Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 20:27:05 -0500
Reply-To: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bruce Nadig <motorbruce@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Porsche Powered Vanagon In Road Testing! - Pics Now Available!
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Howdy From Beautiful Austin Texas,
As some of you may know, the Vanagon I have been working on (as in not
driving for 16 months) has hit the streets and is the midst of initial
testing.
Back at the end of April 2003 I took my bone-stock 2.1 Vanagon GL
7-passenger van with automatic transmission and began removing perfectly
good components. My goal? Install an engine and transmission from a 1987
Porsche 3.2 liter 911 Carrera with G50 transmission. Has this been done
before? Yes. Is it easy? Not by any stretch, especially the first time you
do it.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not sure which way to look at it,
I'm something of a perfectionist. Everything has to be right. I didn't want
to cut any corners on this conversion at all. That made it very labor, time,
and monetarily intensive. However, I think that I can say that I have met
most, if not all of my design goals.
As I said, the project started as an engine and transmission conversion. It
rapidly grew to lights, lights, and more lights, stereo, suspension, brakes,
wheels, and more (much still in progress).
I'm still not quite finished. The air conditioning hasn't been installed
yet. There is some wiring that needs to be finished up. The radiator (yes,
the radiator remains, but primarily to hold the a/c condenser and the
Porsche 993 oil cooler) needs to be repositioned. The thermoswitch on the
oil cooler needs to be swapped out for a unit that switches the fan on at a
lower temperature. I also need to get my muffler customized (for better
flow), ceramic coated, and installed.
I have posted some pictures on yahoo. They don't follow any particular
progression of the project, but I tried to group things together by general
category. You will see the H&R lowering springs and Bilstein shocks, but the
pictures of the van after the lowering haven't been posted yet. I'm waiting
for the suspension to settle all the way down. I can tell you that I really
like the handling, and the van looks so much better with the lowered
suspension and 17" wheels.
You may notice that the first picture of the van shows the stock front
bumper. Later on there is a picture of a bumper from CIP1 that I had coated
with black truck bed liner material. It looks great. There is one picture
showing a bunch of relays, in-line fuses and a whole bunch of 10 gauge
wiring. That is to support the 560 watts for forward lighting. I have the
South African grill, along with ProjektZwo fog lights - all properly aimed
of course. Each filament has its own individual relay with its own
individual in-line fuse and 10 gauge wiring. Should anything go wrong, I
won't loose an entire circuit. I'll only lose one one low beam or one high
beam, etc.
At any rate, I have over 300 miles on Vincent, the Vanagon. So far no smoke,
no fires, no nasty noises, no unexpected drama. There aren't even any oil
leaks! All in all, that isn't too bad.
There is still work to do, but things are coming along nicely, although the
finishing touches will most likely be done in August heat and humidity.
I have set up a yahoo photo page. I'd like to invite everyone to take a
look. Right now, there are only 14 pictures, but I will be adding to the
album. To see the pictures, go to:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/therevdeluxe/album
This is my first venture with yahoo photo pages. Please bear with me if the
link doesn't work, I have Porsche power on the brain.
Oh, and yes, the van is a blast to drive! The torque is incredible. Once I
complete the break-in miles and install the modified exhaust I'll be off to
the dyno.
Further reports to come.
Cheers,
motorbruce
motorbruce@hotmail.com
