If you have been following on facebook or instagram, you will know that I drove back up to Canada at the beginning of May. I’m enjoying being back home, spending time with family and friends, and got to attend the 30th annual June Jitterbug30th annual June Jitterbug Volkswagen gathering in Niagara Falls, On. This week I found out that my piston rings are shot and heads need re-working. So I embarked on my second rebuild of my Volkswagen’s motor.
Monday I took the hippie van to a mechanic after unsuccessfully diagnosing my motors loss of power, smelly exhaust and odd sounds. The mechanic diagnosed it as an engine blowby issue (lack of compression due to shot piston rings and a damaged head).
You may recall that I did an engine rebuild back in 2012 with a guy named Jim in Southern California. The engine preformed incredibly for the duration of my Pan American journey up until Bolivia when a mechanic cross threaded my #3 spark plug port. The combination of this fatal error plus subjecting the van to 45,000km of treacherous roads and conditions led to the eventual deterioration of the motor.
With the help of youtube, thesamba.com, my manual and hippie van man friends, I plan to refresh the motor with new heads, piston rings and whatever else it needs – hopefully without breaking the bank.
I will keep you guys updated on this next adventure with the hippie van. Here are a few images from the extraction and break down thus far.
Also, before I got into this project, I decided to refresh the paint job and some rust issues. I will continue with the paint restore once I wrap up the motor work.
Stay tuned for more hippie van man adventures!
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