Folks, I just finished a Tiico conversion for a customer, in his '84 Westy. I'll start by saying that in my professional opinion, the kit is lacking in many ways, with several glaring faults and missing parts. The project, once finished and all of the many faults corrected, actually runs very well and somewhat smoothly. One of the biggest issues I've heard from other Tiico customers is one of vibration, mainly around 3000~3400 rpm. This engine was no different. I have found the main culprit to be the engine support cradles, mainly the left one. For whatever reason (leftover stock from '82 diesel vans??), the left left cradle has rubber-mounted ends. I've found that this causes a harmonic vibration to be amplified throughout the van at that rpm range. The right cradle is solidly mounted, so why not the left? The '83-on diesel vans used both solid cradles, as pre-'83s had vibration issues. Hmmm...so I happened to have an '83 left cradle handy that I swapped in, and voila!, the vibration is gone. The only thing remaining is some tranference of sound under hard acceleration in first and second gear, this I believe because the rubber engine mounts are pushed to their limit. So, then I took the rubber-ended Tiico cradle, removed the rubber ends, and welded the remaining parts solidly, after tack-welding the parts in perfect alignment on the van. This vibration / mount issue is the biggest flaw in the kit, as I see it. A further improvement could be to adapt the newest type hydraulic mounts, which could really cure the vibration blues forever.

The rest of the issues. Although two years ago I told Peter what I thought [as a professional mechanic] the kit lacked, few if any of the items have been remedied. *No oil filler tube is supplied, one must fill [spill] the oil after removing the engine lid, which is a hassle for Westy owners. The last Tiico I installed (Syncro) as well as this recent one, both now have oil fill tubes that I modified from nothing more than stock available diesel Vanagon units. Why is something not included? Got me. *Then, the re-use of the Vanagon injectors and fuel pressure regulator. Ridiculous. Why no new injectors and reg.? This IS a brand-new engine after all. Again, stock available parts. *The alternator must be drilled out to accept a larger bolt, then the bottom must be filed a bit to clear a bad weld on the Tiico bracketry. What happens if you need a new alternator and are on the road? A simple solution would have been to make the bracketry with the same size bolt as the alternator previously used, and better the weld quality or grind down high spots in said welds. The AC tensioner bracket is not much better. *Of course there is still no wiring in the system harness for an oxygen sensor. Why not? This is something that has been promised to be remedied long ago. This would have been so easy to include in the manufacturing of the harness, should someone have actually cared enough. *My custom stainless-steel exhaust brackets now hold the 1.9 muffler and converter in a much better-fitting manner than installing 2.1 brackets that Tiico recommends. Again, no provision for an oxygen sensor, so a boss must be added to the 1.9 converter. *No instructions or even the proper fittings to reconnect the evaporative canister. In this case I had to remove and drill into the throttle body to add a vaccum fitting at the proper location. At the same time, I added coolant hoses to the warming circuit under the throttle body, this will prevent icing of that in extreme cold. *The airbox was too close to the throttle body for the rubber boot to fit properly, easily remedied by spacing the airbox further into the cavity with 3/4" spacers behind the bracket. Also, the silly restrictive airbox elbow was eliminated, and a 2.1 intake plenum installed, with sound deadeners in place, directly attached to the airbox. No intake drone is noticeable at all. *Many times I needed to dig for fasteners and bolts not included. One especially irritating one was the clip for adjusting the throttle cable at the engine end. Not supplied, dealer item, same as diesels use. A 50 cent item, c'mon!

After over four days of installation and hours upon hours of reworking things as they should be, the thing actually works well, the power is nothing extrordinary IMO, but better than the 1.9 certainly was capable of. My customer now has one of the few Tiicos with all the systems working, oil filler, proper mounting, etc. We'll see how well he likes it, as in a week he'll be driving back to Colorado with it. Tiico still has a lot to do to get this kit up to my ideas of excellence, and I hope they do as this could be one of the better conversions for most dead waterboxers. For now, it doesn't quite get my highest recommendation.

Karl Mullendore Westy Ventures 1987 Westfalia Syncro 1.9TD