Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 14:00:51 -0700
Reply-To: jimt <camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: jimt <camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO>
Subject: Re: carburetor on vanagon
In-Reply-To: <853fc22c6fcd.420625a1@ou.edu>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
On 2/6/05 1:11 PM, "Warren Lail" <wlail@OU.EDU> wrote:
> We all have so many problems with AFMs, ECUs, O2 sensors, Temp II sensors,
> throttle body switches, and so on,
> that I was wondering if anyone out there ever just threw in the towel, ripped
> off all of these old (and arguably inferior
> electronics), and put a couple of carbs on their Vanagon.
>
> What are the benefits? Problems?
>
> Warren Lail
> 88 Westy "Billy Bones"
>
>
Depending on your state of registry there are several.
One, they donΉt run very well.
Two, they pollute like crazy. I know of two that were done here in colorado
and neither could pass emissions.
They also were even worse at climbing mountains. Both of these were
aircooled where any loss of power was noted immediately.
As for the inferior electronics, injection is far superior to any carb
system with the exception of some computer controlled turbo carb systems.
Note that a computer is still controlling the system in reality.
As for ripping out the stuff because of its age, things do fail. As for O2
sensors, depending on what year that alone will fail your vehicle in many
states if it is not there on inspection and you will either run extremely
rich (no gas real quick, pollute like crazy, destroy cat converter, etc) or
extremely lean (burn out valves, overheat massively).
Keeping a carb system tuned is a royal pain compared to an injection system.
Injection systems are used for
1. power available
2. wide range of power available when matched with an AFM
3. fuel mixture control at near optimum over the range of the engine (and
cleaner air)
Simply more power available on demand and with better fuel economy and
better air all in the same package.
If you donΉt like the engine change to newer, not older technology. I.e. A
newer tiico, newer inline, newer diesel, subaru, etc. all have been shown
to be superior to the older technology used on the vanagons original
engines. I have even seen older early 80s jetta with newer vw 2.0 engines
dropped into them.
jimt
Planned insanity is best.
Remember that sanity is optional.
http://www.tactical-bus.info (tech info)
http://www.westydriver.com
