It sounds similar to raising a child!! A labor of love!!!

Velma 82diesel 1.6 na westy

On Nov 9, 2011 10:39 AM, "Stephen Grisanti" <bike2vcu@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, that was a long month.  What began as an exhaust replacement turned
into something else with a broken head bolt that necessitated a trip to the
machine shop with the left head after the weldng-a-nut trick failed to get
out the broken part.  I reinstalled the head and sundry ancillary parts on
Saturday and put the exhaust on yesterday.  This morning filled with fluids
and fired it up.

Looks like I may need to adjust the valves again since one lifter won't
shut up, and I'm a little concerned about the seal of the various exhaust
junctions; the metal donuts at either end of the J-pipe seem to be letting
fumes out, and the two pipes going into the collector do not meet it
parallel at the flanges so something might be getting out there.  I'll
retighten after things cool down and check again.

I was very concerned about bleeding the cooling system after all the horror
stories I'd read, but with the rear of the van up on wooden ramps in an
already nose-down position in the sloping driveway, I simply removed the
bleeder bolt from the radiator and put four tea kettles of water into the
reservoir and that did it.  Topped off once after it warmed up.  I'll drain
again and refill with phosphate-free and distilled after flushing this
stuff through for a few miles.  I did not want to leak new coolant if I
messed up the reinstall of anything.  If the only thing leaking is exhaust
I'm way ahead of the game.  First drive will have to be to the inspection
station since the expire date at the end of August is far behind us and I
don't want to tempt the constabulary.

After spending a lot more time getting intimate with this van's innards
than I ever anticipated, I must say my hat is off to those who work on 'em
regularly.  It was educational, frustrating, enlightening, maddening,
satisfying, occasionally painful, and I would not want to do it every day.
Now to get this thing inspected and go camping.

Stephen