With the WBXers and VW air cooled engines it is best to have additional instrumentation. I remember the first time I blew an engine in my 83 Air Cooled Westy. The Westy just had idiot lights and I saw the impending doom coming when I saw spots of oil on my rear window. I'm sure the guy in that big Dodge truck tail gating me got his share of oil too. I had no instrument or lights warning me about the problem. I blew the #2 ring on #3 cylinder but managed to drive back home at 35 mph on service roads for 250 miles by stopping every 35 miles and adding a quart of oil to the crankcase. If I hadn't seen that oil on the back glass I'd have had a total lock up rod throwing scenario that would have crippled my Westy and may have ruined the crank case when it blew. I installed instruments with the new rebuild job at 145K. I installed an oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge, cylinder head temperature, an additional oil cooler, windage tray and ran the Westy up to 287K miles before I sold it. I had no more engine malfunctions for that 133K and that involved many 3000 mile trips over long weekends. In fact I was quite pleased with the overall dependability and economy of the Westy, although I continued to spend money on tires, brakes etc. etc. .... You know how it goes.
Stan Wilder Engine Ceramics 214-352-4931 www.engineceramics.com
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Reddick" <SVYOLO@YAHOO.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 8:30 PM Subject: Re: Re: Eight Function Digital Display for the Vanagon
> Sorry Frank, > Gotsta dissagree. But I do like the addtiional instrumentation. oil > Temp, pressure, boost, A/F ratio, stuff like that is good to monitor, but > you don't need a big gauge with a needle like a tach or speedo. I wiil > probably use this in my subie conversions. > But I will retain the stock speedo and tach. I like the vanagons > instument cluster. For experimental or not quite perfected stuff, some > additional monitoring is nice. Once that is perfected, I prefer idiot > lights. > I think a totally perfected engine conversion would have stock idiot > lights and be totally stealthy. > > John > 87 Westy SVX (17K trouble free miles) |
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