[Vwdiesel] Banana Rabbit Lives!

[Dave Cook]

I haven't nick-named a car for some time, but this one stuck pretty quick.  The color of the new bunny is a lovely shade of yellow, and Banana Rabbit just has a nice ring to it.  I was also thinking that the yellow color is kinda "Springy" though, so it could also be the Easter Bunny, which was resurrected in my garage tonight.

Anyway-

I installed the glow plugs and fuel injection lines.  I was right about the Autolite plugs being crap, the top broke off one as I attempted to tighten the nut for the bus bar.  I'll probably just go buy two more Champion 160s and have a matched set.  

I plugged the block heater in right before attaching the bus bar, and was happy to hear it hissing slightly, as I remembered them doing in other VWs.  It was heating the engine for probably 25 minutes or so while I installed the bus and injection lines.

Since I remain unsure about which relay to use, I didn't connect that end of the bus bar, just used a wire directly to the battery for about 12 seconds before going to turn the key.  

After bleeding the injection lines, it started up pretty easily!  

The pump looks like it may have been rebuilt in the recent past, judging from fresh-looking undisturbed paint on several of the settings screws.  The guy said he thought that some work "inside" (my word) the engine had been done, but couldn't remember if it was supposed to have been rebuilt, a head gasket, or what.  

It must be in decent shape engine-wise for having started so easily after not running in over a year.  The block heater went for awhile but not a real long time, and one glow plug was possibly not heating due to the top of the plug breaking off.  Loren showed me a site that makes it appear the plugs I have were the slow ones.  If this is true, then they weren't glowing for nearly as long as they probably could/should have.  

Even with fuel that is somewhere between 6 months and a little over a year old, the thing sounded pretty good to me.  So I am pretty happy.  

Tomorrow I plan to take some time to assess the rest of the car, but I may be able to take it for a test spin.

Dave Cook