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Wed Nov 23, 2011 6:56 pm

chazz79 wrote: Unfortunately my pics are being deleted from the thread, thus making most of the words pointless. I can describe what I did all day but a picture is worth a thousand words. I have finished my rear control panel and I'm working on side tanks that will resemble belly pans. One side will hold water and the other gas...I'm hoping for@w9 40gallons of each.

I'd gladly continue on here but first I'd like to know why content is being deleted. Even purely bay related content has been erased.

Curious to see those belly pans :D

Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:13 pm

sofakingcool wrote: What the hell? thats weird :?

Ditto that. I've been following along. I say PM Everret or something and ask. Doesnt hurt.

Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:07 pm

I "reported" his post about the missing pics so I'm sure the powers that be will check it out soon..

Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:26 pm

Riguy718 wrote: chazz79 wrote:
Killer seats dude...man do i love that blue/green plaid. Your ass and your bus will be happy :D

Nice thread; just went through all the pages. Couldn't help but notice that you mixed up the seat backs and bottoms, and the green stripes don't align. Dang, I hate when that happens. Apart from that, I like your work on this bus.

Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:43 am

Well I never thought of that! Very good point, I will be correcting that soon. Now that I see the difference thats going to bug the crap out of me.

Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:27 pm

read your thread on shoptalkforums too. Just wondering how you liking the 2.3 after the year or so you had it in there now? Also what kinda mpg have you been getting and whats your cruising speed at? I know it has to be limited by gear and not power now

Thu Nov 24, 2011 7:50 pm

The 2.3 runs well enough and gets 18mpg consistantly. I haven't had it out of town and I'm still hopefull for 20+mpg on the highway as that's been the goal from the start. It's got a blown head gasket so I don't drive it too far right now. This winter I'll tear it down and do a little preventative maintenance to keep it from happening again. I believe the head gasket issue was due to an air pocket in the first cooling system design. The carb secondaries are shut down as everytime they kicked in the engine would flood and shut down. I'll eventually find a smaller metering plate but for now the bowl is dry and it runs fine on two barrels. The bus is still a slow bus and hasn't lost that character. Getting up to highway speed has greatly improved and it keeps with traffic fine at 65. It also maintains speed well without downshifting for hills. It really just feels like it's power is finally adequate.

Pics!

^^^this is the area where the spare tire would usually be. The metal box on the left houses a three position knob with a Full Hot (ignition and fuel pump ready, start armed) OFF, and Starter crank only positions. Any time the switch is moved from off the green light is lit to let you know something has been left on and the battery will eventually die. The button closest to the vent wall is a starter crank button. Trouble shooting has never been so easy. Under the metal box are 6 relays..2 for lighting zones, ignition on, fan a, fan b, and fuel pump. I haven't installed my extra ignition module and voltage regulator but if you look close you'll see the holes where they belong.

^^^^^^bottom shelf covers all electrics keeping them safe and dry inside the bus

^^^^^^^^Two switches controlling both lighing circuits. They are relay grounding switches that will be tagged into from the front so both lighting arrangements can be turned on from either end of the bus. It's a simple Direct lighting set that will come on by demand or by door pin switch. The indirect, or mood lighting will be switch demand only. These are led rope lights located in the headache rack, with more to be added in the curtain valances when I finish building those.

Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:44 pm

Another fed-ex box from bus depot. Seat stand mats, carpet kit and ignition switch. @120.00 more worth of misc crap, but at this point it's only money.

The mat kits really clean up the front of the bus nicely. I'll finally be able to clean up the rats nest of wires under the dash and get rid of the lawn mower ignition switch.

Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:30 pm

lookin good
do the bus depot mats come with the foam under them?

just a wondering

Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:48 pm

They have the foam and you have to cut around the seat brackets. Within a half hour they were installed. I'm not doing the seat stand wraps because they'll be hidden by the fridge and jump seat so what you see is what it'll be. I'll probobly just glue some black carpeting to the exposed sides to finish it off.

Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:55 pm

Had to have the head milled .007 and cleaned up a bit. The problem ended up being a defective thermostat. The center pin was missing so it never opened from minute one.

I'm taking this oppertunity to clean up the plumbing some more. This thermostat head pipe eliminates an adaptor and a hose, or four points of failure.

The problem with conversions is that inevitably people will want to see how you did it. Most of my crap I'm not afraid for folks to look at, but the sketchy bits I'm re-doing.

My wife wised up and started getting me valentines presents I like! Now the bus sleeps 5. Install was pretty reasonable even without instructions.

That's the peanut enjoying her new hangout.

Sat May 12, 2012 2:08 pm

Hey chazz, fastmc and I are putting a 2.3 in my '71 single cab right now.
My water pump pulley is hitting the rear valance and deck lid. How did you overcome this? Or, did you not have a problem with it?

Do you have a pic that you can show on that ?

Check it out at-
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126475

Paul made the engine hanger just yesterday.

Sun May 20, 2012 7:54 pm

I used allen button headed screws. If you push in on the deck lid it does scrape when running. I'm using the 091 trans but the three rib would provide a little more room. I'm also using the esslinger pinto beans adaptor ( 3/4") aluminum. I thought there was a pic of the pulley set I'm using in here somewhere...i'll check.

Correct..No pics of the belt drive set-up. Here goes

This pulley set came off of a few different 2.3's laying around at the junkyard. It's a 6 rib running crank to pump to alternator. A/c is ran off the w/p with a 6 rib belt It is a hodgepodge of multiple systems I cobbled together from junkyard parts. The a/c may not even work and stall out the waterpump but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

If you locate a compact serpentine set up that uses one belt on a modern spring loaded tensioner then let me know. I'd get rid of this for something more professional looking anytime.

crank pulley is a single 6 rib with the specialty tool pulling adaptor cut off. I can remove the bolt and slide this pulley off with the engine mounted. Timing is easily checked this way. The double pulley would drive the a/c properly but it will not fit.

Sun May 20, 2012 8:13 pm

Great thread! My first car was a 73 Green Apple Beetle. Love the color!

Fri May 25, 2012 2:01 pm

I'm also running a 6-rib tranny and serpentine belt.
I only have crank, water pump and alternator. I won't even be able to close my deck lid. I'll figure out something that doesn't look jacked up...
Great thread!

Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:36 am

Lots of good stuff here, good read !

Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:59 pm

So how you liking the 2.3 now that you have had it awhile?

Mon Nov 26, 2012 7:23 pm

I've been driving the wheels off it. Lots of power and I'm getting nearly 20mpg around town. As far as low tech swaps go, this ones the ticket. I had fully intended to have it parked by now to address some issues but I gotta drive it. My dd vanagon crapped the bed and hopefully by christmas I'll have it back together.

The one irritating thing is a lack of heat but it is a great feeling to know that when I need it the monster will deliver and get my sorry but to work on time.

The first thing I'm doing is furnace work. The heater will be under the jumpseat and plumbed to blow air backwards through the walkthrough vent so the dash controls will function as stock.

Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:30 am

man i figured you would have had a heater in it by now, why else go watercooled :lol: . I'm planning on doing a heater in the back and one in the front. Going to put one under the rear seat, haven't decided on where to put the one in the front. Since I'm putting my rad up front. Thinking something like this for mine. Probably get a rear one from either a conversion van or a vanagon, either way something from the junkyard since I'm cheap

Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:05 am

With that space opened up you can use the same radiator I did. The inlet and outlet would both face rearward. In that orientation the drain petcock could be used to bleed the air out too.

I'm using two vanagon rear heaters. One will be placed in a stock location under the rear seat just blowing out into the rear area. The other heater will be under my jump seat and plumbed to blow backwards through the walkthrough so alk my dash stuff will work as intended.

When using the vanagon stuff count on the cores being crap. Vanagon folks trash these units to gain some more under seat storage space once they quit working. I'm in need of two cores (80.00) and one blower motor (65.00) so its not a cheap venture. While you nasty get the units free, they really aren't free.