Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:18:15 -0800
Reply-To: Jon Brown <jbrown510@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jon Brown <jbrown510@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Tiico Parts Availability?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Excellent post Matthew. I would add that in terms of a "turnkey"
conversion, the TiiCo does come closer than anything else, FWTIW. There
certainly are a few items we'd all like to improve on, and do, but you can
legitimately drop it in a drive it away as delivered.
I'd also add, that I've listened for years as Subie converters have
complained that the Kennedy fails to support or improve their adaptors for
the Subies. Granted, it's not marketed as a turn key type thing, but it
would be nice if Kennedy's development of the conversion didn't end the day
he cobbled together one conversion and got an EO for it. It took years for
someone like Small Car to come in and commercially fill in the missing
pieces. So TiiCo is not alone on lack of follow through.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Bostig motor...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew" <mpteleski@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: [VANAGON] Tiico Parts Availability?
> Folks, as a former tiico owner & self mechanic, i have
> first hand experiene with the tiico. Bob has heard my
> woes and is speaking from a bit of a different
> perspective than me, but is pretty much correct. Many
> people are very happy with the TiiCo engine, and TiiCo
> continues to sell boatloads of these things.
>
> First place, the TiiCo company is providing a sevice
> that is otherwise not available; a vw "turn key"
> solution to the wasserboxer. What scares most people,
> i suspect, away from the subie, tdi or homegrown
> conversion is the amount of extra work that is needed
> to get the parts, fab stuff, make stuff, etc. The
> tiico is appealing as it is *marketed* as a drop in
> solution. (which it really is not, but that is a
> different story).
>
> I purchased mine is dec of 01 and had it running by
> superbowl weekend 02. I sold the complete turnkey
> engine, installed, in early summer of 04. I put
> somewhere between 35 and 45K on it. In that time I had
> a few little problems, but nothing major. I am super
> anal about preventive maintaince so was able to catch
> some potential disaster before they happened, like the
> plastic timing belt tensioner that was failing.
>
> My reason for selling the engine was mostly for my
> moral beliefs: i don't want to support a crude oil
> based economy. I was also involved in a rape-seed oil
> press and biodiesel manufacturing facility. (the guy
> running the facility got gready and stopped giving
> away the BD, even though i put in about 120 hours of
> custom machining, welding and circuit design,
> including the materials. I got 1 "tote" of bd, 275
> gallons).
>
> Except for a few unique parts, the engine parts are
> totally available. The parts list is on the Tiico
> yahoo group's page. Bob is right- the block started
> life as a 1.8. The head is new and is form an Audi 80
> (i think), so all head parts are available. The
> pistons are from a 5-cylinder audi/vw engine, and i
> forget the crank's original home. The fuel rail is
> from the A2 line, and the water pump, & timing belt is
> normal too. The oil pump and pan, coolant hoses and
> engine mounts are from a diesel vanagon. Unique to
> this engine is the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP)
> sensor, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, ecu and
> custom wiring harness, throttle cable and the exhaust
> headers. Maybe more that i left off.
>
> What still bothers both Bob and me is TiiCo's
> unwillingness to fix or improve upon the weak parts,
> which Bob mentioned. (alternator bracket is
> "homemade", exhuast headers break often, MAP sensors
> die like County Fair Goldfish)
>
> Thanks for the bandwidth
> -matthew
> 86 syncro westy 1.9TD Former TiiCo
> 86 syncor singlecab (to be a diesel soon)
> 82 diesel westy 1.6td FOR SALE soon
> 72 Type II Riviera
>
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 01:03:56 -0800
> > From: Robert Keezer <warmerwagen@YAHOO.COM>
> > Subject: Re: Tiico Parts Availability?
> >
> > The Tweako parts you want are only available if
> > you have bought a Tweako.
> >
> > Parts and service for the customer are pathetic.
> >
> > It's a Audi engine bored to 2.0. It has a weird
> > tweakable fuel injection system that makes you
> > rely soley on Tiico (or authorized centers) for
> > help with when it fails.
> >
> > The Tiico doesn't go far enough - by now it
> > should have refined the boondoggles , but they
> > havent.
> >
> <snipped the rest>
>
> "Racing with the wind and flirting with death
> So have a cup of coffee and catch your breath"
>
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