Mine and Andi's............

Brilliant

As most of you know, our bay came back from the paintshop the weekend before Bog Bang!

I drove it home with no windows like this..............





A massive thanks goes to Ian C, Stu, Laurie, Ben, Ade, Grant and Rob for spending most of the following Saturday helping me to refit her windows, trim, interior, engine-removal etc! (I love you guy's ) Luckily, I think we picked the only sunny Saturday in April to do all of this as shortly after, the heavens opened.............



A massive oil-leak was put-down to dodgy seals in the oil-cooler so the engine was stripped and these replaced! Once put back together, Ben and Laurie refitted the lump only to find that the bloody thing was pissing oil out again!

So, following a seriously wet (and oily!) weekend at Santa Pod, I pulled the engine out again to give it a complete overhaul! Here it is in my garden..............



Once stripped down completely this time, I found several things wrong! First-up, both sets of rocker arms were cracked around their mountings.........



Not sure why this has occurred but can only assume they were over tightened!

Next up, when replacing (again!) the oil cooler seals, I realised that the stud on top of the crank-case had pulled through! Luckily though, I managed to re-tap the thread in the case and install the stud lower-down!

New push-rod tubes were fitted, replacement rocker-arms sourced (thanks again Ade!), better tin-ware sourced (cheers Laurie!) and the engine fully cleaned, de-greased and repainted! Last night saw the engine fully rebuilt and fitted (thanks again to Laurie! ) - guess what, THE BLOODY THING IS STILL LEAKING!!!!

Next-up is a replacement oil-cooler assembly and an inspection of the crank-case to see if its cracked......................STAY TUNED!!!!

Mikey

Bloody Volkswagens!!!!

Quick update on the oil leak! Laurie and I pulled the engine last night and ran it in the van without the fan housing to see where the oil was coming from. The bad news is that we found a hairline crack in the crankcase in the oil way closet to the fly wheel!

The engine is now stripped and in the boot of my car for a trip over to Ade's to see if he can weld the case..........

Does this mean you will be in your tent for apex then?

After much pissing about last year with engines and oil leaks and seizures and paint shops and ..................

You get the idea!!

Here she is near Newquay with a proper shagged engine (nothing to do with 80mph).....



And here she is again after getting the six of us plus gear all the way down to Bretagne, France for our week in the tree house...........



And again on my birthday weekend at my surprise stay in the fishermans cottage in whitstable..........



The van was off the road more than on it last year (and the engine still needs rebuilding!) and with my back problems, the stripped interior ended up being stripped out for longer than I wanted too! However, thanks to Laurie and Ben, the interior is now all finished and Darlin' is wearing some stock steel wheels and snow tyres in readiness for some mud n woods action.........

I like it!
awesome story dude... its mad what we all go through, and what we forget too! good times though and well worth it all in my opinion!

race you to the woods! (although i need to take the engine out again and replace a push rod tube as it is pissing oil due to the pin hole in it... hopefully be done the weekend though).

Looks nice on the stock wheels