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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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