Sorry Jim I meant BenT. For myself I am with you I never push it over 70 MPH I try to drive and listen to the engine to the music thst its singing. Darren Lowell MI -----Original Message----- From: Jim Felder [mailto:felder@KNOLOGY.NET] Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2004 9:07 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Double cab for sale/engine longevity
Not this Jim. Never over 70. Jim On Sep 1, 2004, at 7:54 AM, Lastfogel, Darren wrote: > Jim wrote he has done 90 mph in his vanagon HOLY CRAP are you insane. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Felder [mailto:felder@KNOLOGY.NET] > Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 10:31 PM > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > Subject: Re: Double cab for sale/engine longevity > > > Well, there goes THAT theory. > > Jim > > On Aug 31, 2004, at 9:27 PM, BenT wrote: > >> Jim, >> >> I consisitently drive my 87 GL at 80mph most days. I was even spotted >> doing a 90mph 12 hours trip to SoCal last year. Nothing special. It's >> a basic GL van w/o the middle bench. WIde tires. SA brakes. >> >> The astounding thing is I got 386,000 miles on it before the original >> headgaskets started an exterior leak. Still had good compression. >> Alas, that WBX is making way for an inline-4 VW. >> >> BenT >> http://members.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html >> >> On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 20:47:08 -0500, Jim Felder <felder@knology.net> >> wrote: >>> After talking to my local vw mechanics a while back, I concluded that >>> the vanagons they had in for frequent engine replacements had one >>> thing >>> in common: drivers who thrashed the engines. That of course stands to >>> reason for any car, but 70 mph seems to be the magic number for >>> vanagons. I was looking at an 89 syncro on its third engine. We >>> talked >>> about a dozen or so other customers who got 80K miles or less on >>> their >>> engines, and the anecdotal evidence was that the drivers of those >>> vehicles reported commonly driving way over 70 mph. The syncro had >>> commonly been driven 80. Other customers had driven faster than that, >>> and had come back for replacement engines more frequently. >>> >>> These replacement engines came from a variety of sources, including >>> ones rebuilt by the shop. >>> >>> My 90 has 192K miles on it. It doesn't burn or leak anything. It runs >>> strong. The heads have been out once to replace the rubber gasket, >>> but >>> no valve job has been done. I NEVER drive over 70. Maybe for just a >>> minute or two while passing, but the van has never been 80 at all, >>> ever. >>> >>> My mechanics were remarking that the other long-lived engines had >>> drivers who reported driving similar slower speeds. >>> >>> There may be plenty of evidence out there to the contrary, but it >>> seems >>> to me that when the VW engineers placed that green area on the tach, >>> they meant it. Maybe there is a threshold rotational speed above >>> which >>> the centrifugal force and inertia of the rod is great enough to >>> ovalize >>> the journal hole. >>> >>> Anybody else? I realize that I and others may just have luckily >>> gotten >>> a better balanced or otherwise better-fitting engine. But just asking >>> around, it seems that speed kills these things. >>> >>> Jim >> > |
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