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Date:         Mon, 4 Jun 2001 01:19:31 -0400
Reply-To:     "Karl M." <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Karl M." <thewestyman@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      1.9 TD performance upgrades prove successful: 95 mph??
Comments: To: Audi-VW-Diesels@egroups.com, TDI-conversion@egroups.com,
          "syncro@egroups.com" <syncro@onelist.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Sounds like a title for a good manual, eh? Well.....I recently completed some minor modifications to my Syncro Westy TD, and today finally had the cojones to pull off a test, of sorts. Coming off an entrance ramp onto the freeway, a D***e diesel dualie pickup pulling a small car trailer began breathing down my back a wee bit too close, so I floored the Syncro beast for a long stretch of flat road, kept that D***e at bay for a bit, until I looked down to see 140kph on the speedo (I retained the Canadian speedo after importing the van to the US). Nothing that outstanding, until you realize that with the wheels/tire combo, the speedo is under-driven by almost 10%, which means 154 kph, or roughly 95 mph! Well, I was certainly ecstatic! Never thought the beast would go that fast! Here is the current state of modification, for those interested in what a 1.9 TD can do in a big, heavy 4WD bus:

Stock 1.9 TD (rated at 75 HP, 107 Lbs-ft torque): Lowered compression to 20:1 from 23:1 Boost pressure max raised to 15 psi (more to come with next round of mods) Saab 900 intercooler, air-to-air (to become air-to-water in next round) Pump timing set up to 1.00 mm from .80 mm Cylinder head 'flowed', by cleaning up sharp edges in ports High-flow 2.5 inch exhaust (basically a 'J' pipe and a short glass-pack) Fourth gear ratio swapped to .77 from .85 Tires: 235/75R15 BS Dueler ATs mounted on SA 15 x 6.5 alloys Of course, a full set of gauges to keep an eye on the engine parameters

Next round will add a Garrett VNT-15 turbo (still haven't worked out the controller the way I would like) to replace the current Garrett T-3/60, which has SO much lag up to 3000 rpm! Also, the intercooler will gain some efficiency by adding a water-cooling jacket to it. With 18~20 psi, no lag, quick boost pressure off idle, and denser air, things should become interesting! This 'little' diesel is turning out to be quite the impressive engine, much more so than I had expected! I would make a guess that at this point HP is on the order of 90-100 and torque of 150-160. With the 'big' turbo installed at present, the powerband is mostly from 2500 - 4000. With the spin-happy VNT-15, that should change to 1500 - 4000. Fun to drive, to say the least!

Karl Mullendore Westy Ventures 1987 Syncro Westfalia 1.9TD


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