Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 22:01:39 -0700
Reply-To: Simon Reinhardt <simon@FARRSIDE.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Simon Reinhardt <simon@FARRSIDE.NET>
Subject: Engine swap doing fine (long as usual)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
Hi Volks,
For those who've been following my 2.0 I4 swap saga, today it spent 4
hours in a muffler shop and emerged with a neat bend or two, a flex
pipe, and a 30" glass pack muffler. They built it all around the
original cat, which I mounted in a manner inspired by Ed McLean's
solution. They liked Ed's bracket so much, they left it in place! I
modified his ideas a little to clear the diesel splash guard/heat
shield. Pretty much just used some sleeves on the U-clamp to move the
whole thing out from the angle iron a bit.
Check the archives from September 16th, 2002 to make sense out of all
this.
The muffler shop I used was Bud's Muffler, in Denver. They've been in
business since 1955- Bud himself supervised part of the work. These
people know what they're doing- If you're in Denver and need exhaust
work done on anything, call them. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
The bizarre thing is that now the van sounds precisely like the '83 GTI
I've been using as a parts runner. Confused the hell out of my wife
when she heard me pull in.
The engine is running well- I haven't even double-checked the timing
yet. I think my PVC intake pipe is too restrictive. I'm already
starting to think about the design for Air Box Kludge 2.0, and when
that's in place I'll have somebody make up a nice piece of aluminum for
the intake tract. Thanks to Dave Marshall for that idea!
Speaking of Dave Marshall, I now know from whence he derives his super
powers: his wife. I talked to her just two days ago, to order a set of
OME shocks, and they arrived today! She was also very knowledgeable,
helpful, and willing to listen to me ramble about the van.
I've had nothing but good experiences with Fast Forward.
The rear shocks are on already, and they rule. Rule. RULE. Extra
McRule, with fries!
Of course, the old ones were 2WD KYB's with destroyed bushings, but
these are very impressive shocks. Everything about them is bigger and
beefier. Fronts go on soon!
Really the only problem at the moment is a freaky, bouncy idle. I call
it "Scirocco Syndrome", thanks to my wife's car.
I also did some lighting work while the swap was going on. I did the
whole relay thing for the fronts- a single 40A relay for the low beams,
and a 40A per side for the highs. I also replaced the H3 bulbs with
100W units- YOWZA! It's BRIGHT!!!
Power gets up front via a 4 gauge wire, which runs to a 6-fuse distro
block I found at pep Boys, mounted way behind the left headlight. The
relays are there, too, in a factory mounting bracket.
Next up is the front shocks and then, an attempt at fitting the
original diesel "noise capsule". Many pictures have been taken, but I'm
reluctant to dive into letting MS FrontPage flog me tonight... I'll
p-mail them if anybody wants to see something specific in the meantime
before those are on the web.
-Simon
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