Help,1978 all van no windows van with a full bulkhead and an owner with no clue.?

Well the puzzle is solved the pipe is a blow of pipe, if to much pressure builds up this plug blows out and releases the pressure, I have since found the plug ( I didn’t know where it was from so kept it to one side ) in the area called “no idea where that came from “ and inserted back into the pipe.

 

No it’s the vacuum pipe for the servo which you’ve probably not got hence it was plugged.
Reason it blew out is likely the timing is way out and why it won’t start.
Get someone to crank it over while you turn the dizzy in each direction till it fires, then dynamic time it with a strobe!

 

Plug leads 2 positions out makes a bang like that.

 

Time to get yourself a book dude. If you invent things like that using purely your imagination, you could get in a proper pickle.

 

Well my imagination is rife atm, given the lack of printed evidence out there, I have two manuals of which I read first, the did detective work all over the net, before I asked the question here,, I was aware of the servo element thanks to previous posts but it was left ambiguous at best to know what other use it had, as it had blown out from its position when the engine back fired my presumption, wrongly was that was what it’s purpose was, ( it made logical sense at the time), so my apologies go to anyone who may have taken my wording as gospel and preaches this to other bewildered folk ...
With That said the riddle is now solved hurrah

 

Blow off valves are for turbos.

 

Noted !!

 

I would pretty certainly say you have a valve seating issue, seen it a few times a run and drive will pretty much fix it, if your unnecessarily keen do a full engine rebuild ( but it’s almost certainly a waste of time and money to do so) have you checked the valve clearances ?

 

It does beg the question why a more permanent solution wasn’t sort by VW at the time of not needing it anymore, other than a rubber bung?!

 

I haven’t yet but it’s on my to do list, your right a complete rebuild isn’t even on my radar atm but I never say never I think the previous backfiring was due to the carb/jets being all blocked up, since being cleaned and the fuel pipes all changed I haven’t tried it since because I was trying to solve the mystery pipe issue, but now that is solved, I may give it another crank over to see what happens!! I’ll keep you posted

 

Have you ascertained whether your van does have a brake servo? They look like this:

 

Someone disconnected the servo when it broke?

Edit : cross posted with. ^

 

Mine looks like this so I don’t think so ??

 

It`s very rewarding to learn certain skills but there`s nothing like someone actually showing you the
basics , you`ll learn more in an hour than a week poring over manuals .
April Techenders would be perfect but unfortunately this isn`t going to happen until September
due to the virus .
I`m sure there would be someone Leicester way who could just give to a few pointers , as you`ve probably found out they are pretty basic but need a few little `tricks` to keep them moving and diagnose problems .

Just a thought ....

 

Hi, thanks for the heads up and your right they do seem very basic, but quirky)
I’m sure I’ll get there in the end, but I really do appreciate everyone who gives me advice

 

Correct, no servo. So the manifold, indeed the entire engine or any part of it could have been changed since new. Those 1600 engines don't last so well in vans as they did in beetles, particularly commercial vans.

I used to chuckle at people who were convinced they were changing the original brake pads after 30 years...

 

These vans have been abused and botched by previous owners so don`t expect everything to be
tickerty-boo factory spec , although the bung could be factory allowing the van to be run without a servo .

And no , you don`t have a servo .

 

If you took a few pictures of the engine bay and posted them up, people here love that. We can play spot the problem(s).

 

I've seen these undrilled so I'd guess it's the other way round - drill if the customer chooses servo which was optional for T1 engines while all T4 engine vans got them.