Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 19:12:58 +0000
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: new guy
In-Reply-To: <CANEuo0hULvP0Mss4CXEY7bZh6=wUKktqJwv7eVkyn4i74zPUWw@mail.gmail.com>
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We've all said these things before because we like what we like and don't
like what we don't like but I'm going to put in a word for Vanagon diesels.
I bought a 1990 Carat Waterboxer brand new. Loved it. Didn't love having to
work on that engine when the time came, although I can say the car was as
good to me as I was to it. Before I let it go I cam across a 1.6 NA diesel
westy. I could never let it go, even in its NA form. Then I put a 1.6 TD in
there and I think it's about the easiest car to work on that there is. It
is a joy to drive. Topping out at 65 or maybe 70 is not a big deal to me,
it keeps up with traffic on the speeds in between. I would love to have a
1.9 turbo or TDI but I have a TDI Jetta and I love it but won't go out of
my way to add those complexities to my Vanagon. We'll see. I am very happy
with it like it is and at my age don't really want to do a whole lot more
work on cars (I judge a car project these days on how many aspirin it will
take and how many days it will take to get over it. I just swapped turbos
on my TDI Jetta and I would rather pull the engine on my Vanagon that do
that trick again).
I have camped in my Vanagon over 250 times in the 13 years I have owned it.
It has been reliable and fairly cheap to operate even considering the many
upgrades I have done, or maintenance if you will... it wasn't in the best
of condition when I got it but it is now. I have almost 400,000 miles on
the car and it's just doing great. It has the five speed transmission,
highly recommended if you can find it.
The 1.6 engine in any of its forms will not give you the longevity between
rebuilds that a bigger engine will. That's just physics. But I do my own
work and don't mind doing it. With my Vanagon being a second car now, I may
never have to do it again anyway.
Jim
On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 1:58 PM kenneth wilford (Van-Again) <
kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:
> I grew up with VW diesels. My first car was a sweet 82 Diesel Caddy
> (Rabbit Pickup). After that I owned diesel Rabbits, Golfs, Jetta pretty
> much exclusively until mid 20s. I bought my first Vanagon which was an 85
> 1.9l waterboxer but I really wanted a 1.6l diesel Vanagon. They were rare
> even back in the late 90s. After working on Vanagons and driving them
> daily for about 3 or 4 years a customer came by with a diesel Westy with a
> recently rebuilt engine. I was excited! Now I was finally going to get my
> favorite engine in a Vanagon. I just had to drive it down my street to
> realize that while the 1.6l was great in a small, light car, it stunk in a
> large, heavy, van. It was scary to pull out into traffic at the end my
> street and there really is no traffic here. I thought maybe it was just
> that van, but since then I have owned a few and worked on several here at
> the shop. I have one customer who bought his new and keeps it pristine and
> treats it really nice. The 1.6l powerplant is just too weak in the van.
> You can't keep up with modern highway traffic (65-70 mph), the engine is
> being pushed to it's limits all the time so they don't have the long life
> they have in the cars. I would never recommend a 1.6l diesel Vanagon to
> any person. If you want to do a conversion and put a TDI in there, that is
> a whole other story. There are circumstances where that might make sense
> and you have the power comparable to the waterboxer with more torque.
>
> It's just my opinion but I really wanted to like them and instead I came to
> almost hate them.
>
> Ken
>
> On Sat, Aug 27, 2016, 2:12 PM Karl Mullendore <tdiguru@westyventures.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In a heartbeat. Although preferably the factory JX turbodiesel that
> should
> > have been sold here. Great success in Europe, but I guess the US buyers
> > weren't quite 'ready' for diesels. The beauty is that every inline
> > gas/diesel 4-cyl VW engine from 1974-1999 will bolt in when the original
> > 1.6NA expires, which is hastened most times by heavy right feet and
> > impatient drivers.
> >
>
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