Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 03:59:51 EDT
Reply-To: WarmerWagen@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Keezer <WarmerWagen@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: any flux capacitor conversions available?
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
It's a fact that the Air-cooled vanagon engine or should I say fuel injection
system (Air Flow Control) has less power than if it was carbureted . VW 's
Vanagon AFC system, redesigned for the 80's to meet stricter emission
standards, runs too lean and has less power, and as a result, overheating,
sucked valve seats, and burn rod bearings, etc., are the bane of this engine.
Lowering the compression ratio helps, carburetion or other modifications will
squeeze out more hp, but still the late model busses are faster-stricter
emissions standards chopped hp off the Vanagon air-cooled engine.
It may be possible to construct your own flux capacitor using old Electrolux
vacuum components and spare pinball machine parts, but then your need for
speed is dictated by either a heavy foot or the neighborhood you drive in.
In Seattle, I am in the fast lane quite often now that I have a 95 Golf
engine pushing me along. Still this is not an overabundance of power at 115
hp, but it's needed in cities like these, or on long stretches in South
Dakota. I get out in rural areas often to slow down.
If there was even more power than this I might be scared, as my road roots
are early bus and bug.
So this quest for power does have it's dangers. The happy balance is struck i
think when you have reasonable power, reliability, and a flux capacitor.
You are not alone: you're not the first to think of using the flux capacitor,
nor the last.
Mr. Fusion
1982 Westfalia
PS
In WW ll the Bundeswehr(German Army) used wood gas generators to power
Kubelwagens , Shwimmwagens, and other military vehicles. The Germans
anticipated fuel supplies being cut off by allied forces, so they invented a
way to make an alternative fuel to runs the engines or the Wehrmacht-methane!
The generator was large tank that digested wood fibers which produced
methane to be burned by the engine instead of gasoline.
This big tank was under the hood of sedans, jeeps, etc.
The predecessor of the flux capacitor?
Note: mount the vacuum cleaner to the front of the vanagon.
All this time spent recently, in and around the wiring of my van, staring at
gauges and wiring diagrams with symbols denoting the gauges i was just
staring at...
well it's gotten me to thinking- who needs a TDI conversion, a Porsche 911
3.2L conversion, an Audi 5-cylinder conversion? the next logical step is
some sort of flux capacitor based conversion? why worry about taking your
van over the mountain when you could just jump far enough forward in time to
erode the Rockies into something more along the lines of the Appalachians?
or better yet, turn the Appalachians into the rolling hills of Nebraska or
some other state that i'm pretty sure is more or less flat.
or perhaps some sort of system that creates a total vacuum just ahead of
your respective trusty vans at, and even below, highway speeds? i imagine
the drag coefficient (which i believe for the Vanagon is described as "akin
to a building rolling down a hill") is non-issue when there's no air to
measure it against. best of all, you'd probably leave a booming wave of
continuous thunder in your wake. you'd be more than a match for the kids in
the lowered Civics with the glass packs and/or "boomin' " systems (as i'm
told they, the kids, like to call them).
i imagine the threat of total suffocation to any passersby on crosswalks
could be considered a drawback, or even a danger, but we're the ones sitting
in the very front of our vehicles like little meat bumpers. a certain
amount of shared risk would even the scales i think. it might even bring us
closer together as a society (but not too close, or you'll suffocate -see
above-).
a friend of mine once took my speedometer out and placed number one stickers
in front of the larger increment markers, but that only worked for a week.
imagine my initial surprise/fear as i found there was nothing i could do to
slow down enough in a school zone. the best i could do was 110mph.
luckily, i thought, these new model kids they make now can move at nearly
the same relative speed as good ole me and my AIRCOOLED van. then later
that day one of the one stickers fell off as i pulled into my work parking
lot (at a blistering 125mph, in second gear!). my dream world was
shattered, and my van was again slow.
did i mention that while routing the final section of my spiffy new bright
yellow 16 Gauge tachometer wire from the stern to the bow that i found,
attached to my wiring harness with two plastic pull-ties, a
ten-or-so-year-old pack of Cherry Lifesavers?
no joke. it changed my whole day.
was this an option on the 1982 Vanagon L Westfalia?
the base models probably came with Butterscotch Lifesavers (yuch!), and the
GLs with real Scotch.
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