Great Job getting this rolling again, yes you gotta love these vans is key..

Joe

-----Original Message-----
>From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
>Sent: Dec 31, 2007 1:46 PM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Loose motor
>
>All right, you must be talking about the 'tie strap' that joins the bottom
>of the two engine cradle bars.  A simple strap of metal about 2 inches wide
>and 2 and half feet long - easy to fab for any welder.
>  Since the ends of an 82's DV's engine cradle bars are mounted in
>rubber......without this tie
>Strap the bars will move, the engine will move up and down almost two inches
>when you rev it,
>And as we now know, this can put huge stress on the cast aluminum engine
>mounting bracket bolts.
>   And..........i can't tell you the awful hack work I see in so many engine
>conversion jobs. How people leave important parts off like this is beyond
>me. How they can't see it's an important part, I just can't imagine.
>Somebody somewhere decided to leave that part off.
>   There's a better way to build the whole thing actually, welding on the
>cradle bars and eliminating the rubber bushings in the end, but that's whole
>other story/project.
>  Least you know what's going on and you had the fun of keeping it moving
>out in the field.  Good goin' on that. Heck, just leave it for another trip
>or two until you REALLY have to deal with it ! ;-)
>Scott
>www.turbovans.com
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
>Michael Sullivan
>Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 1:09 PM
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: Loose motor
>
>Way to go MacGyver!!!! :-)
>
>
>   Yesterday I was running through the desert in my 84 Gas/diesel inline
> four conversion and enjoying
>the dips, then I came to a stop sign and noticed my exhaust note had
> changed..The gear shifting was
>not right, either, so I pulled over and crawled under to find the
> passenger side of the motor was
>hanging low...Hmmm!..So I tossed out all the stuff in the back hatch
> area, after inspecting all the
>motor mounts underneath..
>  Now, this motor has always seemed a bit "loose" in the van, ever
> since I bought the already-done
>conversion about 30k thousand miles ago.  I've repeatedly checked the
> motor mounts, bought new ones
>and stached em after I found the current ones to be just fine...I
> simply assumed that it was normal
>for the inline four to be able to rock around back there...Not great,
> but perhaps just a poor design.
>  I found the right side rear cast aluminum motor mount had sheered the
> mounting bolts right at the
>block..leaving the right side of the motor hanging.....As I began
> trying to see how to fix that, I
>happened to find, in the Bently, a short 2 page write up on the diesel
> motor install/remove...and
>Whoa!..right there in the book it shows a thing they call the Engine
> Support mount...Mine NEVER had
>one...And I, for one, have never encountered any installation that uses
> the oil pan as a stressed
>mounting member..a weight-bearing part of the engine mounting set
> up...It is kind of a transverse
>strap, from rail to rail that the flat bottom of the diesel motor oil
> pan just sits on...takes up
>some of the weight, I guess and keeps it from rocking?  We shall see...
>  So anyhow, I limped back to my campsite and using some construction
> wood I had around and some
>extra motorcycle tiedown straps...I have now a fine looking '2x4 engine
> support mount'...Gotta love
>the vans...
>  If I were home with all my tools, I could have done a permanent fix
> with ease...but since I am
>camping, I will have to depend on the local mechanics to try to
> "easy-out" the broken mount bolts
>out of the block, and to fabricate a strap to sit the pan onto rather
> than my 'special' 2x4 racing
>mount...
>
>  Happy new year everyone,
>  Don Hanson
>
>
>
>Thanks, Michael Sullivan

Kind Regards,
Joseph Fortino
fortino1@earthlink.net
yahoo mobile mail account: love2bike140@yahoo.com
IM: love2bike1414@yahoo.com

Have a Great Day!