Hi Matt,

May I suggest you check out this forum:  http://www.vwdieselparts.com/forum/

There is a Vanagon specific category in forum.  Jack, the owner of the site,
has good prices for diesel parts.

There is lots of good info there, as I fear you'll be looking at pulling the
Injection Pump to address the leak, which means you'll have to learn set the
timing.  Fun stuff...

I hope your leak is just a fuel line or an injector, as an IP rebuild can
get costly.  I know, as I had do this in my 90 Jetta Diesel.

Good luck,
Jim
Wilmington, NC

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Matt Thyer <matt_thyer@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy Folks,
>
> I wanted to take a moment to make your online acquaintances' as well as
> introduce myself and my new Vanagon (as yet unnamed).  Last weekend I made
> my way down to southern California to pick-up a 1983 L Diesel.  I took
> delivery after looking the vehicle over and then drove it about 2000 miles
> back up to central Washington State.  For the most part the vehicle is in
> pretty good shape.  It's been through about 50% of a Westfakia conversion
> and my plans are to strip it down and then complete a custom camper
> conversion.
>
> Presently I have three persistent problems that I need to address:
>
> Minor Diesel leak from near the fuel pump:  There appears to be a slight
> leak somewhere near the fuel pump/injector unit.  Right now this means that
> a small amount of fuel is being spilled on the engine.  For obvious reasons
> I'm going to take care of this one pretty soon.
>
> Shift box and bushing are crappy: The biggest and most annoying problem
> here
> is that you have to hold the stick in 4th gear when traveling at speed.
> Otherwise the stick shift pops out of 4th.  I'm pretty certain this is
> caused by wear on the bushing, but feel free to offer up advice as you feel
> necessary.  Additionally, reverse is a pain in the rear end to find.  This
> is most likely the result of worn shift box parts as there's some play in
> the stick, but once you find it the gear works great.
>
> Poorly designed air intake for the added diesel turbo:  The last owner
> installed a turbo blower on the engine.  It's really nice, it turned a
> diesel slug into something with a little more oomph behind it.  That said
> the aspiration requirements of the turbo exceed those of the engine before
> the turbo.  With the turbo he installed a large cone filter right above,
> drum roll please, the exhaust.  The solution here is going to require
> customization.  I figure I can take one of three options:
>        1) Figure out a way to cover/protect the cone and get it to draw
> from the air channel up the left side of the bus.
>        2) Run a snorkel channel up the left side of the bus and put the
> filter at the end of it.
>        3) Replace the 1.6 L diesel turbo with a 1.9 L diesel.
>
> The last is the most expensive and while it has certain advantages, I'm not
> convinced I want to incur the downtime or cost of the conversion.  No
> strike
> that, all things considered that's a lot of money and time.  I'm pretty
> sure
> I don't want to do it that way.  The first and second solutions are nice
> but
> will probably require me to figure out a customized solution for
> aspiration.
> I'm a can do kind of guy, and if you have any suggestions please feel free
> to offer them up.
>
> Rough calculation on the way up from SoCal is that I was getting around 31
> MPG.  That's freakin amazing in my book.  Tuned and running without a fuel
> leak who knows what I'll get on the highway?  I don't think I've been this
> excited about a vehicle for a very long time.  Once I've got the mechanical
> under control I'm going to spend some time in the garage carving out a
> light
> weight pad of comfort and organization.  I'm still looking for a good name
> for it too.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Matt Thyer
> Ellensburg, WA
>