Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:07:38 -0800
Reply-To: Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: Update on Belize Vanagon- gas tank
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8"; reply-type=original
Ken, in my motorcycle resto days we used to have bad gastanks all the time
covered inside with rust. The trick was to have them boiled out by a
radiator shop, then we used a product called Kreem which is basically a
plastic coating you pour inside and swirl around to put a lining inside the
tank. Voila, no more rust ever.
See what you can do with that.
Courtney
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Always be yourself, because the people that matter don't mind,
and the ones who mind, don't matter.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Wilford" <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 5:47 AM
Subject: Update on Belize Vanagon
Thanks so much to everyone who had ideas about what was wrong with the
Vanagon I was working on in Belize. After testing several things I decided
to pull the injectors to watch them spray. Instead of a nice cone shaped
spray pattern I was seeing a little squirt like from a squirt gun. The fuel
pressure was good, and I even did a volume test which also seemed good. We
had another set of injectors handy so I swapped them in and voila! The van
started and ran well. I was so happy and it was still morning so I thought
we were going to be able to get back on the road with the van and do some
sight seeing. The customer had complained about the van running good, and
then starting to run bad after a bit of running and then not wanting to
restart when hot. I thought this was probably due to the bad wiring harness
which has been replaced with a new one but I wanted to be sure. So we let
the van run and it sat there and idled for about 20 mins. Initially it had
good power and everything. However after about 20 mins of just idling the
engine started to not respond well to the throttle and then it just died and
wouldn't restart again! It was acting exactly the same way it had when I
first got there. I pulled the injectors again and they were spraying in the
exact same way as the old ones. Just peeing, not really spraying at all. I
decided to replace the fuel pump. when I pulled the line going to the pump,
about 3 tablespoons of rust spilled out onto my hand. I had found the
problem. I blew back into the gas tank, hooked the line back up, and the van
started right up, ran for about a minute or two and then died again and
wouldn't restart. I think there is so much rust inside the gas tank that it
just keeps getting sucked up into the system and bogging things down. So now
I have to get a new fuel tank and parts sent down here. I am going to try to
get in touch with the customer today and see what he wants to do. If we can
get this done, perhaps the van will be back on the road and running well. I
tested through the entire fuel injection system with a meter and all of the
grounds and sensor tested fine so I am pretty sure that everything is good
and that the gas tank is the problem.
Just wanted to let you guys know what I found. One suggestion is to run the
van off of a new 5 gallon plastic gas tank. However I am not sure how you
could do this without doing some serious mods (drilling holes and running
really long fuel lines). If anyone has any ideas in this area, something
that you have done before, please let me know.
Hope you are having a great day!
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
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