>do they overheat more easily, e.g. at 100F, in 2nd gear up a steep >grade? No water to leak out or boil... thermostat to fail... I have to say they my aircooled vans' engines (Types 1 & 4) were great, and performed very well (though the US seems to received badly-detuned versions). Got virtually no maintenence (valve adjustments? Nah!) and just went and went, despite often being revved way past the redline in daily use. I could RELY on them NOT to break. Only the 1.2s in my 57 gave any trouble, and that was usually my fault (dribving it at 70mph and forgetting to top up the oil as it leaked out) and ONCE dropping a valve. >I think people confuse reliability with durability or quality. These are >all very different characteristics. When I had a 67 bus, it was >extremely reliable. You knew that you would drop an exhaust valve between 50-60k or any long trip in summer. Of course reliability means not only a degree but the direction... 1-100%, good to bad. An engine that is extremely likely to throw a rod is very reliable... but not the kind of reliability you'd want! >Still, most of us use 2.1L H2O units with all the upgrades and options >we can get. >We like the challenges of these beasts. They are easily reparable Yep... toss the dud wasserleaker/crankencasenventer away and install the new soon-to-be-dud... or fit a decent engine (nonOEM). -- Andrew Grebneff Dunedin New Zealand Fossil preparator <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR |
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