Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 17:26:18 -0700
Reply-To: Daniel Rotblatt <d.rotblatt@VERIZON.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Daniel Rotblatt <d.rotblatt@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: tach in an 85
In-Reply-To: <14bb01cc255d$03956390$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Yup, he's a air cooled guy - but he does know his stuff. Very opinionated, lots of stories, definite attitude - basically a real character, but honest and think he really cares about doing a good job. All he works on are VW's and Porsches.
Your method for climbing hills seems more in line with what I would imagine - get the revs up so you are higher on the power curve. With a full load (5 people and camping gear) we were stuck going 30 up a grade near here, van just didn't have the poop to go faster even when I had the speed up to start.
It's time to change the oil, so I'll probably be going with 20W50 since I'm in a hot climate and the engine bottom has about 125K on it. I'll look for something with zinc in it too since it seems these baby's have flat tappets (although it may be a little late in the game for that...). The owners manual lists 30W for temps from 35-85 degrees, and 40 wt for temps from 70-100. 20W50 and 20W50 goes from 20-85 degrees. I'm guessing that the oil has probably improved a bit since then, but based on the owners manual I should probably be using 40W! Here in La La land, the temp will be 100+ later in the summer, and to get to the Sierras, I have to drive through the Mojave Desert.
Dan
Los Angeles, CA
'85 Westy Weekender
On Jun 7, 2011, at 2:51 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
> hi Dan..
> you mechanic guy ...
> is he the guy that said to use straight 30W oil ?
>
> and now he's saying do try to go up steep grades faster than 30 ?
> Is he some old air-cooled vw guy ?
> sure sounds like it !
>
> here's how you climb long grades in an 85 waterboxer vanagon ..
> with luck you can pull 50 mph , even 55 mph at around 4,000 rpm or 4,000 say ..
> not 5K rpm, and not 3,500 rpm .
> right in that fat part of the power close to 4,200 rpm or so.
>
> if it won't do that on a really steep grade..
> then you're stuck in 2nd at about 4K rpm ....perhaps 35 mph. Not good or safe.
>
> Betcha the guy's an air-cooled guy.
> water-cooled vanagons are different, and far more evolved.
> the idea of 30W oil..
> if that's you that reported that , sure struck me as funny,
> although ..
> a VW engine rebuilding company in Sacramento told me, for their rebuilt 2.1 wbxr engine .
> they recommended 20W50 ( which makes sense ) or 30W ....
> and they also have a background in lots and lots of air -cooled older vw engines.
>
> I normally use 15W40, 15W50 or 20W50 ..
> particularly on higher mileage waterboxer engines and warmer temps.
> but whatever works for you.
>
> please ! tell us some more of this guy's interesting and ...'strange' vw engine lore .
>
> the 1.9 waterboxer engine especially ...
> those have strong bottom ends, and a short stroke.
> they don't mind reving at all.
> I always drive with a mind mainly for the least wear and stress on everything ..
> and a 1.9 wbxr with good clean oil in it, and fully and properly in tune can pull hills at 4K rpm quite safely.
>
> thanks,
> Scott
> www.turbovans.com
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Rotblatt" <d.rotblatt@VERIZON.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 11:00 PM
> Subject: Re: tach in an 85
>
>
>> DUH! I have an owners manual... Page 47, 22 MPH in first, 47 MPH in
>> second, 69 MPH in D. Although my mechanic said to take my time going
>> up a steep grade - keep it down to 30 max. Thanks for getting me to
>> actually read something.
>>
>> Dan
>> L.A., CA
>> '85 Westy Weekender
>>
>> On Jun 6, 2011, at 4:02 PM, David Beierl wrote:
>>
>>> At 04:37 PM 6/6/2011, Daniel Rotblatt wrote:
>>>> Thanks for the correlation between RPM and speed in 2nd. 50 MPH =
>>>> ~4200 RPM. I could probably chart that and figure out what's going
>>>> on. It does make me a little more comfortable with the hill thing.
>>>
>>> It varies considerably with the grade, of course.
>>>
>>> The published never-exceeds for the '89 are 33 mph in first and 54
>>> mph in second ( owner's manual page 30). 1.9l ought to be
>>> similar. The engine redline is 5200 rpm and the limiter will kick in
>>> at that speed; however the owner's manual mentions that rpm only in
>>> connection with the manual transmission, and refers you back to page
>>> 30 for the auto-trans limits.
>>>
>>> What exactly that means depends how you parse it and how careful they
>>> were writing the book. But I think they specifically disclaim the
>>> engine redline because they don't want you to think you can go
>>> zooming down the hill at 60 mph and 4000 rpm or whatever in second.
>>>
>>> Somebody here has an owner's manual for 1.9l. After all, everyone
>>> who sinks $16k-plus into a vehicle (what my old '84 Westy cost the
>>> first owners, only option was $500 for stereo wiring) just naturally
>>> reads that book cover to cover and cherishes it. </sarcasm>
>>>
>>> Yours,
>>> David
>
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