On 9/8/05, Howard Allen <Howard.Allen@fairchildsemi.com> wrote: > > Hi; I am brand new to this group and am in the process of buying my > first VW since 1977. It is a 1984 Vanagon with the 1.9L gas engine > (yeah, you knew that!). It has 188,000 miles on it, the engine rebuilt > 35,000 miles ago. The waterpump is gone (leaking and bearing shot) and > the rear wheel bearing on one side (probably the other too) is loose. > I am mechanically adept, do all my own work (mainly my K-Cars and > Rampage L body). How much of a job is it to change out the rear wheel > bearings? > Another question - is it possible to replace the automatic tranny with > a 5-speed out of a Porsche 914 or 917? Gas the way it is it seems like > it could only help. I have done an automatic to 5-speed conversion in > my wife's 1989 Plymouth Vovager and it turned out pretty good, so I > have an idea what is involved. > One last question - I hear that some folks are replacing the VW motor > with a Subaru Legacy motor. This makes me believe there is a > significant amount of interchangeability with the VW transmission, but > there must be a challenge with all the engine management systems. > Anyone out there know of a website that talks to this point. For now I > want to keep the bus "all VW" though. > Thanks all for any responses!!!! > Best Regards > Howard Allen > S. Portland, Maine Howard, There's a few engine swap links on this page: http://members.aol.com/bentbtstr8/vanagoncafelinkspage.html Tom Carrington has more at: http://volksweb.relitech.com/convert.htm The 914 transaxle is essentially a 911 transmission truned the other way around. These are usually 901 trannies which are not are not as strong as the later 915 & G50 trannies. Since the 914 is intended for mid-engine use, you cannot use it unless you flip the irng gear othe other side lest you want 5 reverse gears ro put your engine where your backseat is. Subaru engines do not bolt on to a Vanagon as easily as it sounds. As with most engine swaps, they require an adapter plate as well as other modifications to fit. Best to look at some of those websites above as this has seen much coverage in the archives. It would be too tedious to put it all in this posting. Of the seven Vanagons I now own, one has a VW line-4 turbodiesel, two have inline-4 GTI engines, one has a turbo Subaru engine and balance Wasserboxers (WBX). There are lots of choices oth there. some folks have even installed Audi 4's, 5's, 6's & 8's, Nissan Maxima, Ford Focus, Rover V8, Chevy V6's & V8's, Porsche this and that. The choices are only limited by your imagination, talent, and/or wallet. Welcome to the cult... errr... I men club. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Welcome to the club. BenT http://members.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/ BenT |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.