Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2001 14:50:40 +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?? Lilleys & aircooleds
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>I have had it up to 90 mph once without realizing it as I was following
>traffic on 95, barely pressing the gas pedal. But I do not drive that fast
>normally. Plus I have had a problem with the front tires throwing the
>weights off after I get them balanced.
That's a decent speed. You may or may not have been able to do more,
despite the easy cruise at 90. I think listees will be interested to see
how your engine holds up with time, especially if you drive it reasonably
hard (acceleration, not so much speed). I will too. Unfortunately one or
even 20 long-term reliable Lilley engines will not be statistically
significant, but I guess they would be some sort of hint. I hope for your
sake that yours and Mick' s, at least, are reliable long-term.
In my experience the VW boxers (aircooled) will happily rev their heads off
(not literally), and I used to go up to 60mph in my split-case-trans 57
with single-port 1600...in third gear. I think this equates to about
8000rpm. This engine only blew once, and that was shortly after I bought it
as "reconditioned"; the oilpressure light had failed and the oil cooler
came loose when I was doing an 80mph sprint, which the van did easily
enough. It ran a big-end. The oil was noisily boiling in the sump! I and a
friend rebuilt the bottom-end in my livingroom, and it was just a great
engine after that. With its original 36hp 1200 this van would pull 70mph on
the flat with a full load, but acceleration was not good...overtaking on
the highway meant planning ahead. My 75 Bay, with its 1.8 fitted with a
1916 slip-in kit, would happily pull 87mph when overtaking, and still be
accelerating decently. Fully loaded, with a decent run-up it would pull
well up a very long very steep hill, dropping halfway up to 50mph in third,
not slowing below that speed up the steepest part, which is the top half. I
guess that kit bumped the power to a bit over 100hp. You may be able to see
why I have trouble believing the injected 2.0 sold in USA could only do
about 75, when my 1.8 is factory-listed (in the handbook) as good for an
81mph cruising speed!
>Without wheel weights, past 70 mph the front starts shaking, so until I get
>my 15" rims and tires online, I do not go past 70~75. I have 15" rims on
>order, hopefully they will get here today. I plan to run some nice tires soon
>(I still am deciding on tires).
Are these crimp-on or stick-on weights? Neither should fail, but if like me
you're a curbscrubber, you might be loosening crimp-on ones, which later
fly off (if they come off at the top of the wheel at speed, they'd fly
forward like bullets, hopefully holing some lumbering Frod van).
My 57 and 66 vans never needed (or got) balancing. Even at 80mph (I know,
I'm heartless) neither ever showed any sign of shake, and the 57 had some
really badly-bent wheels, with blatant wobble if watched while the van was
driven past!
On the other hand, my 74 Passat had a balancing job done and had a bad
shake at 64mph. I took it back and they checked (not a Sears outfit!); it
was well within specs. but they redid it to the closest spec the machine
was capable of reading and the problem was immediately gone. Some vehicles
are really oversensitive to wheel balance. And some couldn't care less.
Regards
Andrew
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