In a message dated 24/04/2004 11:23:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

I have  been following this thread with great interest, for i have in the
past and  will in the future buy products from both Frank and Bob.

It seems that  although there are numbers from Franks trip regarding various
consumptions  and pressures I must ask a few things.

First off if the motor is so  crappy, that was pretty ballsy running 2400
miles on it!  You must  have a lot of confidence in the motor to even think
of such a trip! I know  i wouldn't leave my town if i had a motor in my car
that i thought was  going to die because of low oil pressure.  Sounds like
you might be  hung up on a number.
Yea, right, the oil pressure problem I had was with  the FIRST motor Bob
built for me not the one I have now !  If you would  have read the original post
carefully you would have seen that.  I was  worried about the oil pressure with
the second motor because of the first  experience and using 10w30 for the
break in the oil pressure was not  up to my expectations.  When I switched to the
Mobile 1 5w50 the pressure  was excellent.  This is the third time I have
explained this now.   That's way I was taking that _Vanagon 2.1 Engine Oil
Pressure  Survey_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/survey.htm)  a few months back !

One of them being something that 90% or more of all vanagon  owners that
install a rebuilt engine are guilty of NOT doing.  Did you  get the fuel/air
mixture "sniffed" when the motor was first  installed?
YES

Verify  that the
pressure regulator and fuel pump was all working up to spec?
YES, ALL ANCILLARIES WERE BRAND NEW  !      See my _1987 Vanagon Westy New
Motor  Project_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/newmotor.htm)  webpage !

If you  did not
do that early in the break in period, you may as well kick your own  ___.
This whole conspiracy theory thing about the oil pressures seems  almost like
a witch hunt..............sort of like those people out there  that believe
if the Army looks long enough we are going to find the WMD in  Iraq.  It just
keeps right on going .

I have built several  engines in the last couple years, and always test for
compression and oil  on the stand.  I had one that was weaker than the
others, tore it  down, measured everything, and all was in spec......unknown
to why it ran  10lbs less than the others. But then i installed a heavier
spring and knew  oil relief plunger, and the numbers were about 5 lbs higher.
Did i need to  do that...probably not.  Flow seems more important  than
pressure.............and also you are running the synthetic, so maybe  it is
thinner and leading to these lower pressures?
Your not reading my posts again !!

I know  when i tried one of
those blended oil my hot oil pressure dropped about 12  lbs............when i
swapped back to 20/50 or straight 40 wt ( it gets  over 90+ degrees in SC for
months in the summer) all was well.

Seems  like there may be too many miles on the motor now to check the mixture
if  it was not done. And if it was not done, then if Frank's company
installed  the motor and failed to properly tune it, well then there lies  the
fault.  I hope this is not the case though, cause someone with  your
experience should know better than to plug and play something as major  as a
motor!
EXACTLY !  If you  think this is the first motor I have installed, your way
off base and you don't  know much about me !  As a matter of fact in all the
years, which I don't  care to count, that I have been building and installing
various engines this is  the first bad experience I have come across.  So....in
that regard I guess  I'm very lucky or know something about what I'm doing.
So.........shit  does happen and even to those of us that don't expect it to !

Cheers,

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
_BusFusion_ (http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm)  a VW Camper
camping event, Almonte, ON, June 10 ~ 13, 2004
'87 Westy & Lionel  Trains
Member: _Vanagon List_ (http://www.vanagon.com/) , _LiMBO_
(http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/) , _IWCCC_ (http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/)  & _CCVWC_
(http://www.ccvwc.ca/)
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in  the Ottawa Valley
_STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel  Mufflers_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm)
_Frank Condelli &  Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)
or  http://frankcondelli.com