Oscar has had an exhaust leak for a while now and I finally realized how bad when the new muffler quieted things down enough back there for me to hear it.  I figured with Bugapalüza on the way, it could wait until after that.  Well, on the way home last night, as I was on East Brainerd Rd. coming up to the 4-way stop at Ooltewah-Ringgold Rd., I saw Herb and Dee on their way home.  I followed them for the next 3 or so miles until my turnoff on Prospect Church Rd.  As soon as I turned left, Oscar made a funny sounding cough, and suddenly lost power.  No warning lights lit up on the dash, no other warnings, Oscar just got LOUD and GUTLESS.  I was able to hobble my way into my driveway and into my yard.  I had the '77 Beetle in tow, so I just parked Oscar and waited till today to move the Beetle up beside the garage and put Oscar into the garage.  
From what I can tell, there seems to be loss of compression, and the exhaust tubes from the heads are leaking something awful.
Until I get up underneath and check things out, I don't know what happened.  I will try to keep you informed as to what ails Oscar. :cry:

P.S.  Last week I bought some new exhaust gaskets for the tubes coming from the heads and also some new exhaust studs.  Oscar must have known that and the only way to get my attention to his predicament was to finally kick me in the rear. :wink:

Hey !  you could also check to be sure that the cly.head wasn`t leaking and burned out a slot between the head and clylinder. I hope not. This would make a very loud "popping" sound not unlike a bad exhaust leak.

Ret.Bugtech Posted:...You didn`t blow a plug out did you?

Why, yes, I did.  Sort of.

I don't know why I didn't see this in the dark last night.  #1 plug was backed out of its hole.  That explains the loss of compression.  It was still in the plug wire, and it went back in like it should.  Oscar started up and sounds and runs just like he should.  Or at least like he has been.

It is weird that a plug would unscrew itself like that.  When I told Linda what had happened, she said, "Sorry.  I know you were hoping for something more."

Hmmph.  Something more indeed. :lol:

Well, in regards to the exhaust leak...I took off the exhaust from the headers to the tailpipe.  The left exhaust manifold has some damage at the end of the pipe where it connects to the #3 exhaust port.  It is no longer flush, has some minute cracks, and was the source of the loud exhaust leak.

I posted a question on The Bus Barn forum (on the Shoptalk Forums) about a new exhaust manifold and got the impression that there are no new ones.  One guy said that I can clean the area up real good, fill in the missing metal, and grind to flush with #4 end.  Or I can buy some good used ones from The Bus Depot for $50 each.    

I also took two crossover pipes (Oscar's original and a spare that I had) to Maxi Muffler in East Ridge today (well, yesterday now) and got the broken studs taken out and new ones put in.  One pipe has a big hole in it that I wanted fixed.  The guy (Ken) said that if I come back over when I install the crossover pipe, he can replace the section that has a hole in it when it is on the bus rather than off the bus.  It will just be loud going there!

I also bought new exhaust studs with new copper locknuts for the heads.  Joe at Tri-State Imports threw the copper locknuts in with the studs.  He said that those were the ones that all the Porches were using now.  Forget the Joneses, keep up with the Porches!  Now I just have to get them old, crusty, and broken (1) studs out of the heads.  I've heard of a tool called an Ease Out (?) to remove the studs.  If it is easier to do it with that than with two exhaust nuts pinched together, it just might be worth whatever it costs to do so.

On a side note, I had been feeling a shudder from the front when I put on the brakes on Sweetpea.  When replacing the brake pads, checking the play in the bearings and replacing the steering dampner (needed that anyway) didn't solve the problem, I then checked the disc rotor.  They looked like they could use resurfacing, so I took them to O'Reiley's where the correct measuring tools determined that they couldn't be resurfaced.  The minimum thickness after resurfacing was .0472 mm.  One measured .0354 mm, and the other one was .0454 mm.  They were already past the discard thickness.  Who knew?  One of the rotors had a VW stamp on it, which led me to believe that it was one of the original ones.  Maybe not, but I like to think so.  Oh, yeah, while removing the rotors, I also noticed little, itty-bitty, tiny cracks in the brake hoses...so I'm replacing them as well.

Whew, Ok more later.

Travis, A ease-out  is a tool that is used to remove a broken off stud or bolt that has broken off flush in the hole. The down side is you have to drill a appropriate size hole in the broken stud, twist in the ease-out and HOPE the stud comes out. I said HOPE. You DO NOT want to twist the ease-out off. You are S.O.L. most of the time if this happens. You can`t drill out a broken ease-out unless you have a Million $ drill bit. A good ease-out is made of the same stuff the drill bit is. VW exhaust studs are the most difficult to deal with ,but type 4  is the easest of the VWs if you are careful. Good Luck !!!

I think it was Zen who suggested I use a whetstone to true the sealing surface on the end of an exhaust header. It took a lot of rubbin', but that and some exhaust paste from the Pep Boys sealed mine real well. I echo the Master's comments about brakes. You've heard about my woes with the Mexican brake parts on the Beetle. It's about time for some for my bus, too, so let me know how you come out!

Well, I've made things worse.  The stud that had broken on uninstallation of one exhaust manifold did have some thread enough to try to get it out of there.  Until last night, that is.  What I thought was the stud turning was actually the stud twisting.  It broke off just below the threaded area that the exhaust nuts rode on.  Now it is just a 1/2 inch stick of metal poking out.  The biggest pain is that the exhaust ports on these type 4 engines are recessed under the head, not on the sides of the heads like on the 1600 engines, making it hard to get any type of vise grip or pliers up in there.  
So, I have thought about heating up the head at the stud, hopefully expanding the threads of the stud hole, and using a pair of pliers to back the broken stud out of there.  Is that one solution?  I didn't know how hot I could heat the area without causing damage to the aluminum head.  I don't know how a shop gets them out, but I've heard of heating them up.
Anybody got any ideas?  
I didn't want to take the engine out at this point, but if I have to, I will.  It's just that there's all this other stuff that I would feel obligated to do because the engine is out.  You know, heads reworked, rod bearings changed, pistons and cylinders replaced, etc.  I do have new exhaust studs for both heads that the machine shop would put in for me.
Maybe I'll just let them do it and be without Oscar for a while.  :cry:

Before you completely give up and pull the engine . . . do you have a welder?  A small 110V stick welder will work.  Put a nut over the piece of stud that is sticking out of the head and weld the nut to the stud.  Let it cool completely and then try to turn it out with the nut.  That's a last chance deal though.  If it twist off again, it'll probably be flush with the head and you'll probably have to pull the head off to have it fixed.