[Vwdiesel] Hillbilly TUNING ? ---( is it valid ? ---bet your butts. )

[Svend M Kjong]

Long before I ever heard of this forum, I was tuning my cars, diesel included, by ear and
by feel. I guess all modern engines are manufactured to very close tolerances and are very
similar to one another to begin with. But not all engines are treated the same over the
course of their lives. Differences develop due to lack of maintenance or lack of precision
when being worked on by inept mechanics. Different lubricants may cause some parts to wear
faster on different engines. A 20 year old Rabbit is nowhere near the same as one just
rolling off the assembly line. Set it up by the book, and it will probably run, but it
will run a lot better if you take the time to adjust each aspect to personal standards
attained over a lifetime. Granted, this takes more time. It is quicker to plug in a dial
indicator to set pump timing, set camshaft slot flat as in the book. Quicker, sure, but
better, I don't think so.
Maybe taking so much time for tuning is not an option for everyone, so timing by Bentley
does the trick. Is this way the best? My own experience says no.

Bob in the Entire State

Svend saz    look up Gary Bangs   ---his procedure is  fast  or what ? -----Now I go the
slow route   I got the TIME. ------could I change ?    --sure could.

Svend.