Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:45:28 +1200
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject: Re: Best Cars to go 200,000 Miles
In-Reply-To: <890111.21826.qm@web52509.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite>Quantum was Passat in Europe,
no?</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Santana. But really the Santana is a Passat is an Audi...<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>My cars and miles when sold:<br>
<br>
'88 Audi 90 - 400,000 miles (425K miles when totaled by next
owner)<br>
'85 Vanagon Westfalia - 189,000 miles (original heads never
leaked)<br>
'87 Jetta GLI - 225,000 miles<br>
<br>
My current '01 New Beetle TDI just turned over 156,000, which is a
little more than halfway of my 300,000 goal.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><i>Andrew Grebneff
<andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ></i> wrote:</blockquote>
<div>Our lowest-cost car? 1986 Corolla DX 1.8 diesel sedan.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I have just joined a Toyota diesel forum (I HATE online forums,
talk about user-unfriendly!) <www.toyotadiesel.com>. What is
coming through clearly is that if it's a diesel and it's got a turbo,
it'll crack its head. Not if, when. It seems that it's an economic
thing... making a head crackproof is possible, but would make the head
heavy (they're not exactly light as it is) and COST more to make.
Apparently it's peak pressure that's the main culprit, not heat. If
that's the case, then there's not going to be a reliable supercharged
diesel made anywhere by anyone, and replacing the exhaust-driven
supercharger with any other type will not help. I suspect that fitting
a fat exhaust (2.25" on my 2.0TD Corolla) and a large intercooler
will delay the inevitable, but not prevent it.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I'd say that most TDs will do 150,000km or more before showing
obvious signs of headcracking, and some can be driven daily for a year
or more after beginning to blow steam from the exhaust on cold-startup
(personal experience), but bet that the second owner will be buying
trouble. At least heads in NZ cost a lot less new than they do in
North America ($560US in NZ for a new 3C-T head).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Well, *I* for one would be happy to pay a bit more for a
supercharged diesel that will NOT crack its head. So c'mon,
manufacturers... get to it! Charge more and make 'em (not reliable; a
diesel that's guaranteed to crack its head IS reliable)
crackproof!</div>
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