Introduction

Again, welcome! :-)

While the bus is here, we'll be addressing several issues. These will range from metal repair/fabrication (such as a new battery tray), reinstalling fuel injection onto the engine, new window and door seals, on up to installing a sound system.

We've done a full walk-around, tour, video report, test drive, journal writing, and all sorts of other stuff to find out where we're at and where we're going with the bus. I won't bore with those, however here is a quick video:

Haha.. "That killed it!"

Now, let's dig right in and GET DIRTY! Then later we can clean up and do all the fu-fu stuff.

How about we start on some fuel injection!? For fuel/air induction, the engine currently is sporting dual Solex PDSIT 34's. For U.S. spec buses, these were only used on 1972-74 engines that displace 1700-1800 cc's. They are not designed for engines displacing 2 liters, however they were sometimes used as such on non-U.S spec 2 liter buses. The air cleaner system on these carburetors is from a Type 4 car, I *think*. It is not from 72-74 bus. Left carburetor:

There are some issues we need to address before we just start tearing the carburetors off and screwing on Bosch L-Jet bits. Here are a few:

We need to be sure this engine displaces 2 liters, as Bosch L-Jet may not run properly on, say, a 1700 engine. You can not always depend on an engine code as previous owners and mechanics changed parts throughout the years. This engine appears to have rebuilt and/or exchanged by VW of Canada. The engine code stamp has a sticker over it. The sticker states the engine is equivalent to a GE engine, which is what we want. A GE engine is a 2 liter hydraulic lifter engine from 1978-79. Assuming this sticker is correct, we are good to go. If I decide not to trust the sticker, I may pull an engine head in order to verify stroke and bore. Sorry for the blurry picture.

Since the Bosch L-Jet system is highly pressurized and returns fuel back into the fuel tank, we need to assure the fuel tank is 100% sediment free. In order to do this, we will remove the fuel tank. We will restore the tank if necessary.

We need to assure the engine has good cylinder pressure (aka "compression") overall. A weak engine may not be worth the time and energy that it will take to do the conversion (back to). Let's test the compression... cylinder #1 (always the lowest):

Cylinder #2:

Cylinder #3:

Cylinder #4:

The test was done at an elevation of 5600 feet. Converting to sea level numbers ads on about 10 psi. The numbers are not good but they are not bad. Typically, you do not want to see a spread of more than 10 psi between the cylinders. Between 1 and 2 we are seeing 25. Though that is bad, the good news is that this spread is on the same side of cylinder banks.

Often with dual carbs, they become unsychronized from side-to-side and thus one side runs leaner than the other (hotter) and thus that side wears much faster.

My assessment based on these numbers (only) is that this engine is just past half-life. The engine will run fine with fuel injection, as a daily driver. I've seen Type 4 engines with much worse compression do incredible things.

There may be other non-visible things inside the engine that sway my theory (such as head crackage) but we will not worry about those. If I do decide to pull a head to check bore and stroke, I will get a full visual inspection.

The engine has been running VERY rich (too much gas -in relation to air/fuel mixture) from the carburetion. This is common with this type of induction.

Spark plugs are very black with carbon when they should be "tan" with some black

Allow me to gripe:

I am always amazed at things previous "mechanics" do. In the following picture, note the Type 4 car intake mentioned above; but also note the spark plug wire orientation on the distributor cap. The #1 wire is going to cylinder #3 and vice versa. So how, then, does the engine run!? The distributor drive gear (inside the engine case, under the distributor) has been installed incorrectly- just "dropped in" at a position of exactly 180 degrees "off."

So, instead of installing it correctly, "let's just swap the wires" says the mechanic. OK to do? No. What? It runs fine, you say? No, the timing can never be adjusted correctly because in order to turn the dizzy enough to time it correctly, the vacuum can on the dizzy HITS the crankcase breather of fan shroud on the engine. Kinda funny actually. You literally hit the crankcase breather/fan shroud and can't time it anymore.

I see this "mistake" quite often and it happens because "VW mechanics" are familiar with the very common type 1 engine where you CAN do this because there is no vacuum can on the mechanical-advance-only 009 distributor.

VW mechanics can't work on Type 4 engines. I've learned this throughout the years.

Disclaimer: I am NOT a mechanic. ;-)

The timing was way off but it can never be on-point anyway, with the distributor issue mentioned AND with the fact that the vacuum advance line was not connected, which is the tube in my hand in the above picture. Here is a video of engine stuff:

You will notice the difference in the way this 2 liter hydraulic lifter 2 liter motor runs:

End