As I mentioned in my last post about the 2012 VWs on the Green show, I had been working quite hard for the last few months trying to get Gus ready to drive to the show. I drained the gas from the gas tank, which was a disgustingly smelly and painful job (some a lot went on my arm, and if you’ve never spilled gas on yourself, well…don’t. It burns. )
This is what the gas looked like after I drained it. Normal, fresh gas is almost clear – like water. After I drained the tank and put some fresh gas in Gus ran (and smelled) much better.
I finally had gotten the muffler attached, and put on new(er) tires and wheels that I bought a few years ago. It was time to take Gus for a spin around the neighborhood to see how he did.
As usual, Gus attracted quite a few neighborhood spectators, as he rarely makes it out of the garage. He did ok driving around the ‘hood – the brakes were a little soft, but still worked. The next test was to go out onto the “big road” – the 35 mph road around the subdivision. I’ve never taken Gus outside of the friendly confines of the 20 mph streets surrounding his home. We headed into uncharted waters (for me anyway…I know Gus has been on many a road).
And, not having really driven a VW bus on a normal road, it was a bit scary. Especially since I couldn’t seem to get him over 35 miles per hour. He did make it a few miles around on the big road, but something seemed off. He was very sluggish – I had to floor it to make it to 35 mph. Something was wrong, and there was no way I could drive only 35 mph to the VW show. So it was time for diagnostics. A compression test was in order.
Richard Atwell’s superb VW bus site has an excellent write-up on engine diagnosis here. Basically a compression test tells you how much compression the engine has – generally, the higher the number, the better.
Here are Gus’s results:
Cylinder 1- 75 first time, then I could only get it to 60
Cylinder 2 – 89 then 86
Cylinder 3 – ZERO (checked and rechecked many times)
Cylinder 4 – 115 then 110
ZERO is not good. I posted my results on the IAC website, and was advised to adjust my valves, and check again. I adjusted the valves, and #3′s intake was 3 1/2 turns off (counterclockwise) before making contact…so 5 turns total when you take into account the 1 1/2 turns clockwise for adjusting, if that makes sense (to those of you reading who understand what I was doing…)
I rechecked compression, and here were the new totals:
Cylinder 1 – 94, then 75
Cylinder 2 – 83 then 81
Cylinder 3 – ZERO
Cylinder 4 – 110
ZERO is still not good. It basically means there is no compression on Cylinder #3, so the engine is running on only three cylinders, instead of the four it should be running on. Confirmation from Colin and some other folks basically confirmed it’s time to pull the engine. Probably valve seat recession, or a burnt valve. Bummer.
So…did Gus make the trip? No, unfortunately. But I am in the process of removing Gus’s engine now, and I’m going to check out the spare engine to see if the compression is good on that one. If so, I’ll switch engines and hopefully get on the road this summer!
So it’s back into the garage for now…but he is looking pretty spiffy, huh?
Sorry to hear about Gus not making the trip…. I had the same issue with my 63 beetle, zero compression on cylinder #3, and crappy compression on #4. Instead of pulling the motor to yank the heads, we went the redneck route.
What we did is take some Value lapping compound and with a long thin stick, dabbed it directly on the valve. With the rockers off, we then attached a cordless drill to the valve end and began to spin the valve in its seat. The lapping compound is gritty and in most cases will remove a lot of the carbon thus bringing back some compression. It’s not the (best) way to re-gain compression but it does work.
Hope you get Gus back on the road soon.
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Interesting approach! I’m not sure if that would help my situation, but it might. I don’t know if it’s a carbon buildup issue or a burnt valve. I’ve been meaning to pull the engine anyway, so this is a good excuse to do it. Hopefully it’s not too bad, but I’m not expecting it to be great!
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Hello, I just had a few questions regarding your bus…
Did you name your bus Gus or when you bought it did the previous owner name it Gus?
Also was the previous owner a man from Alaska by the name of Vern Oremus?
And one last question is your color the original color or was the original color a cream?
The reason for these questions is because I’m trying to locate the old VW bus my dad owned when he was kid. Thank you.
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Hi Noah! I named it Gus – it used to be called the Bull Bus I think. I found a few of the previous owners because of this site, but they weren’t named Vern Oremus. The bus is in the original colors, which are Panama Brown (the orangey color) and Dakota Beige (the top). I don’t know if a man from Alaska owned it, but I do know that the bus was in Alaska at one point. The 15,000 mile service was done in Fairbanks, AK on August 11, 1979. I know Gus spent a lot of time around San Francisco (according to the Warranty & Maintenance book), and in Washington State. Gus was originally purchased at Oliver Volkswagen on March 4, 1979. Hope this info helps – maybe Gus was your dad’s bus at one point!
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