No doubt lugging the engine up the climb rather than listening to the banshee ... err, blower ... scream at higher RPMs

On 27-Mar-2015, at 23:54, Stuart MacMillan wrote:

> I never understood why #3 runs hotter than the others, maybe it's the fan
> design.
> 
> I built that engine for a friend and his family in the '70's for his Westy.
> They immediately took off for Yellowstone Park, and it blew on a long climb
> in Montana.  They left it by the side of the road, and it was gone when they
> came back to haul it to a shop. They could not locate it, so they figured it
> was stolen. They flew home, and got an insurance settlement.  A few months
> later, the sheriff in that county called them to tell them they had picked
> up the van from the side of the road. They really "impounded" it, because
> even the insurance company couldn't find it.
> 
> They did not want it back, lucky for me.
> 
> Stuart
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roy Nicholl [mailto:RNicholl@NBNet.nb.ca]
> Sent: Friday, March 27, 2015 5:15 PM
> To: Stuart MacMillan
> Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Air cooled head gasket
> 
> You beat me to this one, Stuart.  Over the bench in the garage, I have a
> piston from #3 in a 1500sp which serves to remind what happens if the deck
> height is too low :(
> 
> On 27-Mar-2015, at 21:00, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
> 
>> I'm sure others have more useful advice, but the one thing I know from
>> my air cooled days is that deck height is critical for the proper
>> compression ratio.  If you lap them in, you may need to raise the deck
>> height using shims between the jugs and the case.  An experienced VW
>> machinist should know what to do, but that would not be anyone under 50.
> Probably 60.
>> 
>> I burned up a 1600 engine by not paying attention to this years ago,
>> but maybe the 2.0 is more forgiving.
>> 
>> Stuart
>>