Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 16:26:24 -0500
Reply-To: wilden1@JUNO.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Tough driving
Content-Type: text/plain
Ray-jay builds super charges for AirCooled (aircraft engines & the
corvair engine, had a corvair turbo, had a Piper turbo lance) but you
don't want one. You need a forged steel crank and forged pistons which
you don't have. Turbocharged aircraft engines only have a half life
before required rebuilds of the non-turbo engines.
Slow down enjoy the scenery.
Stan Wilder 83 Westfalia Air Cooled
On Sat, 30 Jun 2001 13:44:15 -0700 Nicholas Wilson <nwilson@MCN.ORG>
writes:
> Are you driving an air-cooled model? A Westy? From your MPG figures
> I would guess so.
>
> Any engine gets more power at sea level than at altitude due to the
> increased atmospheric pressure. Because the air-cooled engine has a
> much lower compression ratio than the waterboxers, it is lower
> powered and gets worse MPG than they do. The classic cure for
> altitude is a supercharger, which was invented for aircraft engines
> to deal with this problem. I don't know of any superchargers for
> air-cooled vanagons, and even if you had one, you couldn't use it at
> sea level without cooking the engine. Probably the only practical
> cure for a Vanagon is to install an inline 4 watercooled engine from
> a Jetta or the like, which several folks on the list have done. It
> would probably be too much hassle on an aircooled, though, since
> there's no radiator or plumbing already installed. People do convert
> older diesel Vanagons to gas engines, which have a lot more power
> for the same engine size.
>
> At 01:04 PM 6/30/01 -0700, you wrote:
> >I submit that driving a Vanagon is more challenging here in the
> West. I
> >notice my van runs better and better as I approach sea level --
> more power
> >and better MPG. I live at about 4500' and get 12 to 13 MPG. At
> sea level I
> >get 3 MPG more. Is there a fix for this other than moving East
> >(unthinkable)?
> >
> >The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in
> >Colorado. This is true for several Eastern states. The highest
> point in
> >Florida is the top of the bridge connecting Tampa-St. Pete.
> >
> >Bill -- Southeast Arizona -- www.freeholder.com
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