Date:         Sat, 23 Mar 2002 21:35:59 +0800
Reply-To:     Kim Howe <khowe@OMNINET.NET.AU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Kim Howe <khowe@OMNINET.NET.AU>
Subject:      Re: Longevity of Conversion Engines
In-Reply-To:  <F54RaqbC8wSA1XvpFVj00018abb@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

On Saturday, March 23, 2002, at 12:35 AM, Dan Snow wrote:

> My experience with VW I-4's is different. Growing up, my family had one
> GTI, one Golf, and one Jetta. My dad changed the oil with Mobil 1 on
> one of the cars about every other weekend (he was a fanatic). All the
> cars were driven by idiotic teenagers, and all the motors far outlasted
> the cars, going to 150 - 200,000 miles before the rest of the car
> started falling apart. The engines were still in as-new condition.
>
I think you miss my point. A type 1 aircooled in a Beetle would go for
this sort of distance too, (my 74 has done 300,000km which is 180,000
miles and is still going fine). My point was that if you put that same
engine into a Van it doesn't last well at all. I'm concerned that we
don't really know how well the I4s or Subarus are going to go in an
application for which they were never intended. It's promising that
there is one report of an I4 doing 100,000, but for me at least, the
jury is still out until I hear some more evidence of these engines doing
well in the long term.

Kim Howe
khowe@omninet.net.au
82 Aircooled