Now that smells like a Volkswagen
Visited VW Man this morning for the appointment to check on the idle. I took with me a sense of adventure as I had no ride back home, just my laptop. For those out there who don't know me, I'm one of the lucky few who work from home. There's this great coffee shop called Wilde Roast just two blocks away with free wi-fi, so I got some of my morning's duties done while waiting for the car.
They determined that the vacuum advance and retard on my 009 distributor is bad and the distributor needs replacing. Trouble is no supplier carries those currently. They said in a couple months some suppliers will have them again, but for now that just can't be fixed. My carburetor is also leaking, and they recommended just replacing it for the $210 parts and labor they'd charge as a rebuild wouldn't be much cheaper.
I asked about my plan for a pair of 28 pict carbs and the guy winced. He said when they're tuned properly and working right dual carbs work great. But, when they aren't perfect ... yeah, sorta what I thought. I asked about going with a single, bigger carb like a Weber 44 or something and he winced again.
Seems he prefers a good, old, solid 30 pict (a step or two down from the one I've currently got) as it's the most reliable and actually has better throttle response than a bigger carb. Have to think about that one. Jamie's got a 30 pict in his stash, so perhaps before any dreams of cool-looking dual carburetors I'll play around with getting a decent, reliable single carburetor.
But, they advanced the timing (I sorta know what that means, like they rotated the distributor one way or the other to make the cylidars fire sooner rather than later) and the car really drives better! I actually have low-end power and throttle response rather than gently feathering the gas until the motor revs higher. I knew these cars were under-powered, but I also remember my '72 Beetle having better response and power than this!
While they had it in I requested they see about working my heater box levers loose and they tried, but snapped one of the levers in the process. The final solution there, they said, is new heater boxes ($200 or so from what I've seen, not too bad). But, they asked if I wanted them just "wired on" and I said "sure!" Heat!
Reese and I are driving the car down to southern MN this weekend, then, now that we won't freeze in it. We'll be hauling nearly 200 lbs of American Bulldog with us in the back seat (poor Boris and Natasha! They love it, though). We'll buy a big kennel while we're down there for the two of them to sleep together in and just keep. Even when we take the Subaru and are able to strap the collapsable kennels on top it's just such a pain. It'll be nice to not have that hassle anymore. Plus, it's a nice excuse to take the Ghia for our first road trip in her.
And, yes, as the title of this post suggests, with the heater ducts open she smells like a Volkswagen finally! That hot exaust pipe flavor! Most people who've never been in a VW with the heater on don't know what hot exaust pipe smells like. It's not hot exaust (I hope) it's the metal of the pipe itself when it's hot and the air that gets passed by it. Quite distinctive.
I still have to tighten up the hose in the back from the passenger's-side heater box to the heater channel, though, so it's parked in the garage up on ramps at the moment. When it cools down I'll slide under to tighten that up.
They determined that the vacuum advance and retard on my 009 distributor is bad and the distributor needs replacing. Trouble is no supplier carries those currently. They said in a couple months some suppliers will have them again, but for now that just can't be fixed. My carburetor is also leaking, and they recommended just replacing it for the $210 parts and labor they'd charge as a rebuild wouldn't be much cheaper.
I asked about my plan for a pair of 28 pict carbs and the guy winced. He said when they're tuned properly and working right dual carbs work great. But, when they aren't perfect ... yeah, sorta what I thought. I asked about going with a single, bigger carb like a Weber 44 or something and he winced again.
Seems he prefers a good, old, solid 30 pict (a step or two down from the one I've currently got) as it's the most reliable and actually has better throttle response than a bigger carb. Have to think about that one. Jamie's got a 30 pict in his stash, so perhaps before any dreams of cool-looking dual carburetors I'll play around with getting a decent, reliable single carburetor.
But, they advanced the timing (I sorta know what that means, like they rotated the distributor one way or the other to make the cylidars fire sooner rather than later) and the car really drives better! I actually have low-end power and throttle response rather than gently feathering the gas until the motor revs higher. I knew these cars were under-powered, but I also remember my '72 Beetle having better response and power than this!
While they had it in I requested they see about working my heater box levers loose and they tried, but snapped one of the levers in the process. The final solution there, they said, is new heater boxes ($200 or so from what I've seen, not too bad). But, they asked if I wanted them just "wired on" and I said "sure!" Heat!
Reese and I are driving the car down to southern MN this weekend, then, now that we won't freeze in it. We'll be hauling nearly 200 lbs of American Bulldog with us in the back seat (poor Boris and Natasha! They love it, though). We'll buy a big kennel while we're down there for the two of them to sleep together in and just keep. Even when we take the Subaru and are able to strap the collapsable kennels on top it's just such a pain. It'll be nice to not have that hassle anymore. Plus, it's a nice excuse to take the Ghia for our first road trip in her.
And, yes, as the title of this post suggests, with the heater ducts open she smells like a Volkswagen finally! That hot exaust pipe flavor! Most people who've never been in a VW with the heater on don't know what hot exaust pipe smells like. It's not hot exaust (I hope) it's the metal of the pipe itself when it's hot and the air that gets passed by it. Quite distinctive.
I still have to tighten up the hose in the back from the passenger's-side heater box to the heater channel, though, so it's parked in the garage up on ramps at the moment. When it cools down I'll slide under to tighten that up.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller at 8:24 AM
4 Comments:
I love the smell of exhaust in the morning, it smells like Victory! Or was it napalm? Anyway the smell brings back memories of times past (the 60's) and a lonely Ghia climbing a high mountain pass and then down, straining to maintain 70mph in 3rd gear. There's a story here somewhere...
What's really interesting is how much heat you seem to get when you roll the windows down. Does this happen with yours? I get almost no heat or air flow from the passenger's-side with the windows up, but crack one window and suddenly both are blowing a lot of hot air.
Some kind of vacuum effect, I'm sure. It'd be nice to have them blowing that much when the windows are sealed up, of course. Gonna have to do some more troubleshooting of that one, I think.
I've noticed the same thing. With the window down a lot of air moves through the vents. I'm not sure why this would be the case. Something to keep in mind when you need to defrost, I suppose.
I'm thinking this might be a good argument for those turbine/blower things you can install onto your duct work under the back seat.
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