Hi all,

No, not stored since 1976--the BUS is a '76....

Ok, ok, ok...  Christa and I have been unable to contain ourselves with 
excitement what with the warm weather, upcoming Inuvik trip and all, so 
we've insured our happy camper and are about to pull it out of storage, 
where it's been sitting for the last 6 months.

It hadn't been started since we parked it 6 months ago.  I know, I know, 
I should have fired it up every couple of weeks and all that, but things 
just _happened_, ok?  Anyway, realizing that all the oil was going to be 
in the sump and the fussy stuff was bone dry, I slowly turned the motor 
over by hand for 10 or 15 minutes before trying to crank it over.  I 
figured this would at least get some oil on things.

When the moment to do the deed came, I had Christa stand behing the 
camper to look for yucky-looking things coming out the exhaust pipe.  On 
the first turn of the key, I didn't even try to fire it up, but 
just cranked it for a few revolutions.  On the second try, it fired right up.

However, there was a VERY pronounced pounding for the first 10 - 15 
revolutions.  It sounded like this:

Whhrr, Whhr, (engine fires up with good VW-with-leaky-exhaust throaty 
sound accompanied with) 
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBangBangbangbangbang(bang)(bang)..... 
(sound disappears)

Whoa!  I nearly shut it down, but the sound was already dissapating after 
2 or 3 seconds, and disappeared entirely after 5 or 6.  We idled it for 
over ten minutes after that and it sounded just fine.

What the heck was that noise?  Should I worry?  Our motor has solid valve 
lifters, so it can't be that the valve lifters weren't pumped up.  It 
also sounded like a deeper noise, not valve train stuff.  Did it take a 
second for enough oil to get into the journals to lubricate the meat of 
the engine?

Hoping someone can reassure me...

Tobin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin T. Copley              VW Busses to Inuvik!        =============  
(604) 689-2660            www.chaco.com/~coyote/trek    /_| |__||__| :| putta
tobin@vcn.bc.ca                 July 22-Aug 14 96      O|  Insured!   | putta
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Circum-continental USA, Mexico, Canada 15,000 miles   '76 VW Camper! (Mango)