Hi y'all,

It seems like years since I bought the '71 bus, drove it home and
subscribed to the vanagon list.  Now several months later, the engine is
back in the bus and purring nicely.  Rebuilding the engine was definitely
an exercise in patience, perseverence and frustration.  While the engine
ran OK to begin with, it was the filthiest thing you could imagine, so I
decided to pull it and at least clean it off.  One thing led to another,
and before I knew it, the engine was totally disassembled, pieces bagged
with labels.  Though the compression checked out fine (145 +-5), it
turned out that one of the heads was cracked at the spark plug hole. To
make a short story long, I ended up doing a semi-Muldoon, replacing only 
the parts that were really bad.  The rest of the bus was a real 
nightmare.  While the body looks pretty good, _everything_ else that 
could need replacing did... brakes (incl. power booster), ball joints, CVs,
etc.  While the engine was on the table, I ran across a '71 westy in much 
better condition for $400.  Supposedly, the reason it was grounded is 
that the oil cooler had split, spilling oil.  The owner didn't want to 
continue to maintain this vehicle and was anxious to unload it.  So now 
I've got 2 buses completely filling our 2 car garage.  Now that I know 
the rebuilt engine is running, I'll put it in the westy and sell/give the 
bus body away, keep the westy engine as a backup.  Anybody want the old 
body?  It's in 'GOOD CONDITION'. :-) sorry, Bob, couldn't resist.

For other rookies like myself, I'm sharing my mistakes so perhaps you 
may avoid them.

Mistakes:

- I was too impatient and bought a bus too soon with too much wrong.  
Though it was only $600, in the long run this was a total waste.

- I believed some of the things that the seller said.  When it comes to 
money, some people will screw there own mother.

- I placed too much confidence in the compression test. It had very 
little reflection on what condition the engine was in.

- I tried to follow both Tom Wilson's manual and the Idiot's guide at the 
same time, while referring to Bentley occasionally.  As they do things in 
a different sequence, this was a mistake.  While following Wilson's 
steps, I left out the big warpy washer on the BACK of the crankshaft, and 
had to resplit the engine to put it in :(.  Wilson doesn't mention this 
washer but does show it in a photo.  Too obvious, maybe.

After the engine halves were mated, I put the distributor driveshaft in 
and the slot didn't line up exactly like the sketches in the 
manuals...they all seem to make a big deal about this orientation of the 
slot.  It was about 18 degrees off perpindicular to the seam of the 
crankcase, when it should have been perp.  This led to wondering if the 
dots on the crankshaft/camshaft had gotten misaligned... meaning 
splitting the case again!  I decided to continue the assembly,  thanks to 
most advice  from list members, and it turned out to not be a problem.  I 
can only guess that maybe the brass 'worm' gear had a burr on it that 
displaced the slot just a bit.  Any ideas or similar stories?

Thanks to all of you who helped.  I apolgize for not thanking you 
individually... this may have been a faux pas on my part, but I didn't 
want to waste the bandwidth.

Just in case I'm committing another sin by never giving an intro, here it is:

I'm a 40 year old micropaleontologist, do consulting work for major oil 
companies.  Married, in every way but legally, have a 16 month old son 
and another in the oven.  Masters in Geology from FSU here in 
Tallahassee, FL.  Grew up in N. Carolina, youngest of 7.  I'm very 
thankful for the vanagon listserver.  Hopefully I'll be on the advice 
giving end one day, rather that take, take, take... :-)   

Mitch