Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 00:41:34 -0400
Reply-To: Sam Payne <bungeegull@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Sam Payne <bungeegull@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Questions re. Audi 3A engine swap (after searching the
archives)
John,
Thanks for the post. I'm a bit worried that this thread will turn into
a discussion of the merits of different conversions. There have been many
excellent posts about that in the past and, selfishly speaking, I have
already decided on the direction I'm going in and hope to get my questions
answered!
So with that said here is my rationale:
Transmission: Frank Grunthaner's post 'On Transmission Ratios, Diesels,
Conversions and Fish' says it way more persuasively than I could. From
what I've read in his other posts most of the noise comes from inflexible
exhaust system mounts and inadequate intake manifold muffling. Also look
at the post 'to all Tiico owners: solutions to every tiico conversion
question' from Jon at Foreign Auto Supply. He was pissed off when he wrote
it so it's...direct...but very informative. He has many good tips for
avoiding vibration problems in 51 degree installs. Since I began thinking
about this a year ago I have been driving all sorts of cars in low gear at
high speeds to try to get a feel for the extra noise produced. It wasn't
scientific but WAS fun. Anyway, as the revs increase, every engine went
through a noisy band and then smoothed out to a silky very balanced hum.
So if the noise bothers me I'll just go faster or drop down a gear (jokes,
jokes)... The need to use the smaller diesel clutch has also been raised,
but I have yet to see a post from anyone with a non-turbo gas 1.8 or 2.0
conversion like the one I plan who has had clutch problems.
Finally, I looked closely at the 15 degree Fast Forward kit and liked it.
David Marshall was also very responsive and helpful. I decided against
because I like picking through junkyards and tinkering and wanted to do
more myself. Also, I built a mock up of the raised engine cover and it
bugged me. There's plenty of space, honestly, it just didn't feel right.
Lastly, I think my conversion will cost less, but that remains to be seen.
Input shafts: I think the problem is that even the diesel shaft needs to
be shortened because the donor engines were designed to be mounted
transversely. I assumed this because much of the discussion of shaft
shortening came from diesel owners running diesel transmissions with I4
engines. But I may be confused...
Sam Payne
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