When you cannot fish, mend your nets

So since I'm in my very own financial sequestration, unable to afford new components or make forward progress on this engine, I must make progress on other items that require effort, but not money.

I know that goes completely against my plan of 'work on things in a rigid order' but what the hell; I'll just be sitting around watching the grass grow if I don't do something else.

So I did something else: Refinishing engine components and accessories. Any time that you're using paint, primer, epoxy, etc. you must do so within a very narrow range of temperature for curing. If you try to use self-etching primer in 40°F weather, you'll just make a mess. If you try to keep your garage warm with a space heater while spraying this stuff, you're likely to blow your dumb, flammable ass up. Even if you were to heat the room up, and then shut off the flame before you sprayed, the temperature would plunge too quickly to allow the paint to cure well. My Mrs. is also unlikely to appreciate the decorative effects of engine parts hanging throughout the house while they cure. So I'd best redeem the time and get the refinishing done while the weather is still warm and I can use the large pine tree in my back yard as my spray and cure rack. Engine assembly can wait for the cold.

I took an entire day to sand, scrubb, and make copious use of phosphoric acid to cook surface rust off of several components, including the heat exchangers. I had also purchased a gallon of carb cleaner dip, perfect for de-gunking small components like bolts, handles, and other fasteners which were getting their first cleaning in 40 years.

Between it all, I refinished the engine hatch (a cosmetic matter, but it lifted my spirits,) the intake manifolds, and both heat exchangers. The intake manifolds should be some precise VW color. Nuts. I have what paint I have. The best color I had was flat metal grey caliper paint. Guess what went on the intake runners.

Oh yea! I'm doing crazy, non-stock stuff like.....weird PAINT! (For those who don't know, my 1972 Super Beetle restoration was the picture of OCD "do it right or go to hell" precision that required exacting paint color matching on items like the oil filter....which wouldn't filter oil one bit better for being coated in Glasurit L43 Grau-Schwarz (Grey-Black.)

Please. I've learned my lesson. I'm painting this with what I have, but I'm not so blasé that I would intentionally make my work ugly. The Intake manifolds in flat silver (a very unique flat silver, not at all like semi-gloss Argent Silver used on the wheels) plugging into the central intake manifold which will be painted Gloss Black will look quite fetching, without looking either like a stock Nazi saluted it with a paint can, or (in the case of customizers who go wild with the color of engine parts) like a clown threw up Fruitloops on it either.

The heat exchangers got acid stripped to bare metal, and then coated with high temp primer, which should make them more durable and buy me longer running on that set than I should otherwise expect to experience. I'm still going to have to figure out a way to get their temperature up to 350°F and then 500°F to cure the paint, but I know that I'm not using my the kitchen oven. Not unless I want to die an early death by spousicide.

Having mentioned my intent to gloss paint the central intake plenum (the most visible part of the fuel injection system when viewed from either the rear engine hatch or the overhead engine hatch in the cargo area) I must say that I knew this would take a lot more effort than the usual sand and squirt. The inside had been imperfectly degreased six months ago, so I opened up my media blasting cabinet (unused for 9 months) and after a few quick connections and some new aluminum oxide in the hopper, I didn't even both with cleaning up the existing surface of the plenum: I just blasted it all off. Rust, paint, corrosion, and gunk on the inside and out, all gone. Virgin steel with some tooth to it. I then sprayed that with self etching primer and left that to cure. I'll probably do three light coats of gloss black on it and then (don't laugh) wax it to protect the finish and the fittings. Once reinstalled, there won't hardly be space to swing a Q-tip, so I have to dandy it up now.

All in all, a tolerable use of time.

Stuck Parking Brake

The parking brake on the Bus is fine. The parking brake on this project is locked up tight.

There are two matters, and they disturb me. The first is that, despite having run a pretty exhaustive budgeting process and still being well under budget for the total project on the Bus, I'm broke. I mean, so broke I don't even waste quarters on the soda machine at work. No movies, no McDonalds, not even Taco Bell. If my wife and I want entertainment, we'll go to bed. (That, thankfully, is still fun AND free.)

But I am completely broke, owing to a dozen odd completely unanticipated, unbudgeted expenses all having come due during the last 10 weeks. I'm not even buying beer.

Since broke-ness tends to make me pull up sharp and re-evaluate, I've been doing so on everything from the brand of laundry soap we use to this Bus project. The Bus really can't be done any cheaper than it is being done now, especially with me blindly staggering around an unfamiliar engine. The circumstance is not helped by trying to rebuild an engine solo that requires tools and skills that are vastly outside my experience. It also puts me in the position of having to rely on a dwindling community of experts on this engine, almost all of which live 3000 miles away in Orange County, California.

The Confession

I originally started this blog with the intent on documenting the conversion from a Type4 engine to a Subaru EJ series boxer engine.That's why the blog is called DIY-BusarU (A mashup of Bus and Subaru.) After I got 6 months into the process and realized that I had gone far afield down the Type4 engine path, the early posts were just an embarrassment. I was so stuck on going the Subaru direction and spending half a dozen posts explaining how I got to that point of view, then I vectored completely to the Type4 solution because the combination of cost and support available from the community. I didn't feel confident about my ability to do the engineering to make all of the components work together for the Subaru solution without having someone having created a 'worked example' that I could crib from. Also, most of the products for 'bolt in solutions' that have been developed and are sold in the UK and AUS. The price tag just mounted outrageously and I lost my nerve and folded, especially since it looked like the original engine was going to pull through with just a little TLC. Obviously, it didn't work out that way.

So I'm back re-evaluating the Subaru option, despite having a fair amount of money already into a T4 rebuild. Why? Because from here out, it is not going to get cheaper, easier or more straightforward. I'm not going to get any more help than I'm getting now, which is pretty thin considering that all of the help is by email. But there is one last....pain point. (I was going to say deal breaker, but it isn't quite. Yet.)

The T4 is O-L-D. So old that parts are even more scarce than I was led to believe. The new parts that are available are of inferior quality, and will likely yield an engine (even if I do everything right!) that may not make it to 50k miles. The pain point has been discovering that the cylinder heads (which are a major bugbear and represent over half the total cost of the engine) which I had stressed to find...are trash. And I have to start over and spend more money. I don't want to spend more money for an inferior solution.

Below are some of the numbers I generated. Unless I want to become fabrication man (HA!) I'm going to spend well north of $3750 to get from where I *am* to where I would need to be.

The Re-Evaluation

To use an EJ20 or EJ22 engine would require:

Lazy: $
KEP engine adapter: $520 from Outfront Motorsport
Wiring Harness: $550 complete (or take my time and DIY)
Engine: $500 used, pref with less than 200k miles. (+$100)
Radiator: $75 Aluminum/Plastic VW Mk3 Scirocco style
Fabs: $200 ( radiator enclosure, and throttle body reverser)
Engine Support: $430 Rocky Mountain Westy
Cooling loop: $200
Exhaust: $1000 (Cat Magnaflow 53034 $77+shp, Walker SoundFX Direct Fit Muffler #17828 $28, 1x Walker U clamp 35795, or 

Walker Heavy-Duty U-Bolt Clamps 35795

Walker Heavy-Duty U-Bolt Clamps 35795

Walker Heavy-Duty U-Bolt Clamps 35795

Walker Heavy-Duty U-Bolt Clamps 35795

Do the Goo you Do

Everyone has a recipe for how they seal up engines. Because the VW (and also Subaru) designs have a 'crank-case' which is split up the middle, they often leak more than the 'bored block' designs which is just a block of iron with large and small holes drilled in either end and a cylinder head and oil pan clamped onto opposite ends. Remember the oil-dripper's manta and keep it wholly: "Oil under pressure within an engine will find any unsealed avenue to escape." In other words, if you're building an engine, you'd better know what gap to seal, where in the gap to seal it, and what type of sealant to use.

The toothpick wielding backwoods airhead sez, "They all leak a little."

Bollocks. I've seen well built engines which do not leak a drop. If it is leaking, that means there is something WRONG. Fix it, before it becomes a bigger issue than it is now.

Based on my research, along with talking to the big dawgs who built these dry engines, the following are the generally agreed upon, idiot proof recipe for a dry engine:

Prep: A common caution is that " X is 90% preparation." It doesn't matter what the X is. It could be painting, or relationships or engineering or (think about it) sex. This is true of engine building, too. If you're mating two parts that are covered with oil, old bits of sealer and with pits and gouges that make the Pan-American Highway look like a glass surface, why would you expect any sealant to work miracles and form a 'dry' seal? Before you stick two pieces together with any expectation that they will stay together, ensure that they are oil free, flat, and un-gouged.

Sidebar:
Oil free includes the oil from your own patty-paws. I learned such things the hard way when re-lamping theatrical lights in my youth. Dangling 25 feet off of the floor, I'd disassemble an 'instrument' (what we called a theatrical light fixture, unless we were referring to a specific design: Leiko, Fresnel, PAR, etc.) The 'lamp' to be replaced would be removed, and then latch in a new one into the bayonet fitting. Reassemble the instrument (because if the glass envelope of the lamp blew when you lit it up, these high powered items tended to explode like a grenade) and yell to my assistant to power up a certain circuit.

BLAM!

Several times. I was going to pull the instrument out of service when the technical director (the only one who had a degree at this point and got paid to do this) came in, heard the tale of repeated blow bulbs, then asked me to show him exactly what I was doing. I dug out a new bulb from its cardboard, package, unwound the padding and tossed it in the trash, and went to pull the slip of plastic off of the glass envelope and discard it as well.

"STOP," my boss said with a gong-like bark. "The reason that slip of plastic is there is so that you can mount the lamp without getting your greasy fingers on it."

I started to object, but he pulled me over to a nearby window behind the upstage curtain. He took my hand and carefully wiped my fingertips on the glass. A very slight smear. 

"That," he said with patience, "Is why you just blew through this year's budget for lamps in a single morning." When the oil from your skin gets on the glass envelope, and then the envelope is suddenly heated to 600°F, the glass envelope expands unevenly and explodes.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I am inclined to forget this quite often, even when I have my hands inside of a computer, which is my day job now.

If I start with a compulsively clean crankcase, taking care of any surface problems before I begin the build, I only have to keep NEW stuff from settling on or otherwise damaging mating surfaces. My final wipe down is brake cleaner and lint free towels. As clean and flat as possible before I add sealant to the mating surfaces. Also check your sealant's instructions: you may have 30 minutes or 3 seconds to get the parts joined. Or you may need to dress only one half of the joint and leave the other bare, or dress both. It depends on the product, so read first before you proceed. Also make the assumption that you will not be taking the engine apart again after you do get out the sealant. It could be an frustrating day if you damage your glued together engine case trying to get it apart again because you forgot to install the cam.

Products:

The following are the most commonly recommended products for assembling a Type4 engine to go "200k miles or until it breaks." You can often do with less high-born brand names, but if you want to do the job ONCE and not wonder, the following products are the best choices going:

• General Assembly Lube: Brad Penn Engine Assembly Lubricant 7105
• Thread Lock: Loctite Blue 242
• Thread Sealant: Loctite White 565 (Industrial)
• Case Sealant: Curil K2 (125g)
• Cylinder Base Sealant: Elring Dirko RTV Sealant 100g 036.161
• Fan Hub to Crank Nut: Molybdenum disulfide lube, no thread locker (Moly B) 
• Case halves: Curil K2 (125g)
• Bearings: Brad Penn Break In Oil (7120)
• Lifters: Torco MPZ Engine Assembly Lube HP
• Case studs: Curil T (100g)
• Head studs: Curil T (100g)
• Valve Cover Gasket (Seal to Cover): Permatex Aviation Form-a-Gasket #3 pn 80018

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.