Back in the game

Enforced time off from a project is usually good when you've been working at a fevered pace. It lets you retrench and reconsider various moves you've made and occasionally, alter course before you wreck yourself on something you had been 'too busy' to see.

One of the other side effects is that if your long-suffering spouse and children have been starting to get itchy because you've been secluded in the garage too much, it will give them a chance to see you and to interact and feel like you're still part of their lives. In many ways, frequent pauses should give you and your family more stamina to keep plowing on with the project through to completion.

This is the very mode I've been in for the last two weeks, when I discovered to my profound disappointment that the engine crankcase I have spent almost a year (sporadically) trying to save is pretty much a boat anchor. 167k miles of pounding, periodic maintenance during its original ownership, and only repair (no maintenance) during its second ownership. This has left me with an crankcase that, while repairable, is beyond economic repair.

John has been running his shop long enough that he KNOWS how to pack heavy items.

So having been blessed with the good timing to find a Volkswagen of Canada rebuilt crankcase for sale by one of the 'pillars of the community' (John Connelly at Aircooled.NET in Salt Lake City, Utah), I paid my moneys and then had to wait for UPS to put it on their donkey cart and haul it to New Jersey. It was delivered last night. I'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. Here we have a great example of why I would rather buy from the more reputable vendor, rather than merely the least expensive: short of some poorly shot paint which has peeled and cracked since it was sprayed by the factory, this case has been sitting on a shelf since it was remanufactured in 1982. It has already had the oil gallery bore plugs removed, and has been tapped to have permanent taps installed after the case is scrupulously cleaned (by me) before internals assembly starts.

Emerging from its cocoon. Note the factory rebuit
sticker on the PCV chimney. This intentionally
covers over the vehicle's original engine number.

Since I know that John was planning on using this case for his father's Westfalia camper (by far the heaviest air-cooled vehicle VW ever made) I know that this case was hand selected by someone with decades more experience than I have for his own purposes. There is no way to be an expert in everything, so when you are able to leverage the preferences of an expert for what THEY would buy if they wanted to build a bulletproof engine, you win big time.

So am I jumping right onto the engine build? Ha. No.

There is this thing called 'budget.' I am still under budget for the total project, but often you must pad out your work to let the coffers refill when you've had unexpected expenses. Like buying a new crankcase. Or buying a new windshield for your daily driver. Or the pussycat is broken and needs a new spring. Whatever. Surprise expenses define life.

Obviously, this greatly changes my planning for the engine build. There's no point in starting work (though some blueprinting is necessarily in order) until I have all of the components necessary to button up the bottom end of the crankcase. That includes the seal kit, front and rear main seals, webcam142, cam gear, lifters and cam bearings. Total cost for all of that is going to come in about $400, and that doesn't include the 'top end' work for the Pistons & Cylinders, blueprint & CC the heads, or any of the other items which cost money and necessarily must come AFTER the bottom end gets finished. I think I need to give the checkbook a break and start hammering on other items which cost nothing to work on while my wallet recovers.

Proof of purchase. But disappointed in their paint job.

So instead, I'm going to concentrate on some critical lowbuck items to tide me over:

• Get long promised home projects wrapped up before the weather turns.
• Complete install and testing of the fuel tank and button up the firewall.
• Resecure the engine compartment covers.
• (Possibly) paint the engine compartment. Why would I do such a thing? Because it is painted the original body color (Agate Brown) and it is as dark as a cave when you're working in there.
• Pull the wheels and get into serious evaluation of the brakes. That is something that I can do without much expense and even if the brakes were disabled, I could still move the vehicle if I needed to.
• Bring the bus down off of the super stilts and roll it back so the windshield can be removed.
• Compulsively CLEAN the garage so that when I can start the bottom end build, I can be sure that I won't get any engine killing GRIT in the works.

All before the weather turns. yes... I'm already thinking that I don't want to be engine building in January.