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Date:         Thu, 31 May 2001 21:40:43 +1200
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: what the vw waterboxer offers??  wasRe: 85 Westfalia beeping
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>2 timing belts that are known to go before their time,

ONE belt. In my experience cambelts inevitably last at least as long as the recommended replacement interval (120000km), and that's with diesels (interference engines... if belt fails, valves hit pistons). And we run taxis, so we have a lot of km under the cars' belts.

leaky heads (Yes! >Believe it or not!), expensive to repair,

Every mechanic and engine importer I've talked to says the EG/EJ Subaru engines are GREAT, and never seem to fail. The older SOHC ?EA/ER27 series is chronic for cracking heads etc, but we're not interested in these.

>switching parts suppliers, my VW >mechanic will not touch it, many mechanics refuse to work on conversions,

Any competent mechanic should ba happy to work on it. If not, FIND one. Any mechanic who didn't want to work on my hybrid, I wouldn't want him working on ANY car of mine.

>you get reduced ground clearance,

Not if you design the headers properly.

you end up with a red-headed step-child of >a Vanagon and, most importantly, you bastardize a COLLECTIBLE VEHICLE.

Collectable? Come on! And if so, perhaps old Subaruvanagons will themselves be collectable.

>A lot of the Subaru conversion owners will not admit on this list that >Subaru engines actually DO BREAK DOWN. Wow, imagine that. Give me a few >days and I will come up with a list of ALL THE THINGS THE SUBARU CONVERTEES >DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW,

Please do; there are plenty of us out here who want to hear this!

>With the money spent on a Subaru conversion I can fix all the over-hyped >leaky problems and end up with an original VW engine that is more than a >match for the Subaru (He, he, I know Robert Lilley is listening).

Yeah, his Whole Lilley will do a whole 85mph. With a DOHC Legacy engine (using the same trans) you should get over 100... heck, stock 2.4 Japanese vans (Mitsubishi Delica 4WD, Toyota Hiace) will top 100mph on the flat!

Besides, >if I choose to convert, the inline-4 VW motor is the logical choice, not the >Subaru.

Noisy rough VW I4s vs smooth quiet Subaru. Yep, gimme the I4 any day.

>My 'waterpisser,' as you put it, has 140K on original heads and they do not >leak. I I know of many more cases like mine, with some Vanagons with over >160 K miles without any leaky heads.

A Legacy is just barely run-in at that milage!

By the way, Oettinger WBXs have all of the well-known WBX problems.

What do you have against the Japanese, anyway?

Andrew Grebneff 165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand ph 64 (3) 473-8863 fax 64 (3) 479-7527 <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> www.goingplatinum.com/member/vw1 www.highyieldcrusaders.ws/ref.html?ref=vw www.aciimoney.com/index.shtml?vw1 VW & Toyota vans, Toyota diesels and Macintoshes rule


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