Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 17:20:43 -0400
Reply-To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Organization: Bulley-Hewlett
Subject: Re: Advancing timing for more power, was: Boston Bob's web site
In-Reply-To: <000a01c1f21d$70e65080$9501a8c0@informs.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Suit yourself; happy investment account, and tolerable Vanagon
performance, or just-not-as-slow Vanagon... and more money for Shell or
Amoco.
Theoretically, if you invested that $355 each year for 20 some years in
a moderate-growth portfolio at a return of 12-13%, you'd have about
$65,000 to show for it.
--gmb
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Stann [mailto:ChrisS@informs.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 5:08 PM
To: G. Matthew Bulley; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: RE: Advancing timing for more power, was: Boston Bob's web site
>But you are paying a shitload of money ($3++ per tankful) for a
>teeny-tiny increase in performance. If you took that $$ for your weekly
>tankful, and invested wisely for a couple years you could slap in a
>really phat motor that blows the sliding door off the track, and picks
>the front end of your van off the ground. Okay, maybe not THAT phat,
but
>you could buy something nice.
Just how wisely will I have to invest all this money I save?
Let's just say that I travel about 20,000 miles a year and get an
average of
17MPG. Since we are supposedly IMPROVING the way an engine with advanced
timing is running, we are likely to see a fuel consumption decrease. To
keep arguments at bay let's leave the fuel consumption equal in both
cases.
I burn 1776.4 Gallons of fuel. There's roughly a 20 cent-per gallon
penalty
for the luxury of using 91 Octane versus 87 Octane. That's a $355.28
extra
expenditure in fuel. A stage III "Boston Bob's Big-valve Boxer" will
cost
roughly $3050 plus cost of shipping him the core and the cost of getting
the
rebuilt engine back. Let's be optimistic and add $200 in shipping
costs.
Since we are feeling optimistic from all those regular-gas fumes, let's
say
we put the engine in ourselves. So we spent $3250.
Since we saved our hard-earned cash at a rate of $355.28 it would take
us
about NINE years to save that money assuming we are not putting into a
savings account in the meantime. For the Stage I motor it would take us
SEVEN years.
So you see, it just doesn't add up.
A few of list members, including myself for over 20,000 miles, have been
running advanced timing at 5 degrees BTDC. To net the amount of engine
destruction you I would have to advance the timing much farther.
Now, I will agree that advancing timing to 5 degrees BTDC WILL increase
the
stress on the engine, but that's a risk I am willing to take. And so
should
anyone else who is deviating from stock state of tune.
But please, let's have Boston Bob himself comment, shall we?
Chris.
Still cruising at 75+ MPH.