I'm an idiot! .net not .com! My motor install in more detail (long)

[theron@tns.net (Theron Ross)]

What the heck was I thinking? My omnisky email has a ".net" suffix, not
".com".  So anyone who sent me email regarding my 2 liter knocking problem
to omnisky.com, I didn't get it, and I'm sorry for making you waste your
time. I'd really appreciate getting another copy if at all possible.

Thank you Dan for sending my message to the list. I saw it before I left
work tonight. Our work email is working sporadically, so we get some
messages, but not others--sending is the same.

I finally just signed up to get the mailing list from home so that I can
write to it from home also.



I started my motor swap on Saturday, the 5th with the goal of having a
working 'roc on Monday the 7th to get me to work. My motor was all assembled
on the stand and I thought I was all ready to go...I've done this twic
before...it should be easy! Yeah, right.

Saturday: Pulled the old motor out. On schedule, but tired.

Sunday: Got the other motor in--Oops, I've got the wrong water pump--luckily
National City VeeParts is open on Sunday. Thank you VeeParts!

Monday-Friday: It's all a blur now. I had to drive my wife's Jetta to work,
leaving her without a car since the Integra's not registered right now--she
has to borrow the mother-in-law's car--making me look like the bozo husband
who drives an old car that he can't get running instead of buying a new car
like all respectable people do.

I worked on it every night after work, each night telling my wife I'd be
done by the next day. Hey, I believed it myself. A few more trips to
VeeParts after work.

Now I'm tired as hell and need to finish so I can get working on a house
move.

Saturday: One week after I've started. Everything is hooked up, but I want
to get the exhaust adjusted...what a bitch to get that thing off after it's
been on for two years. Luckily the bolts were easy because I used antisieze
during the install.

Get it off the jack stands and fire her up--only she doesn't fire up. What
the f*** is wrong!! What did I wire wrong??? After three hours of
troubleshooting I realize that the damn fuel pump relay fuse is blown! It's
too late to keep trying.

Sunday: Get her going but she's real rough. And what's this??? Oil shooting
everywhere. Damn! I left the camshaft oil seal off during assembly!! Plus I
can't find it anywhere so it's off to VeeParts again.

After all the oil burns off it's too late to work any more and troubleshoot
my high idle problem. I'll stay home from work Monday to see if I can get it
going. Wife is tired of it all and wants me to take it to someone. I haven't
had a full night's sleep in over a week and I just want my balanced 2 liter
that I built myself to work!

Sunday night from bed I shoot off an email to the list from my omnisky.NET
account. Little did I know that it wouldn't be accepted by the list because
I'm not signed up as a list member on my omnisky account. I didn't find this
out until Tuesday.

Monday: The car is idling so high that I can't even get the timing advanced
to TDC. There must be an air leak somewhere...but where? I can't find it. I
don't have any experience with this type of problem.

I give in to my wife and take it in to a place recommended by VeeParts. I
don't know of any good mechanics because I always do my own work--except for
tires and alignments. Hell, that's why I'm a list member: so you
knowledgable people out there can tell me how to fix my stuff.

The shop seems alright and there's a really nice A2 GTI out
front--apparently a customer's car. I have to leave it there, so as I'm
waiting for my wife to pick me up I decide to give Meze a call since he
lives about 3 minutes from the shop. Nobody home so I leave a message.

On the way home I get a call from Shawn telling me not to leave my car
there. He offers to take a look at it that night and find the problem. What
a nice guy. That guy would help out anyone, anywhere.

The wife isn't convinced and doesn't want me spending another night on the
car so she slyly makes it difficult for me to get transportation back to
pick up my car. She says she doesn't care what it costs, she just wants it
fixed.

I leave the car at the shop on Tuesday and pick it up on Wednesday morning.
It's running pretty damn well. The bozo at the shop says it was just a
number of items that they fixed that added up to the better operation.
Hmmmm...sounds like the air sensor plate was just stuck open and needed to
be cleaned out. Damnit I should've checked that!

Drive to work was interesting. I'm varying the idle speed and tryng to break
the motor in good. I'm getting knocking when my revs are too low, especially
when going up hills. I'm working hard to keep the tach from going past 4k
which isn't easy with my 2H tranny on the freeway. Low RPMs aren't
spectacular, but it really seems to want to pull after 3500. I can't wait
'till she's broken in and I get to really wind her up.

I stopped and got some octane booster for what it's worth. It's already got
91 octane in it since I was anticipating the higher compression needing
higher octane. It doesn't eliminate the knocking, but seems to maybe help.

I then try to contact Shawn and the list for help but the damn email at work
isn't working. And the worst thing is that we didn't even realize that it
wasn't working!

It does feel good to have the motor in though. I'm sure with the list help
I'll be running perfect in no time.

Thanks go out to:
Shawn Meze -- for pushing me to go the high compression route (curse that
man!), for introducing me to Potterman and his parts4vws Virtual World, and
for showing me how to rebuild a head and loaning me the tools to make it
possible.

Mike and Kristen Potter -- for getting me all the right parts and for making
this project a whole lot less expensive than it would otherwise have been.

VeeParts -- for having what I need in stock just a short drive away. Not as
cheap as Potterman, but they're open until 7pm and open on Sunday's -- I
love 'em for that!!!

And thanks to all of you out there on the list who help me with all my vw
problems. I love the knowledge I gain from being part of the list.

So here I am on Saturday morning at 2:30 am writing this damn email and
hoping that you guys can help me with my knocking problem. And I have to
move the big stuff out of the house tomorrow. Ugghh, this has not been my
month!!

Thanks,
Theron