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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 > >