Stephen, Don, all- With Digifant 2 or 1 fuel injection system, you will have knock sensor control. You can also get knock sensor control with with CIS-E and Motronic. I use regular gas and never in 10 years has there been pre-ignition or detonation from low octane gas- the knock sensor system retards the timing when it detects pininging. The trade-off is less power. Don, you can use the knock sensor that came with your ABA. If you want to have an OBD system, then use the Motronic system that originally ran your ABA. You will get more power from ther engine, plus the adaptive features of Motronic will keep the engine running at peak performance. It's more involved to install wiring-wise, though. And you lose your tachometer( I haven't had a tachometer since my Digifant 1-to-Motronic upgrade in 2003).Tghere's a fix for that, I just haven't bothered. Inline fours are more forgiving with RPM increases. You also have to remove the Vanagon speedometer to add a VSS(standard cruise control pick-up)Motronic nneds a raod speed signal to work properly. Motronic has Onboard Diagnosis (USE OBD1)and stores fault codes you can diplay either with a code reader or flashing light. It also has two driving modes it swtches to- highway and city. within about ten minutes of city or highway driving it switches "maps" in the ECU for better performance and fuel economy. If you want to keep it the way it is, there might be a thicker head gasket you can use to lower the compression ratio. Another thing you might want to add to your engine is a windage tray to your oil pan. This keeps the oil from sloshing up into the crankcase and skims off ecessoil on the crankshaft, helping to retain hp. Robert 1982 Westfalia
I've been following the threads leading up to this and find this subject interesting and potentially useful. When/if the day comes for my Westy when a rebuild or a swap is in the offing I'll want as much info as possible on the various options out there and what to expect from each. Thanks! Stephen --- On
Spent part of the day getting the 2.0 liter ABA 94 Jetta motor I scored for $100 stripped down. Preparing for a head swap from my current 1.8 liter inline four (a 92 Golf motor) and install into my 84 vanagon. Everything in the motor looks really good so far..no surprises other than how small the inline looks after you strip all the accessories off. It is 16mm taller than the 1.8 liter block... I posted a couple of pics on my Picassa. Notice the extra compact little built in oil cooler(just above the oil filter) that comes on the Jetta motor. Essentially a water jacket that fits between the filter and the filter flange. Could retro onto most VWs I have ever worked on.. Ordered new timing belt and tensioner pulley..A new rear main seal, headgasket and bolts..Gonna have about $250 bucks into this swap and a couple of days labor. Not bad for some extra HP (about a 25% increase, I guess) So far my only missgivings are the compression ratio is said to go to 10:1, meaning I'll probably need premium fuel. However, there is an inexpensive stand-alone knocksensor available somewhere I am told, should I find I need one...10:1 is marginal to use regular gas....Maybe if I ever do another one I will take the pistons and machine out a little to lower the CR some...but at this cost, I could just let it ping...hee hee. http://picasaweb.google.com/dhanson928/JettaMotor# Don Hanson
|
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.