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Re: [T3] History of mishaps and repairs for this year


Thanks Leon!A good read.
"Combinations can cause conflagarations" would be a good title.
8^}

"Dont'cha love it when a plan comes together?"
  David V. Nelson



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martinez, Leon B Civ 203" <leon.martinez@navy.mil>
To: <type3@vwtype3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 5:36 PM
Subject: [T3] History of mishaps and repairs for this year


>
> Hi folks , I have been out for a while moping around, those who know,
> know why.
>
> Well I have been driving my car even harder and scarier like I do not
> care. I have gone thru red lights with police present and passed
> police cars going while 90 mph (AGAIN) , for some reason they ignore me
...
> Well No tickets and I am behaving better these days .
>
> I have a little history of my mishaps and fixes for this year.
>
> - Burned/melted pistons this last spring , replaced with
>   Kobelschmits brand , they seem to be of very nice quality,
>   sparkly clean right out of the box with no ginding stone residue
>   or cosmoline.
>
>   Melting of piston was a mystery , going too fast up hill ?
>   Real reason se below.
>
> - Generators and brushes replaced monthly no clue of what is drawing
>   max current and making engine run funny during this time.
>   Found cause see below.
>
> - Fuel pump intermitant turns off when engine is idling ,
>   mysterious missing while driving, fuel pump is farely new not rebuilt
>   (1year old Bosch). While waitin in line at the border in Mexico
>   the pump would cut out also after during hot runs, pump windings
>   hot need to cool off ? cut ou in various places , usually after a long
run
>   or long idles. Turn pump on by banging it with a pipe , always worked.
>   Finally pump gave out at red light intersection , lots of banging with
pipe
>   no longer worked, much honking and cursing of people . Pushed car to the
side , called
>   brother from autoparts store, he delivered I replaced pump on the spot
>   no cost , guarnteed for life.
>
>   Car ran like a charm after that, this is what it also corrected.
>
>   The pump maladies caused a erratic lean condition which caused the
engine to be
>   mysteriously untunable and have random knocking at odd times/conditions.
>   Pump replacement made the car run much better but still have a detected
miss.
>
>   The generator no longer burned out , brushes no longer needed
replacement ,
>   6 months now and all sweet.
>
>   I am sure that this was a major contributor to the burned piston ,
caused
>   by the lean condition.
>
>   I am glad this was replaced , Bosch must have had a bad batch of these
or something.
>
> After I had my car running sweet , I still had the slight miss and
problems with my muffler.
> my muffler is on one of those extractors , those mufflers are of very
cheap quality , they fall
> apart and the seams open up, I have used bugpack and empi, they split at
the seams and the pipes
> crack at the box. You must know , they are supported by a bracket . I
drive alot on roads
> and bad dirt roads, these mufflers have a life of a few months . On a trip
to
> Temecula California , the car had very bad problems. this run is a very
bad run for any car or truck ,
> it is all uphill for an hour many cars and tucks end up on the side of the
road , even new ones.
> I had a very bad feeling about this , while passing the tempory junk yard
on the side.
> my car slowed to a max of 55 on a 75 mile an hour freeway, I am acustomed
to 85 mph
> but something was going on, my head temps were still very cool but moved
50 degrees above
> what I was accustomed (320 deg f vs 250 deg f typical, (450- 500 is crack
heads by the way))
> I was not worried about the heads but did not understand why the engine
was loosing power
> and then smoking badly, like as if I blew a piston...... huaaaa huuuaaa !
I wanted to cry....
> My engine all of a sudden sounded very loud , I went to the side looked at
my muffler , and
> it vibrated itself in half , I assumed that because I never heared my car
to backfire.
> the engine area was soooo hot that I burned my fingers on the engine
campartment latches,
> left buurn marks on my fingers, I spit on the latches and the spit
bubbled, it was hot as a Iron ,
> well I had to leave the place under its own power or by tow truck , I have
never gotten this
> car towed , I was always able to make it go , so I proceeded running the
car with the giant
> hole in the muffler while ceramic kiln temps existed in the engine
compartment.
> 45 minutes later I made it to the event I was going to while wearing an
expensive suit.
>
> The drive back was at night cooler but the engine ran like crap, I was
absolutely sure that
> the engine was badly damaged by the heat of the muffler and the bogging
for one hour in hot weather.
> At home I felt more depressed . I had to fix the muffler first before
moving it anywhere.
> I went to 7 muffler shops in mexico that told me that the original type of
empi type muffler was
> unavailable and to adapt a 'normal' car muffler was impossible. I went to
one more place,
> the owner told me that nothing is impossible.... he fabricated peices of
pipes and made a
> setup that would fit standard cr mufflers of better quality made in North
America.
> I was off in my car driving it the rest of the week , with little power
and head temps just a little
> above the norm but not bad at all.
>
> That next Saturday I checked the engine compartment , rubber vacume hoses
have turned to stone ,
> plug wires felt like they were molded of hard plastic, everyting in the
engine compartment
> was cooked hard, I replaced the wires and hoses, the engine ran a little
better but no cigar .
>
> I checked all the sparkplugs and found that two of the plugs were missing
the inside electrode/
> insulator , all the way down to the bottom , never seen that before , I
have not
> changed these plugs since I replaced the pistons/cyl. they may have burned
away during the lean burn
> condition caused by the bad fuel pump days. I had to change a new hi
performance coil twice that
> was only 4 days old, probably these melted plugs cause more stress to the
coil.
>
> I replaced the plugs, then the engine ran as smooth as glass, still does.
>
> I still found the head temp a tiney bit higher a little puzzleing , well I
found the problem ,
> my electric fans were not cooling the oil in the 140 plate mesa cooler.
something was
> wrong with the circuit. I found that the diode that I placed in the
circuit was burned out
> and caused an open circuit. I placed this diode so the engine will not run
on after it is
> turned off, electric fans while off but still turning acts as a generator
and will still power
> my efi until the fans stop. This diode was probably damaged by the high
muffler temps in the
> engine compartment.
>
> I replaced the diode and the fans worked, head temps went
> lower 50 deg on steep hills, to the normal reading. Power restored and
engine smooth as glass.
>
> Conclusion to this paragraph is that hot oil cools the head very minimally
but AFFECTS
> PISTONS/CYLINDERS GREATLY, GREATLY enough for really bad smoking cause of
cylinder
> expansion. My car does not smoke and compression is good.
>
> Fuel pump and broken muffler may eventually cause a damaged engine.
>
> Quiet and smooth as glass now and cruising 85 MPH.
>
>
> Leon Martinez
>
> 1969 square EFI AUTO
> 1973 FAST EFI AUTO
> 1967 FASTY PROJECT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org
>
>


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