Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 08:13:28 -0700
Reply-To: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: '82-2.0 teardown. help me find the knocking please
In-Reply-To: <4A253209.6040805@cox.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Good points all, Mark.
A 'sample of one'...my own experience.. not much of a data base.
I've been lurking around the Vanagon sources for a few years now. Maybe I
have been giving the false impression that I think the VW inline four
conversion I have is the "One True Way". Not my intention to try to
'convert' anyone. When this subject comes up, though, posting my own
experience with this particular Vanagon configuration seems like it may be
useful to someone out there. I know that when I was looking, I found very
little info about this type of Vanagon, and I searched diligently for
information and impressions.
I sometimes hear (off list posts) from others who run this combo..The
general tone of these posts seems to be something like..."Hey, I have an
inline gas vanagon, too...But Boy, did I have a nice weekend trip to the
mountains..." or "Yeah, my Rabbit powered van works good, now let's talk
about something fun..." So maybe there's not much to say about them,
really. Or maybe they aren't mentioned much because they DO really
suck..Maybe mine is the only 'good one' to ever .
Yes, any engine conversion will likely not be simple. And "30-80k life
expectancy for a WBX motor?" Pulled that outta thin air. But in the few
years I've been on Vanagon list I have now 'seen' the same names come around
sometimes with "Weeping headgaskets, again" on their Subject Line..
As you said, Mark..there are certain things about the WBX that are not to
like..dunno, other than what I read because I never owned one..so I deserve
to be flamed for 'hearsay-based' opinions.
Don Hanson
On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:07 AM, mark drillock <mdrillock@cox.net> wrote:
> 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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