as the plan was to crank a bit of oil around the engine first. Fitted a remote wire to starter so I could crank from the engine bay….already then! Put power on remote starter lead and…
That ‘thunk’ sound you get when the starter pinion engages but doesn’t crank. Think the first relatively mild swear word for the day (mild and not vocalising yet so everything’s still cool). Pull the starter, which is a bitch of a job because of the top starter nut on the engine bay side is behind upright tin and a sexy weber carb (I remind myself that anything that looks really really sexy is always trouble in the long run!).
Test starter on supposedly ‘good’ battery – no spin. Hmmm my new starter is a dud or what should be a ‘good’ battery is kaput. Test starter on the Ford’s known to be good battery. Starter spins. Ergo the supposedly ‘good’ battery is kaput. Think same relatively mild swear word again. Go and buy new battery.
Install new battery. Refit starter (see note above on top bolt, but still OK on caffeine and sugar and haven’t barked knuckles or cut hands yet so its still good). Go to step 1. Engine cranks, red light off, little bumpy movement on oil pressure gauge. Sweet.
Reconnect coil wire and power to electric fuel pump. Have statically timed engine and set carbs (idle mixture 2 turns out, air volume 2 turns in after engaging lever) so expecting things to burst into life with a healthy roar and the sexy sound of weber induction roar and the whine of straight cut cam gears (have I mentioned that I think anything that looks or sounds really really sexy is always trouble in the long run?).
Crank and ……..nada. Nada nada nada. Vocalise relatively mild swear word. Caffeine and sugar wearing off slightly at this stage. Methodically test ignition circuit. Power to coil, power to points, points trigger test light, pull spark plug leads and test when cranking, nice spark. Conclude ignition side OK.
Gotta be fuel. Jack leo up and pull fuel line at filter expecting it to be dry because of some fuel pump problem. Petrol pours over arm (I HATE getting petrol on my skin – I can smell it for days!) and environment. Vocalise first swear word that’s not so mild.
Put fuel line back return to engine bay and review options. Can’t actually look down barrels of sexy webers because not enough room (but looking really really sexy) but know I set the float levels OK and fairly sure they have petrol given its being delivered OK. Have spark. Must have (not so mild swear word)’ed up the timing – gotta be 180 deg out. Switch plugs leads around to shift 180 degrees.
Go to step 1. Crank. And……..ACTION! Well, sounds like 2 cylinders of action combined with a massive exhaust leak on the LHS. Not the smooth turbine like whine of a fully balanced engine…So much for the induction roar of a pair of sexy webers and the sweet whine of straight cut cam gears! My teeth chatter as I hold the throttles and the engine jumps around. Haven’t been bumped around this much since I was last in a splitbus running a 68/69 front beam lowered on adjusters!
Cut ignition. Ponder. Begin to worry that if I got the ignition timing 180 out I may have also got all the valve timing out when I set up the engine. Don’t think so but (sigh) better check it. Put leo back on jack. Not a lot of room to do tappets on a type IV in a splitbus. Was thinking I wouldn’t have to worry about it for 500 miles……think about going back to GJs for another large caramel latte, decide that’s avoidance behaviour and press on.
Pop rocker cover and left hand side. Check valves gaps, they’re OK, #4 inlet and outlet a bit tight for some reason, bark first knuckle undoing jam nut to reset. Pop cover on RHS and check. They’re OK. Clean rocker covers, fit new gaskets with sealer on rocker cover side (hate leaks) and refit. Take leo of jack.
Return to engine bay. Crank again illogically expecting the turbine when really why would I since nothing has changed since the last attempted start? Logic wins and Leo bumps’n’grinds away on two with massive LHS exhaust leak. Wind up idle so he’ll bump’n’grind by himself and check oil pressure. 50-60 PSI cold – sweet.
Decide I better start pulling spark plug lead wires to find missing cylinders. LHS (#3 and #4) have nice healthy spark but are not ‘running’. Hmmmmm. Ponder whether the massive exhaust leak on that side could be reflecting some sort of loss of compression. Vocalise swear word with adjective and modifier. Can’t see how that could be but put Leo on jack and crawl underneath to look for signs of blow by. Can’t see anything (swear word with religious overtones offering thanks…).
Hmmm. Not running on #3 and #4, but valve/ignition timing is OK, spark is good, and fuel is being delivered to the carb (but I can’t look down the sexy weber’s throat to see what’s happening, I do like the way it looks though). Decide to pull the LHS carb and check it out.
Well I thought setting the valve clearances was going to be a bitch of a job…..
Have to pull em at the head cos you simply can’t get at one of the nuts that holds the carb to the manfold. Work the two middle head nuts off 1/32 of a turn at a time and then spend a happy half hour fishing one of the nuts out from where its dropped (and jammed which also stop the manifold coming off). Who cares about barked knuckles and cut hands anymore? Get sexy weber and manifold off.
Getting dark now, caffeine and sugar buzz disappeared hours ago.
Dismantle carb. Both idle jets are completely blocked with crap. Must have come out of the bottom of the tank and been delivered to that carb first. I wonder what my $15 Ryco fuel filter actually does…….
Blow the carb out and reassemble. Remember hoping that this wasn’t going to be an ongoing thing – I was always cleaning the carbs on Chrissy’d notch when she ran it low on petrol.
Saturday was done and Leo wasn’t running.
Woke up Sunday. Took kidz down Pako for coffee and GJs and Sunday paper and Take 5 puzzles. Beginning to think I have a serious addiction here. Have a large caramel latte and trade in my freebie card for another regular. Skip home working on a new guitar riff in my head (pity I’ve nearly sliced the top of my left hand index finger off somewhere along the line and I won’t be able to play it for a while - I was never into the blood on the frets thing – its rusts the strings and they’re expensive…).
Refit LHS sexy weber and manifold…see comments above re what a bitch of a job that is. Return to step 1. Crank. Leo bursts into what I assume is fully balanced turbine like life, with sexy weber induction roar and the whine of straight cut cam gears. If I could hear it over the massive exhaust leak on the LHS…..
Jack Leo up and pull his exhaust and LHS heater box. One of the copper exhaust gaskets is skewwiff and hasn’t seated properly. In fact its nearly bent in half. No wonder the big exhaust leak. Clean the high temp RTV silicone off everything, fit new gaskets, silicon and reassemble. Go to step one.
Crank. Leo burst into life sounding like a fully balanced turbine. The whine of the straight cut cam gears is serious without being too obtrusive and the induction roar of the webers is really really quite sexy………
RobK
[Edited on 9-5-2005 by splitbusaustralia]
