Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 18:01:12 -0400
Reply-To: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject: "Smoke in the Cockpit!!!"... Vanagon Drama in Real-life, Part Deux
"Smoke in the Cockpit!!!"... Vanagon Drama in Real-life, Part Deux
As you may recall, the evening prior, while the motor had just been bolted
up in our 1982 White Vanagon Westfalia, our lives were filled with
excitement when the oil filter clogged with assembly grease and the filter
seal faltered. Our new bigger-better oil pump dutifully pumped all of the
new Castrol 20w50 oil onto the ground while I revved our expensive new
counterweighted crank and hypereutectic pistons at 3,000 rpm. So, what do
you do for excitement?
Having remedied that problem, we took a 9:30 p.m. spin around the block to
confirm the feeling of our new motor, cleaned our tools, swept up the
oil-soaked Tidy Cat, showered our bodies, and collapsed exhausted into bed.
I slept like a baby...drooled on my pillow AND wet the bed.
As it has for eons before, the Sun rose Sunday morning on a beautiful
brand-new day. After Church, we decided it was time to put the Vanagon on
her first sea trial. Now at this point, some understanding of a certain
system of the Vanagon is important for all who are interested. The exhaust
gas recirculation system, or EGR for short, draws off a certain percentage
of the exhaust product, filters it, and inserts it into the intake manifold
during acceleration.
Typically, on older type 4 motors, the EGR system is plugged, corroded, and
defunct. Folks have ignored and/or reset the EGR light, and now everything
in the system clogged and useless. While the EGR system is important for
environmental reasons, it is also essential for cooling the motor. Yes,
that's right, by introducing exhaust into the intake mixture, the overall
combustion temperature inside the cylinders is lowered significantly.
Malfunctioning EGRs tend to cause dropped or burned valves and burned
pistons, particularly #3 and #1 in the type 4 motors. These were the exact
cylinders that had dropped valves in ours...
So in rebuilding our motor I was careful to replace and repair all of the
EGR system to bring it to "like new" condition. This is more difficult
than it may sound, but the difficulty of the repair is not what's relevant.
What is relevant is that when functioning correctly, the EGR system
includes a burning hot pipe running through the motor compartment to the
intake manifold. That pipe can be hotter than the muffler of the van. Is
for this reason that extreme caution is used in the way that wires and
hoses are routed around the EGR pipe and valve. I bet, since you are
smart, you know where we're going now.
So Sunday morning, with me clad in dress trousers and a golf shirt (though
I don't play), and my beautiful and talented Suzanne clad in her Sunday
dress, we set off on our road trip. The town we're moving too is
approximately 70 miles away over a variety of roads with a variety of
speeds and inclines. Some stops and starts, some high speeds, some
puttering. Perfect. Confident in the Vanagon as usual, only the
tools/supplies that we normally carry in the van were at our disposal; a
multi-head screwdriver, some twine, and a pair of pliers. (Smell the dark
clouds, cooking yet?)
The trip down to Mt. Olive, North Carolina was beautiful. The Vanagon
performed spectacularly. We drove against headwinds and easily maintained
70 miles an hour. The van accelerated quickly from stop lights. The motor
was silky smooth and quiet. We doddled around town for an hour or two,
peeked into the windows of the house that we're purchasing, and eventually
turned around to come home. Thankfully, our van did NOT burn in the tiny
country town where we are about to move (pop. 4,800), or we would be known
for the next 20 years as "the folks who moved to town after their VW van
burnt up on Center Street..." Ugh.
Having taken back roads most to the way down on the trip, we decided to
take US I-40 on the road home. Again, the Vanagon moved spectacularly. We
were both well-pleased at the silky smooth performance for the whole trip
at speeds of 65-80 mph...until about 3 miles south of the Raleigh Beltway.
After a long steady climb up a mild grade, the van gave an uncharacteristic
buck, then continued on.
"What was that?" Suzanne asked. "Oh, nothing," I quickly replied,
"probably just a little piece of trash on the wiper for the air flow
meter." Our van had never bucked before, and my explanation didn't appear
to hold water with her, she ain't dumb. With only 170 miles on the motor, I
was perplexed...
A few seconds later, the van bucked again. Then it bucked again, more
violently. One more violent buck, and the motor died.
At 60 mph, the dashboard warning lights came on. Acrid smoke began to wisp
from the area just in front of my left knee. I quickly turned the ignition
off and pulled aside. Sue grabbed the fire extinguisher. But it was not my
left knee that was burning.
We quickly ran to the back of the van, since this is the traditional place
for VW buses to start their own suicidal funeral pyres. I opened the hatch,
whipped out the mattress, and opened the motor compartment to find it (not
surprisingly) full of smoke. My heart raced as I thought about how we had
just recovered from the oil leak the night prior... how ironic it would be
if the van burned on the side of the road today. But that would not be my
Luck. My Luck is for drama, but not disaster.
Figuring the extinguisher was overkill, Sue quickly poured a 1 liter
icy-cold Diet Coke on the smoking parts. The smoking parts seemed
refreshed, after all, Coke is "The Pause That Refreshes". I stood hot and
thirsty, looking at my motor, and shaking my head.
If there had been flames, we never saw them. What we did see instead was a
charred, smoking wiring harness that ran from the fuel pump relay down to
the left rear wheel well... it was charred in the wheel well, and was
charred as it made its way up from the wheel well to the starter. What a
mess...
So: "What had happened?" you ask? Being a little curious myself, and having
a recently increased my financial interest in this beautiful 18-year-old
German Kampfrau, I decided to find out.
A 10-gauge wire that runs from the back of the starter to the fuel pump
relay and provides electricity for the fuel pump and the fuel injection
system was not properly routed far enough away from the EGR. My bust. Who
said I'm getting to old to learn things the hard way???
Consequently, the wire fell against the EGR tube. During the period of
long heavy acceleration, hot exhaust gases heated the EGR to the point it
melted through the insulation on the wire causing it to ground, to short
circuit. Once grounded, the 10 gauge wire conducted enough current to fry
itself within seconds. The smoke by my left knee was just smoke/fumes
coming out of the wiring harness tubing at its only other opening, at the
fuse box.
Although the wire may have been loose prior to the rebuild, this was not a
potential problem before; the EGR didn't work before the rebuild, so the
tube never got hot. So there we were...4:45 p.m. 94 degrees, Sunday
afternoon. I-40 just south of Raleigh. Pretty Suzanne in her Sunday dress,
trying to comfort frustrated Matthew. I got very lucky when I found her,
but that's another story.
The fire fix would be easy if that big wire was the only wire that had been
affected. Unfortunately, once that ten gauge goes into the wheel well, it
runs through a harness with about 20 other wires for a myriad of other
important electrical stuff. All of it was crispy-looking black stuff now.
To make a long story short (too late), I weighed our options. We could
call AAA, and wait for 3 hours to be towed 10 miles home. We could reground
the wire, turn on the ignition, and collect $2,200 in insurance, and put a
down payment in on a Jetta TDi.
Or, being a US Marine at heart, I could seize the initiative, fix the
problem, and move on. Having no tools or electrical tape was no
impediment. The handle on my camping axe was neatly wrapped with just
enough electrical tape to keep the wire from shorting out. I figured the
less than I touch the wiring harness the more likely it would be that the
insulation between the other wires would remain intact, or the fragments
thereof would insulate just enough to get us home. I wrapped the worst bare
spots, and switched the ignition on. No problem. I started it. Ran great.
Suzanne sat on the floor on the way home with one hand on the negative
terminal of the battery ready to pull it at a moment's notice. With a few
Hail Mary's, we made it.
Monday morning I performed major surgery on the electrical system in the
left rear wheel well and engine compartment of our van. I essentially
re-created and replaced the entire wiring harness from the shock tower back
to the fuel pump relay, and over to the starter. It is encased in rubber
inner-tubing, and sealed with silicone sealant and Scotch-Lock cable ties.
Six hours later, after careful review of every system on the van, I
cautiously started the van again for the first time.
At this hour, it now has more than 350 miles on it, and still runs like a
champ. I love it!
Its powerful. Granted, it won't burn long copious streaks of black rubber
on the pavement, but it will spin the right rear tire from a stop, which
for a Westy, ain't bad. With the extra weight of the counter weighted
crank, and a lighter weight hypereutectic pistons, it has all the low-end
torque that I wanted, and smooth, balanced performance. We are pleased as
punch and can't wait to take camping this fall.
The moral of the story? I am probably one of the most meticulous folks on
this list. If this stuff can happen to me, it can happen to any one. Worse,
it can happen in ways that are not as "recoverable". I used a little too
much assy. grease inside the oil pump, and the filter seal failed. I didn't
put a wire in EXACTLY the right spot, and almost lost my van. Be careful.
If you find a good mechanic to do your work, pay him well. If you are faced
with doing work yourself, triple check all. Be safe.
I won't be posting much for the next month or so, as we're buying a house
that I have to major projects ongoing work.
Blessings on all of you, drive safe,
G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett & Associates
www.bulley-hewlett.com
Cary, NC USA
888.468.4880 tollfree
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