Regarding your last few sentences: "I generally don't harbor any bad
feelings about the Fred's Garage experience.  It's a little frustrating and
I wish they had taken a better look at the van on Friday before I picked it
up."  My reaction - maybe the wrong one, but my reaction none the less - is
"Bull Shit."  It sounds like they backed the adjustment screw out as far as
it would go - so far it probably fell out and you'll find it down on the
engine tin one of these days - and maybe, just MAYBE, stuck a miss-adjusted
exhaust gas analyzer up the tail pipe.  Ten minutes of work for $85; sweet!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Oda" <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 4:15 PM
Subject: CA SMOG, Fred's Garage, and valves

> Hi, Aloha, and Greetings
>  here's the continuing saga of my battle with CA SMOG and a few
> questions.  Thanks to everyone for letting me share these events with
> you and mucho thanks to the many people that have tried to help me with
it.
>
> Last Friday: Picked up van from Fred's garage, paid $85 for SMOG-ready.
> John said it should pass SMOG with no-problem.  Drive to SMOG station,
> immediately fails.  Drive van home.  It's running bad and then won't
> start.  I inspect and find out that the throttle adjustment screw is
> missing.  I have a spare one at home, pop it in, drive to Fred's, but
> they're closed.
>
> Saturday: call VolksCafe.  Peter is too maxed out with work to take a
> look at diagnostics.  Bus Labs is closed.  I then call Fred's Garage.
> They're open and can take a look at it on Monday.
>
> Monday: Talk to John and Tom.  They're both pleasant and real nice
> people.  Tom says that there's no way the van will pass SMOG without a
> new catalytic convertor.  HC levels are between 500 and 1,000 (max is
> around 200).  I wonder why they let the van out of the shop on
> Friday.....   In the interest of encouraging Tom to take a better look
> at the engine and find the source of the high HC levels, I talk shop a
> bit.  He says that he'll also try to find the source of the problem.
> Says that the catalytic convertor is just masking the problem.
> Estimate for the new cat is $275 including labor.  "Yea, I could do it
> cheaper," I think.  But, I don't have exhaust equipment and I'm running
> out of time.
>
> I'm still wondering about the exhaust pulse and if a valve is out of
whack.
>
> Since I have spare new cylinder head at home and a new gasket set, I can
> swap the head out.  However, I have only one spare cylinder head, not
> two.  I'm wondering how I can isolate the bad valves and just swap out
> one side.  Or, I could potentially swap out both if I buy a new head.
>
> Compression on the cylinders is okay and generally balanced.
> 1=120
> 2=140
> 3=125
> 4=130
>
> Any advice?  I generally don't harbor any bad feelings about the Fred's
> Garage experience.  It's a little frustrating and I wish they had taken
> a better look at the van on Friday before I picked it up. However,  I'll
> judge the quality of the service by what the final outcome is.  If I can
> get the van to pass SMOG for reasonable cost, I'll be moderately
satisfied.