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Date:         Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:23:33 -0500
Reply-To:     mordo <helmut.blong@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         mordo <helmut.blong@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      In praise of aircooled vanagons
In-Reply-To:  <20070416.041127.18186.1600772@webmail36.lax.untd.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

This conversation is amusingly coincident with a story my father told me Saturday. He and my mother drove from Ft Wayne, IN to Riverside, CA in a '59 Beetle while pulling a UHaul trailer(!). This included crossing the Mojave, albeit at night. They had little furniture so the UHaul was likely filled with books and baby gear as my sister was 5 months old at the time. So this would be late '62. What was that engine, about 36hp?

When they had crossed the desert and stopped in Barstow(?), the heads were so hot that the engine just dieseled on until my Pop stumped it with the clutch. They continued to drive it for another two years until they bought a '63 Bus. I am amazed that that engine survived such abuse. The only apparent damage the towing did was pull the bumper mounts through the sheet metal.

cheers,

mordo

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John <kayakjr@juno.com> Date: Apr 16, 2007 6:11 AM Subject: Re: In praise of aircooled vanagons To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com

Mike,

My first car was a Corvair (still have doors and hood form a 69 convertible - anyone want em'?). Loved it, still have a Uni-Syn that I'm going to put on a bookcase to quiz visitors on.

I was going to put a Porsche 6 in, when a friend called to offer me his 86 Westfalia Weekender for a good deal and since it was only 3,000+ miles away (we both live a couple of miles from the ocean, pacific and Atlantic), I bought the van.

I have a friend who had many Porsche engines in various states and was going to let me assemble one and buy it for short money. Only bad thing, beside cost of replacement parts is 6 carbs! And god are those, even used, expensive. The Porsche world is so expensive, that one might as well go Subaru, except it nice to assemble a motor, complete with exhaust, bench test it (friend made up a a test stand) and then install it pretty much ready to go. But I digress...

John

Well put!! For more power and keeping it air cooled, you can't beat a 6 cyl Corvair for reliability and bang for the buck! I know one other person who is doing this swap :)

But I digress, the speed in Vanagon suites me fine :)

All the best, Mike

-- mordo 1990 Carat


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