Date:         Fri, 3 Jan 2003 14:15:05 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: Engine Repair or Conversion
In-Reply-To:  <ACEMLOCOJPDAGAOPCMHDCEONCAAA.draconn@sbcglobal.net>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

>My thought on this one is to rebuild it as it is and keep it the way that VW
>built it.  I say that because I once had a 78 westy that blew an engine.  I
>had a connection to a garage at that time that helped me obtain an air
>cooled 6 cylinder motor from a Porche 916.  This was a surprisingly easy
>conversion to do, however it turned out to be more trouble than what it was
>worth.  There always seemed to be some minor thing going wrong with it.  I
>did then and still do a fair amount of driving in the mountains around curvy
>and unstable roads.  The extra power was noticable but the handling of the
>bus was still the same. The top heavy girl (since when is a top heavy girl a
>problem) still had to be brought to a crawel to safely navigate the corners
>of the twisty road.  So it ended up taking about the same amount of time to
>get to my favorite camp sites as before.

If your bus hadn't been a camper it wouldn't have been topheavy. My
75 Kombi handled really well with its 100+hp 1916 Type 4, and could
easily have taken plenty more power. I drove it really hard on twisty
roads.

A stronger engine is always useful... for getting into gaps ahead in
city traffic; for hills; for overtaking on the highway. You don't
HAVE to hoon on the twisties (never a good idea in a camper, with the
unbalanced load of its fittings).

But for those with a noncamper, you can have a ball on bends... the
stock suspension is for sure up to it.

The convertor may or may not have details to sort out after the
conversion; some do, some don't. However those on the Subaruvanagon
list almost all swear by their conversions, even those who have had
problems consider it well worth the effort.
--
Regards
Andrew