Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 12:11:01 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Extra gas tank for weekender?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Many people have dreamed of this including me. It could be done but it
would involve lowering the position of the engine and tranny. The Syncro
engine and tranny are lower than the 2WD waterboxer stuff by a couple of
inches. Actually the Syncro body is higher by this amount. There is no
spare room between the Syncro tranny and fuel tank so the tranny is as
high as it can be. You would have to lower the 2WD tranny to a
comparable level. Diesels are a worse case because the starter motor is
right in the middle where the Syncro gas tank would go. There is a
special Syncro diesel tank made to overcome this in Syncros sold
elsewhere with diesel engines. $700 or so will get you one of these,
then you can fight with trying to get it to fit in the 2WD. Not
practical IMHO but if someone has done it please let me know. I hope to
do this when I convert my 82 TD Westy to Syncro.
Mark
Tobin Copley wrote:
>
> At 3:12 AM -0500 3/29/00, James Shinosky wrote:
> >Would love to see the Vanagon gas range being stretched a bit...
>
> I too, have fanasized about building a Westy ER. The diesel is an
> incremental step towards this. A 25 gallon fuel tank is available,
> but is a PITA, IMHO.
>
> Any reason why mods could not be made to a 2WD vanagon to fit a
> syncro fuel tank in as an auxilary tank? That would double the fuel
> range right off the bat. That would give the diesel "Westy ER" a
> cruising range of 800 miles or more, plus an additional 150 miles for
> each jerry can on the roof.
>
> Is the space above the tranny available for this in a 2WD vanagon? I
> know you'd need to do some substantial body work (butchery) to
> transfer things like the syncro fuel filler and door and stuff, but
> is such an idea worth even arm-chair fantasy?
>
> T.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada tobin.copley@ubc.ca
>
> '82 westy 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
> '97 son Russell =============
> '99 daughter Margaret /_| |__| |__|:| clatter
> 1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi O|. .| clatter!
> 1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
> Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
> http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
| 
