This may sound stupid to all but! with a good single LED light and a
small dentist mirror you can see a lot IN the combustion chamber... at
least, if a circlip had go out of the piston, it would leave heavy
scratch. I use a single LED light  with a small wire, insert this one IN
the cylinder, put pistons all the way down/IN (NOT TC) and with the
little mirror, i see enverything inside! Another way if you know the
right peoples or have money, my friend as one of those microscopic flex
camera, about 1/4 dia... believe me, you also see everything inside.

I don't know how far is your Yosemite trip but i would go... circlip
don't comme off easily, i would not worry too much about that, unless
you where very sloppy doing that part of the engine.

A last note for you, i just call one of my good customer, we put COFAP
last year, #3 was low, around 110-115, he just told me that this
cylinder is now at 145 -150, that is 5000 miles later. He bought a gage
to monitor his engine so he knows. He also told me that it took a good
3000 miles before the engine felt tip top. Most if not all Vanagon
engine i see have 1 lower compression cylinder, old or new. If it sound
nice, you should be ok.

Just so you know my friend.

Now, go camping and forget about it for a little bit.

Cheers, Ben

David Kao wrote:

>It's too early to jump on the conclusion. I will have to drop the engine
>and take it apart to find out what's really wrong.
>
>I already did the oil trick. The compression did read higher after squirting
>some oil into the spark plug hole. But the oil reduced the volume of the
>combustion chamber which could contribute to higher compression reading as well.
>
>I have only 4 days, including today, before my planned camping trip in Yosemite.
>I am trying to decide to tear down the engine before or after the trip. I can't
>drop an engine in 15 minutes like you do. It's more like 3 hours for me. 4 days
>is a little rush. I probably should do it after the trip to do everything right.
>I don't think I will need a new gasket set. I still have one tube of gasket sealant.
>Everything else can be reused still.
>
>I am leaning toward doing it after the trip. I will have to be careful to not push
>the camper too hard. I will check the compression after returning from the trip.
>It will tell if it is a break-in issue.
>
>Benny, thanks for taking the time to feed your experience to this list. I am sure
>some listees are going to benefit from this thread in the future. I don't mind to
>stumble on this rebuild. I am determined to get it done right.
>
>Cheers,
>
>David
>
>
>--- Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA> wrote:
>
>
>
>>David, now i feel bad because i told you NOT to check the rings...
>>
>>Let's try another compresion test, remove rocker on that side to be sure
>>valve are fully close, pour a few spoons of oil (20W50) in that cylindre,
>>try another compression test.  If compression is higher, it must be the
>>rings. It's NOT the piston pin circlip that came out and scratch the wall,
>>believe me, compression would be way lower than 90, i know :-)
>>
>>Many have use COFAP and with great Success, BUT, sometime, they do have low
>>compression at first, pistons and rings can take more than 2000 miles before
>>they seat properly.
>>
>>Ben
>>
>>On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:49:23 -0700, David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>This is to keep everyone posted. I found the real problem eventually by doing
>>>a pressure test to the engine.
>>>
>>>I borrowed a compressor and coverted my compression tester into an adapter for
>>>pressure testing the engine. Found excessive leak in my #1 cylinder through the
>>>piston rings into the crank case. I could feel a strong flow or air coming out
>>>of the blowby breather hose, which has an opening inside the S shaped intake
>>>rubber bellow. I could feel a strong flow of air flowing from the crank case
>>>through the hose into the bellow. It pushed my finger out when I tried to block
>>>it off.
>>>
>>>Ouch..... It's a new liner there!!! How will it leak like that? When I did the
>>>same to cylinder #2 the pressure was only at 20 PSI and it pushed down the
>>>
>>>
>>piston
>>
>>
>>>and caught me by surprise. It could not push the #1 piston even at 50 PSI.
>>>
>>>
>>I had
>>
>>
>>>transmission in 1st gear and parking brake on with wooden blocks in front
>>>
>>>
>>of the
>>
>>
>>>front wheels. So the van did not try to run away but the tail of the van sank a
>>>few inches. There was no obvious air flow through the blowby breather hose when
>>>testing cylinder #2.
>>>
>>>Repeated the pressure test 4 -5 times and the results were consistant.
>>>
>>>The leak is less severe for cylinder #3. But the air flow is obvious there. I
>>>think these are enough to conclude that I have leaking rings on #1 and #3
>>>
>>>
>>cylinders.
>>
>>
>>>The leak was so bad it actually caused slight over heating during my
>>>
>>>
>>weekend trip
>>
>>
>>>of 320 miles.
>>>
>>>The liner is new, with 800 break-in miles. I have to conclude that Cofap is
>>>
>>>
>>junk.
>>
>>
>>>Or at least the set I got is near junk. Further breaking-in probably won't make
>>>any improvement as I have had 800 mile on it.
>>>
>>>My patience is running out for now. I won't try to fix it for the next week
>>>
>>>
>>or two.
>>
>>
>>>I don't think I did anything wrong in istalling the liner. I did not align
>>>
>>>
>>the rings.
>>
>>
>>>According to Benny this is not likely a problem. I have heard that Cofap
>>>
>>>
>>has a wide
>>
>>
>>>range of quality distribution between junk and excellent. Can anyone
>>>
>>>
>>confirm this?
>>
>>
>>>David
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
>
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