Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (July 2004, week 4)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Mon, 26 Jul 2004 22:09:48 EDT
Reply-To:     Trvlr2001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Carpenter <Trvlr2001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: 3.3 verses 4.3 verses 1.9???
Comments: cc: vanagon@volkswagen.org
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Right on the mark points! If you are using this vehicle for the purposes it was intended, (talking camper bus here) the diesel is the only way to go, and go far! thanks, John C...

In a message dated 7/25/2004 2:28:33 PM Pacific Daylight Time, vanagon@volkswagen.org writes: My I make a suggestion? 1.9L TDI - Using an ALH TDI from a 1999 - 2003 Golf / Jetta.

GROUND AND ENGINE COVER CLEARANCE: You loose no ground clearance. Syncro skid plate goes back in stock location with no welding or shims. Engine cover does have to be modified about 2.5" - the ALH is a shallower motor than the old AHU from 1995 to 1998 - the AHU required about 3.5" to 4.0" assuming you down shim the engine lower in the engine bay at the expense of ground clearance.

STOCK POWER: For get horse power, this is what sell vehicles but this isn't really what you drive your heavy Vanagon with. The TDI does have more useable horsepower than any stock motor in the Vanagon. See http://www.fastforward.ca/VanagonSwap/AHU/ahu.jpg for a torque and power chart of the TDI vs the wasserboxer engines. It doesn't have horse power than the GM or Subi motor but the acceleration is still much better than any stock Vanagon motor. Torque is what you want to look at. The TDI makes full a 155ft.lbs of torque at 1900 RPM and it doesn't stop pulling until about 3800 RPM. When you look at the Vanagon tachometer, you see that this is the green area, which is where you Vanagon gearing is designed to run. Upgrading your fuel injectors to the European 0.205mm injectors ($500 Canadian / $375 USD) and installing an inexpensive tweak to the injector pump wiring you will now have 120hp and 230ft.lbs of torque as people have posted at http://www.tdiclub.com

ECONOMY: The TDI is cheap to drive. I can now travel about 600km on a tank of Diesel and the fuel is at least 25% cheaper than gasoline assuming that you use 87 octane. This is with the modified TDI in the back of my Syncro. Before the conversion I could only get 450km. That means 1.5h more between fillups. In short, you can drive almost twice as far per dollar on Diesel as you can with [premium] gasoline. I did a complete TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) for the TDI engine using published VW maintenance schedules - see http://www.fastforward.ca/VanagonConversion/TDI%20Conversion%20FAQ.pdf for the costs involved in owning a TDI and other tid-bits of information.

INSTALLATION: Installing a TDI is not any more complicated than install a Subaru engine, infact, I think it is easier as the wiring is a lot less complicated and there is a complete plug and play conversion kit available for it. With our complete conversion kit at http://www.fastforward.ca/VanagonConversion you can install a TDI in about 20h start to finish with no fabrication of parts other than a box for your engine cover - any sheet metal shop can do that for about $40.

LONGEVITY: I think for long term longevity the jury is still out. The VW dealership in Prince George has a few TDI customers with 400.000+ kms on their motor with no issues at all. To me, this is pretty good. I have a Turbo Diesel Golf with 690.000km on it and it is still going - consuming 1L / 1000km of oil, but hey, it DOES have 690.000km on it - I'm not complaining!

I know I will never purposely install a gasoline engine into a Vanagon now, not with today's unstable fuel pricing and pressures that we are putting on this earth from the green house gases we produce with our gasoline engines. Most people who get TD and TDI kits from us are doing it so they can run BioDiesel or Straight Veggie Oil - which is GHG neutral and when running Veggie Oil it is significantly cheaper than Diesel fuel - that of course is another subject to be discussed at a different time.

David Marshall


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.