Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:02:26 -0700
Reply-To: BenT Syncro <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: BenT Syncro <syncro@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: -Now Engine Conversion - doing your own soobie wire harness
In-Reply-To: <10fc01c883ac$06efede0$6401a8c0@DJZL7KF1>
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On 3/11/08, Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
> Japanese domestic market.
> A made-for the Japanese market engine.
> They always are pretty low miles too, about 40K>
It always cracks me up when something like a Vanagon part gets advertised as
"JDM". For example one ad for an SA grill said, "JDM grill and lights for
your Vanagon." The same guy was also selling US-spec rectangular headlights
as "JDM aerodynamic headlights. Not a cheap sealed beam."
On that note, who documents how many miles those so called "JDM engines"
have? Do you just operated on blind faith that the vendor is being truthful?
Oh I almost forgot, that Subie converting Vanagons is akin to a religious
experience for some.=)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got one of those too Subie thingies too. I worshipped
at the Altar of the Perpetual Openhouse which made enough dough to buy
someone's almost turnkey conversion. Damned thing burned tranny seals on a
regular basis until an oilcooler was installed. I also lost time trying to
add PS & AC. No one can tell me that it wasn't a painful process to figure
out why my AC compressor was sizzling hot after I hooked up the Subie parts
to the VW system and took it for a test run. The compressor got so hot that
we had to pour water over it for fear of causing damage to adjacent
components. The steam came out for 5 minutes. All that time spent sorting
out problems definitely cost me money in the long run.
Praise be the Subie. Hallelujah. On the other end of the scale, my inline-4
VW conversions were fairly well sorted and relatively painless. My local VW
shop was even happy to do my regular service. I can't say the same about the
low-mileage Subie conversions that were sitting in line for
engine replacements. They were waiting for the shop owner to force one of
the mechanics to work on them. They all eventually went home happy with
their new JDM engines. For how long, I don't know. You've seen one Subie
conversion, you've seen them all.
BenT
(Mike Miller's JDM illegitimate Grandson -- Jack Da Miller) HAR, HAR, HAR.