Date:         Mon, 2 Jun 2003 19:03:49 -0700
Reply-To:     Shawn Wright <swright@ZUIKO.SLS.BC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Shawn Wright <swright@ZUIKO.SLS.BC.CA>
Subject:      Re: 86 syncro I-4 swap
In-Reply-To:  <E076FD74-9549-11D7-A539-00039398EEBC@mac.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

On 2 Jun 2003 at 18:30, Kim Brennan wrote:

> I have 3 Vanagons. One still has the original waterboxer engine in it.
> The tiico engine has a higher RPM range than the waterboxer which gives
> me a decided advantage in the mountains where I can run the engine at
> 5000 or 6000 rpms and not be concerned. Do that in your waterboxer and
> you'll be rebuilding it (if it is salvagable) pretty soon.
>
> The waterboxer is nice and compact and has good torque in low rpms
> (better than the tiico), but the inline 4 gives you a broader range of
> rpms at which to operate...this means you can use a lower gear.
>
> For instance I was driving in 2nd on my Syncro...at 40mph in the Tiico.
> Going up hill. No problems no heating issues. In my Westy camper
> (standard waterboxer engine) Going up hill at 30mph in 2nd overheated
> the engine.

Kim,

I'm curious about this bit - is yours a 1.9 or 2.1? Maybe I've just been lucky, but one
thing that has always impressed me with our '88 Westy 2.1L is the cooling ability on
long climbs. We have done some fairly steep climbs, both on road and off road, and
never had any problems. For example, we did Hurricane Ridge flat out in 2nd and
3rd gears with no problems. The Coqihalla and BC Hwy 3 to Sparwood tons of times.
We usually weight in at 5500-6200 lbs loaded. I think the worst climb I can recall is to
the top of Mount Blenheim, which is a designated a 4wd only service road to a
microwave relay tower - it was about 30 minutes of solid climbing in 1st gear,
sometimes slipping the clutch to maintain traction on the very rough, steep narrow
road (there is nowhere to turn around once you start on this road...) I did stop once to
cool the clutch, but the engine didn't seem to mind.
All that said, I still plan on replacing the 2.1 with a 1.6TD someday - I'm a diesel fan,
and the less electronics in my engine bay the better!

--
Shawn Wright
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
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