Putting the ABA into my Adventurewagen was the best modification of all. I live in a high valley with mountains all around. One of the routes home is 8 miles of 6-8% grade. I can climb that loaded at 65 mph. The exhaust has been mostly a non-issue for me. The biggest problem is that the only muffler that fits is a Thrush ‘baby turbo’ muffler and the short pipe length means that it sees fairly high temps and it just get’s ‘rattlely’ about every 30k miles. Fortunately, they’re cheap. I’m nearing 90k miles on the conversion… Best.modification.of.all. Jim From: Alex MeVay Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 5:58 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: [VANAGON] inline 4 vs Subaru conversion > We have an ABA conversion with 1.8 heads and Digifant II in two of our Vanagons. > From a maintenance perspective the I4 is easier to work on. Everything is accessible. Timing belt jobs are easy. Aftermarket higher performance parts are still available. The heads don’t piss on your driveway. But you better have a solid, professional conversion with a well-built exhaust that is properly hung off the engine or has sufficient flex sections. > > Down side of the I4 is the soft torque at lower revs. On the flip side it redlines at 6400 rpm and I hit 78 mph in 3rd gear. They love to rev. I second all Chris's comments on this conversion. Running premium gas helps noticeably with the torque at lower RPM (as well as MPG) due to the knock sensor and high compression. I haven't been able to compare to a stock engine, but the power seems totally reasonable for modern driving. Aside from the exhaust, the other pain point specific to this engine (using the the original diesel oil pan and bellhousing) that I've experienced is a failure of even a new oil pump to prime reliably unless the end play been specially clearanced (wet sanding and plastigauge), as the pump seems quite high above the oil sump level. Alex |
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Vanagon mail messages have been archived.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.