Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 07:07:05 -0700
Reply-To: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: '82-2.0 teardown. help me find the knocking please
In-Reply-To: <6bc66ccf0906020633n74e69fccy6f5d18a865ef3985@mail.gmail.com>
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Don, the inline 4 cyl VW engine conversions have been discussed here
forever, 12 years at least. They are far from the trouble free dreams
that you make them out to be based on your single experience. The
chronicles of grief and heartache many owners of them have suffered
hardly inspires a mass switch to them and that is partly why no such
mass switch has occurred.
The parts to do the conversions yourself are not free or widely
available. Most self conversions are done with parts salvaged from
diesel Vanagons sold here in 82 and 83 only. There was a time a few
years ago when those parts were commonly circulating and easy to get but
those days are fading fast. I have seen that you like to brag about how
fast and simple the conversion was for the guy who did it before you
were even in the picture. If you had done it yourself you would find
those claims a little hard to swallow. I have helped with a few and
watched the progress of several others and like any other conversion
they usually drag on for weeks and months before they are roadworthy.
There have been 2 major commercially available kits sold over the years,
both now defunct. I have seen many of these and had long conversations
with many owners, few of whom were pleased enough to say they would do
it again, 2-3 years in.
Lots of WBX engines have served for 20 years and are still going. I have
personally put probably 400,000 miles on them. I don't like certain
things about them but their durability is not one of those things. Your
30-80k miles is pure fiction. Most go 150k, some less, many more.
Various owners have had various degrees of success with the WBX and you
can say the same thing about people who have inline 4 cyl VW conversions.
Mark
Don Hanson wrote:
> There are all kinds of engine/tranny adaptors available. Kennedy
> Engineering makes an adaptor plate to mate the inline gas VW motor to the
> Vanagon.
> I'm curious why rebuilding a WBX engine again for a Vanagon *ever* seems
> like a good idea. They don't seem to be the best choice, expense wise. For
> power, fuel consumption and dependability they aren't even close to some of
> the other alternative power plants that are being installed into blown-up
> vanagons.
> Reading, quite widely, about WBX fuel consumption in the low teens
> (m.p.g.) and squirting head gaskets, stripped bolts, knocking rods and scary
> merging onto interstates, who would choose to pay 'extra' to start over
> again with all that potential?
>
> Before I bought my 84 inline gas (92 Cabriolet 1.8 liter motor) Vanagon, I
> monitored the Internet forums pretty closely. I'd owned air cooled vans in
> the past. I wasn't looking for another vehicle to work on. I wanted a Van,
> but I didn't want one with all the 'baggage' that was being discussed often
> on almost every web forum.
>
> Now before you WBX motor-lovers flame me for 'dissing' your motors, I'll say
> that I'm sure YOUR motor will last a couple of hundred thou, and I know
> you've "heard" of people with really high-mile Vanagons who've never touched
> the motor..But....what I read seems to be around 30-80k for a WBX and the
> way I use my van, that would be a re-build every few years...
>
> ...............
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