Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 18:12:12 -0500
Reply-To: Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Engine swap - I4 - which angle, motor and FI?
In-Reply-To: <auto-000706752917@cgpf2.cgp.netins.net>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Tom
zip okay i have my flame proof trousers on :). on to your question, there
are as you have noted two camps on the engine angle issue. truly there
are three angles that you can mount an inline four into a vanagon at, they
are 0, 15, and 51 degrees. a KEP adapter allows you to mount at all these
angles where as a factory diesel set up is strictly 51 degrees.
in my opinion the angle is all about what you want out of life. sit down
and consider or write out what you want from your conversion before trying
to decide what angle you want. here are some of the considerations i
would suggest.
cost of conversion parts
cost of replacement parts
value of having engine under the engine lid
ease of installation
resale value of the van
value of ground clearance
age of conversion parts
availability of conversion parts
coming to terms with some of these and perhaps other issues will steer you
towards which angle is best for you. okay here is my personal conversion
story. after tearing apart and measuring 3 1.9 wasserboxers i decided
that engine was more trouble than it was worth for ME. so then i started
considering conversion. this was way back in about 1997 when the whole
conversion thing was just starting to get off the ground for the most
part; these are the days before tiico. i toyed with the idea of the
diesel mounting conversion for a while but in the end decided against it.
the driving force for me in my conversion was simplicity, long term parts
availability, smoothness, and economical considerations.
let me also say that up until this point i had previously had quite a lot
of positive experience with the inline 4 and already had all the tooling
to work on the inline 4. in addition to that i had fabrication
experience, machine building experience, and machine wiring experience as
well as many hours of wrenching on golfs, sciroccos, and foxes. that
wrenching experience gave me a guide as to what inline 4 parts to use in
my own build up.
the synopsis is that i built a 15 degree conversion with maximum ground
clearance, a raised engine lid and common off the shelf inline 4 parts. i
did fabricate a lot of the hard parts such as engine mounting bar, coolant
bottle mounts, heat shield, air box brackets, intake piping, downpipe, 1
exhaust pipe, and half a exhaust mount. all the rest are off the shelf
golf or vanagon parts. this is so that if wearable a part ever goes you
go in the parts store and tell them i need a golf or vanagon part and bolt
it on, no adaptations needed. the hard parts once built and tested will
most likely never need to be replaced or revisited.
while the raised lid seems to be a turn off for most people on the list
its never been a problem for me. i don't have a camper but even with a
camper the raised lid doesn't have to be a problem. you can either
purchase german parts to raise the bed in the bed position or make your
own. i have yet to cross this bridge but i plan to this summer, currently
i have a custom built bed in my van. to obtain maximum ground clearance at
15 degrees i ended up with a raised cover of about 5.5 inches. that is
more than any other i have seen. most people drop the engine a bit to
lessen the cover height but loose ground clearance in the process.
as for injection just use what was original to the engine digifant and
motronic are really fairly similar systems. the CIS system is a bit more
complex but doable, just more piping involved. i run digifant II because
thats what came with my engine.
jonathan
On Sat, 12 Mar 2005, Tom Altman wrote:
> OK - I'm wanting to do an engine swap on my '89. I definitely want to use a
> VW power plant. So please do not throw in the Subbie thoughts. I am very
> impressed with what the WRX motors can do but I have access to a lot of VW
> parts and they are much more familiar to me and my dad who will be helping
> me wit the swap.
>
> 1. Most likely I will go with the 2.0 engine. They are relatively
> inexpensive and have a good increase in hp unless you convince me otherwise.
>
> 2. What angle? I would like to keep the engine lid stock - so I feel like
> the 45/50 is the way to go. But so many of the internet information I have
> found seem to go the 15 or upright way? What is the
> advantages/disadvantages of these? My other bias towards big angle is I
> hope to obtain a doka some day and would like to transfer the knowledge to
> that project.
>
> 3. What fuel injection? This is where I am most confused and am looking
> for the most help.
>
> Thanks for any information.
> Tom
>
>
>
