Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 21:50:14 -0400
Reply-To: ed <edevinney@ANENT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: ed <edevinney@ANENT.COM>
Organization: Pismo Beach Institute for Advanced Leisure Studies
Subject: Heat in an air-cooled Syncro (long, boring, self-involved)
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No, not an air-cooled Syncro from the factory, anyway. In my quest to
make our Syncro that-which-it-is-not, I'm down to three contenders for
engine:
1.9TD
1.8T
3.2L 911 flat-6
Yes, it's a darned eclectic list. Each has advantages and
disadvantages, each makes for a particular kind of vehicle. I've got
the means and intent to do one of them, just have to decide on which. I
would appreciate hearing from owners who have executed any of them (in
addition to Karl M :-). Have ruled out the Subaru for reasons of ground
clearance, and the 2L four for poor cost/performance ratio - since I'll
not have time to do the work myself, any conversion will be pricey.
I've thought through most of the details of each, with the exception of
how to work the heat in the 911 conversion.
Some folks have apparently used an oil-water heat exchanger to drive the
stock system. Good idea, but the oil temp in my own 911 takes a
donkey's year to get up, especially when the weather is cold - 11 quarts
of oil is a lot to heat up. One could electrically heat the water til
the oil comes up to temp, but seems klugey and in any case retaining
water heat requires pumps, controls and other cruft. MSDS recommends
reverting to the air-cooled model of heat, which is intriguing, so not
being a Vanagon expert I started studying Bentley.
Now the first thing I see is that the late air-cooled air handler and
the wasserboxer air handler look damn near identical, with the h2o
version having a heat exchanger instead of one of the baffle plates.
Notably, the wasserboxer has provision for an auxiliary heat booster on
certain non-US Syncros that looks exactly like the old air-cooled extra
heater. And the place where this thing enters is exactly where the
ductwork from the engine arrives on the air-cooled Vanagon.
So am I correct to think that I could take a page from Bulley's
bus-heater treatise and build myself an insulated duct from the 911 heat
exchangers to the air handler, following the routing of the Syncro aux
heater ductwork? Will this function as an exact replacement for the h2o
heat exchanger, or is the ducting inside the air handler going to route
this "aux" heat just to the cabin, say, and not to the defroster?
If I have to revert to the old-style air handler (and thus pull the dash
and reengineer a buttload of stuff) this deal is a non-starter. Any and
all informed opinions would be appreciated!
Cheers -
ed devinney
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