Date:         Sun, 4 Jun 2000 21:23:28 -0700
Reply-To:     A & C Grobey <alien1@JPS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         A & C Grobey <alien1@JPS.NET>
Subject:      I've seen the Tii conversion completed
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

If anyone is curious, I got a look at a completed Tii conversion on
Thursday.  My sister bought the kit and had it installed by her mechanic.  I
stopped by to visit the mechanic and took it for a test drive.  My thoughts
and the mechanics comments are as follows:

Positive things:
*       This is a very clean conversion.  It looks like it belongs there.  The
dipstick and coolant are still accessible through the license.  The engine
fits with lots of room to spare and no need to raise the deck lid.
*       The engine idles very well.  There is less vibration than a WBX on idle.
*       The oil filter is very accessible and easy to reach.
*       You use the stock muffler/Cat and the stock fuel injection.

Not so Positive things:
*       The air Intake to the Fuel injector just after the air filter has two
plugs in it.  It seems like these would blow out pretty easily on a backfire
or even just vibration.  The air filter is also hard to reach.
*       There is no cruise control option enabled.  I think they’ll have to rig
something.
*       The camshaft pulley seemed off center and kind of warbled a bit.
*       No Oxy sensor.  Could be a problem for DEQ.

The mechanic liked the kit and the way it ran.  Both of us drove it up a
very steep hill near his shop and were impressed with the power band.  We
were able to accelerate from 55 up to 65 on the hill.  In my van, you can
only accelerate to about 58.  The mechanic did not have the best opinion of
Peter (the guy who sells the kit).  His first complaint was that they had a
bad transistor coming off the coil.  The replacement was hard and very slow
to get.  Once they got it, it wasn’t a Telefunkt or Bosch but some cheap
Taiwanese transistor.  He also told me that the instructions had bad info on
the scan tool.  Other than those few problems, the install was pretty
smooth.  He just didn’t like the way Peter didn’t seem so eager to help.
They were led to believe this kit had been installed many times before, but
the reality is this was his first US shipment.  They were in it for 30 hours
and they figure the next time will take about 20.

I am very interested in the kit for my Carat.  However, I would definitely
miss the low-end torque.  My Waterboxer is running too well right now (knock
on wood) to think about it just yet!



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