Date:         Mon, 5 Jun 2000 22:13:28 -0700
Reply-To:     se7en <manx1342@USWEST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         se7en <manx1342@USWEST.NET>
Organization: Classified
Subject:      Boxer rebellion revisited (Tii content, kinda long)
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My Nickels worth:
All this activity about the Tii conversion kit lately is great. I am
especially glad to hear of the possibility of adding an O2 circuit to
this ECU. Since there are several unused pins, I was hoping this might
be the case.

Since I am not in a hurry to install my kit I am going about it a little
different than most. I mentioned before, my dismay at the amount of
corrosion I saw when I first uncrated my kit. I made the decision to
paint the block as rust never sleeps. Where am I at now? I now have a
bare short block sitting in my garage! Yup, just the bare (externally)
block sitting there on that strange looking oil sump. Pulled the
manifolding and head off today.

The block is 2.0 litres but the head is indeed a 1.8 litre head. But it
is the one with the larger intake valves (yeah!) and the higher
compression ratio. Sure, this is going to cost me a head set, but I will
at least know what I have and what my options in the future will be. The
main factor in my deciding to pull the head is that I know from past
experiences with 'new' engines that they are assembled from basic
production parts and that can be marginally efficient at times. Mainly
port matching. I've done the heads on all my other cars so this is not
new to me. The other thing I have found in the past is that the intake
valves usually can be unshrouded, which gets pretty involved as it
lowers the compression ratio a bit, which means you have to do a bunch
of math (after cc,ing the chambers) to determine how much to machine off
the head face. But this is not the case with this head. The combustion
chambers look fine. I intend to make the ports flow better though (the
cast iron exhaust manifold is going to be the hardest, no pun intended).

My findings/impressions so far about this kit: everything inside the
engine is 'as advertised'. New! The engine was hot run (probably in SA)
so there would be no major surprises. All the fits have been good.
Getting back to my one complaint (corrosion): about 4/5 of the hardware
is really nice yellow cad plated, it's that other 1/5 that I have an
issue with. Many of the cap screws and bolts are just high tensile black
hardware that belongs on the inside of engines where our corrosive
environment (especially here in Oregon) can't get at them. I have
already replaced many of the pieces with cad plated or stainless but
there are a few larger bits that I will have to get plated. This may be
no 'big deal' to some people but I'll sleep better.

My dealings with Peter at Tii have all been very positive. The questions
I have posed have received consideration and have been answered to the
best of his ability. He has passed information on as he gets it. He even
offered to reimburse part of my money in relation to the corrosion. I'm
not taking him up on it though, as considering the time involved I will
just take care of it myself (now, what color to paint the block?).

Looks like my Nickel became a Rand.

Arlen