[Vwdiesel] More Dasher?

[B & R Decker]

Hi William;
	On my own diesels I almost always install a push button that fires a
Ford starter solenoid (cheap and reliable over-kill) that gets its hot juice
direct from the battery. If you have hot plugs you can probably push the
starter button count to 8 and fire the engine. In the winter you have to
count a little farther than in the summer. The Glow plugs each draw about 12
amps so the total load is close to 50 amps. 
	If our VW diesels didn't have such a habit of blowing head gaskets
they probably would have taken over world in the 80's. When I built the 1.6
that I have in my 81 Dasher station wagon I used Race-ware head studs.
Besides making the blown head gasket syndrome less likely they are reusable.
They are expensive but a blown head gasket is truly an inconvenience
especially if one is 750 to 2800 miles from home as I am likely to be 5 or 6
times a year. My brother lives in Rodeo on San Francisco Bay and I get down
to see him once in a while.
	Essentially every used VW 1.5 or 1.6 head is warped. I don't ever
take any chances. I always take the head to my machinist who has a big
water-cooled sanding table and have him true it up.
Brian Decker
Curtis WA

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of William J Toensing
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:53 AM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] More Dasher?

I am originally from Minn. Moved from Mpls to LA in 1969. Moved from LA
(Pasadena) to rural Nevada City in 1993. I actually live between Rough &
Ready & Grass Valley but with a Nevada City mail address.

In winter of 2005-6 I replaced the head of my Dasher. I then had some health
problems that zapped me from enough energy from working on the Dasher (first
Shingles & then CLL, a form of Leukemia), finished chemo in Jan.'07, & still
lack some strength & ambition but managed to replace the LF wheel bearing &
driveshaft & finally get the car on the road. Ran fine the first day, then
on day two, while taking it to a local A/C specialist, it started missing &
smoking under the hood. Smoke seems to becoming from the front of the
engine, as if the head gasket is leaking. I thought I should wait till I get
600 miles on the engine but in view of what happened, will re torque the
head & hope it fixes the problem, but fear it won't. Then I will run a
compression test & fear I will have to remove the head again. Or, I may run
a compression test on the '80 dasher diesel parts car & if good, replace the
entire engine, if it runs OK.. 

I installed quick start glow plugs. Yesterday, I bypassed the timer with a
jump wire directly from the battery to the glow plugs & it started right
off. Today, I cycled the glow plugs about 5 times in rapid succession when
the glow plug light went out, & it started right up, although missing. How
much current do the glow plugs draw when all 4 are activated? I am thinking
of using a push button starter to  activate the glow plugs manually, using a
12 volt starter relay to carry the current directly from the battery to the
glow plugs. But maybe there is a better way, besides replacing the glow plug
timer relay.
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