[T2] Weekend maintenance: two small steps forward, one big step back

[Greg Potts]

Hi Volks,

So Saturday morning arrived bright and shiny... off to the driveway I 
went to put new fuel lines into the bus. Slightly more than 2hrs later 
and the job was done... all new braided Continental 7mm hose from one 
end to the other and I ended up with about 4' left over from a $50 coil.

Next on the agenda, replace the alternator belt. Hardly a challenge at 
all, that... but I did notice the engine is bucking a little. Not nearly 
as stable as Pete Nickerson's bus was when I helped him with it a few 
weeks back. So I checked over the vacuum lines and then tried the poor 
man's compression test. Unhappily, #3 plug wire made no difference at 
all when I removed it from the distributor.

Switched up the injector wiring, no problems there. Pulled the injector, 
it was firing. Checked the spark plug, it was oily but not fouled. Put 
in the compression gauge: 30 PSI. Also noticed a squeaky chuffing sound 
when turning over. Adjusted the valves, the intake was slightly tight... 
that brought the compression up to 45 PSI. Pulled the rockers and 
checked the head studs: Slightly less tight than I would have liked, but 
not too loose. Guess I am dropping the engine then.

Dropping the motor took a couple hours as I was working alone and taking 
my time waiting for my brother to bring back the jack he borrowed. Once 
it was down I pulled the tin and found the upper head studs around the 
#3 end of the head were definitely loose. There was also a lot of oil 
around the #3 cylinder inside the tin. I removed the rockers and 
retorqued the head, put the rockers back on and checked the compression 
by spinning the alternator: 30 PSI. And I could still hear it chuffing a 
little.

At this point it was 9PM and I was spent. I slid the engine under the 
bus, put away my tools and closed the garage door.  Sunday morning I was 
registered for a canoe trip so I wasn't able to get back to it until 
late afternoon. I had time to straighten out the garage and get the 
engine up onto the stand, but then dinner intervened so I haven't got 
the head off yet, hopefully I'll get that done tonight.

Any speculation on what I should be looking for would be appreciated.

As a side note, this is an AE 1.7L motor which I detuned using spacers 
under the jugs to lower the compression. Without the spacers this engine 
used to produce about 210 PSI compression and was rated for 95 HP. With 
the spacers the compression dropped back to 125 PSI. I have put about 
60,000 miles on it since installing it 7 years ago and it's been pretty 
well behaved other than dropping an exhaust valve seat two years ago.

There's just four weeks to go until BusFusion, so I'm not short of 
motivation on this.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario Canada
197x Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
www.pottsfamily.ca
www.busesofthecorn.ca