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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)
Comments: To: John Runberg <jrunberg@MAC.COM>

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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