My 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, A Love Story

[Zelten]

I've been off the Samba for awhile and missed your trip to Vancouver Island report. I'll have to pick your brain about it because that's a trip I've been wanting to take for awhile now.
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1978 Delux Campmobile
03 Jetta TDI
15 Q7 TDI

[RONIN10]

[RONIN10]

Lot of progress over the weekend simply from having my bus back in time for an Itinerant Air Cooled day with Amskeptic.

I got my bus back from the body shop on Friday afternoon after getting a nose replacement. The work seems well done though there are a few flaws to be addressed when it is ready for final paint. It went from this:

to this:

and now looks like this:

The rest of the body work will continue over the next year or two and then one final spray of the whole thing, inside and out.

Excited to have my bus back, I tackled a few quickie projects on Saturday afternoon. Installed a new dash cluster I got from notchboy with the KPH speedo and trip meter as well as the dash clock I picked up last summer.

I also replaced my front turn signal lenses and headlight trim rings. It really brighten things up on the front end. My turn signal switch was also in much need of replacement so I swapped in a new SWF one as well.

Then Sunday came and Amskeptic arrived for our IAC appointment. The usual cup of coffee and discussions of current events were obliged and then we got to work tackling a few issues: a nuisance oil leak that had appeared right before putting the bus into the body shop, getting the auxiliary battery working, and verifying the function of the refrigerator.

In the course of all this, we discussed the distressing state of my valve train.
After Colin took a keen look at the lack of adjustment range, pulled a lifter, we concluded that it's time for an engine rebuild. The camshaft and lifters have just about used up there service life. So that's the next money sink in the hobby we so love.
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Andrew

Oscar: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, 2.0L FI, Manual Transaxle

[RONIN10]

So begins the engine rebuild effort. Mostly prep stuff at the moment though. I picked up this engine stand off of Craigslist for $50.

It's overkill for a bus engine, but I have worked with the "T" shaped bases before and even the modified "T" with the two wheels at the bottom of the T and don't favor them. This one I especially like because I have a hydraulic lifting table that I use to lower the engine out of the bus and after removing the transmission, I can lift the engine right onto the stand. Since so much of the work I do on the bus is unassisted, this is a big plus.

On the downside though, the diameter of the hole in the upright support has too large a diameter to fit my VW engine mount. I'll rig up the case to the mount that came with the stand see how it works. If that doesn't seem feasible, I'll see about sleeving the VW mount or otherwise modifying it.

In other news, I got a bunch of parts back from Northwest Connecting Rod.

The crankcase turned out to be in good order without any rework needed beyond tapping the oil galleries. My crankshaft was likewise good and needed only a polishing. The rods were rebuildable so Jerry at NWCR took them as cores and gave me a previously rebuilt set. The castings of my heads were in good order, but since they're AMC heads, the valve guides were trash. I also had slightly burned exhaust valves. So the heads got new, more robust valve guides and the exhaust valves were replaced with Stainless Steel valves. The only outstanding machine work left is to have my flywheel resurfaced and then get the rotating assembly balanced.

So all in all, I'm out $750 for machine shop work. I spent another $300 for a new LuK pressure plate/clutch/throwout bearing kit, cam bearings, flywheel bolts, and numerous small engine bits. Fortunately that was covered by selling a set of IDFs in the classifieds. And then beyond that another $40 is build materials: plastigauge, assembly lube, threadlock, etc.

All together that adds up to $1140 so far if you include the engine stand. I still have to get new pistons and cylinders, main and rod bearings, pay for the engine balance and...I'm sure there's something else I'm overlooking. Anyway, I'm looking at about $2k or so to complete the basic engine.

That's a good update for now. Be well and do good.
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Andrew

Oscar: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, 2.0L FI, Manual Transaxle

[Xevin]

Soooo, you putting in a Web Cam 110 in that
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Keep on Busin'

[RONIN10]

Nope. Nope. Nope. Going bone stock on this engine.

Got a Webcam 142. It's the stock cam for the Type 4 engine, albeit the Porsche variant.
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Andrew

Oscar: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, 2.0L FI, Manual Transaxle

[notchboy]

Good to hear. You doing an early exhaust?
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[RONIN10]

[RONIN10]

I'm stuck waiting on for parts to arrive later this week so I can get my rotating assembly balanced, but in the meantime, I'm getting other components ready to go. Namely, I powder coated my fan. I'm really happy with how it turned out:

My only concern with the fan is that one of the fan blades is noticeably bent and won't balance.

I did find an anomaly with the engine case, one that I had forgotten about from when this case was running in Greta, my old bus: the drain plug had been poorly oversized to a 16 mm plug which it now only stays in by a few threads. It can be fixed - for a price - but according to Jerry @ NWCN the oversized insert is 16 mm itself so we may have to weld in some filler, redrill and retap it back to original. More news next week.

I did also pick up my pistons and cylinders for $460 from Auto Sport International in SeaTac. They're stock Mahle 94 mm pistons with the correct, dished top. So other than sourcing an oil pump and cooler, all the components of my basic engine will be in place by this week's end. After that, it's back NWCN for balancing next week, assembly to start the week after.

My running cost now is $1140 (previous) + $460 (P&Cs) + $50 (powder) = $1650.
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Andrew

Oscar: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, 2.0L FI, Manual Transaxle

[Bleyseng]

[RONIN10]

[BUSBOSS]

Did you take apart the fan to powder coat it?
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All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
1976 Westfalia
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible (sold - but not forgotten)

[Xevin]

Was wondering the same thing
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Keep on Busin'

[notchboy]

If he didnt thats some impressive powder coating.
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[RONIN10]

[BUSBOSS]

Let us know how difficult it is to balance.
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All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood
1976 Westfalia
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible (sold - but not forgotten)

[RONIN10]

So I've been blasting and powder coating engine tins like a madman this past past week. I haven't taken any pictures yet because I have a few tins to replace as well and I'll have to paint the upper front-of-the-engine tin by hand as it's too big for my oven. Once everything is painted, I'll mock it up on the engine and snap a photo.

I've also been looking into getting my 70 amp alternator rebuilt. I poached my current one from The Lump and while it works, it is due for some love. Bleyseng recommended a rebuilder in the area, but I haven't been able to get them to return my call in a couple tries. I'll try once more, but then that's their third strike and I'll take my business elsewhere.

Still on the alternator front, I did find a source for remanufactured 70 amp alternators. I've never heard of this vendor, but given the price, it wouldn't be a bad investment to pick one up and use while the other is rebuilt with known bearings and other internals and then have this one as a spare. eBay ads are listing them for over $400!

My distributor drive gear was a little chewed up so I was hunting around to see what the quality of the replacements were out there. Most of the VW sites had them, but didn't specify the manufacturer or if they did it was Euromax and all of them ran for about $40 or so. Turns out Pelican Parts carries a genuine Porsche distributor drive gear, but it'll set you back $93.

Engine goes in for balancing this afternoon. Yay!

I partially built up my cylinder heads last night, but a couple of my rocker shafts are in pretty bad shape with deep scoring so if anyone has some laying around they want to offload, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll check with Ken @ The Bus Co.

I had a sad conversation with Ken this past weekend about how a lot of the old ACVW businesses in the area are on the verge of getting out due to age and decreased business:

* Northwest Connecting Rod (Kent) - Jerry wants to retire within 3 years, but doesn't have anyone to sell the business off to. I heard this from him directly.
* Autovice/Bow Wow (Lynnwood) - Ken says this has been shrinking for years. I saw a bit of that when I worked up in South Everett and could pick up parts from them on my lunch break.
* Ken himself is no spring chicken, though he never made mention of getting out
* Likewise, Paula at Auto Sport Imports (SeaTac) is getting up there in years as well, she has a younger front counter guy (her son?) that has been there for years which gives me hope.

Of course, this is a reality for vehicles that are no longer manufactured. Jerry is the one that concerns me most.
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Andrew

Oscar: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper, 2.0L FI, Manual Transaxle

[Tcash]

I'll have to paint the upper front-of-the-engine tin by hand as it's too big for my oven.
Pop the Oven door open and box it in with some sheet metal.
Good luck
Tcash

[airschooled]

Re: rocker shafts:

Are you going for hydraulic or solid lifters? If you're going for solid lifters, consider the Porsche swivel feet adjusters. You'll need the early T4 8mm rocker arms, which were limited in production. The Parts Place in Detroit has a set for sale, which I parted off a bus last year and told them not to get rid of. If you buy those rockers, and Porsche swivel feet adjusters from aircooled.net, you'll be set for life. If you're going hydraulic, disregard this message.

Robbie
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Learn how your vintage VW works. And why it doesn't!
One-on-one tech help for your Volkswagen:
www.airschooled.com

[RONIN10]