Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 10:33:34 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: kdisse@tekstar.com
Subject: 125 HP Wasserboxer Ghia (non-transplant for Vanagon)
To all Wasserboxer Vanagon owners wanting more power without
having to do a transplant.
I was looking through the August 1995 issue of VW Motoring
(published in England) and ran across an interesting article
about a transplanted water cooled vanagon engine in a Karmann
Ghia.
Who of us on the Vanagon List would think anyone would
ever want to do this ?
Oh well, I thought some of us would be interested in making some
of these same modifications to our engines. (while they are still in
our water cooled Vanagons that is)
Here's the engine related highlights from the article. (most of this
is re-written word for word so please don't give me a bad time).
The engine came from a 1989 Transporter and was modified to
obtain 105 HP at the rear wheels, a figure which equates to about
125 to 130 bhp at the flywheel. This was done with the help of
Max Morley of Volkspares in London. Max undertook a complete
rebuild of the engine, using a bottom end fully balanced by
MacDonald Race Engineering and incorporating a heavy duty
Melling oil pump. The cylinder heads were ported and polished
by Max, fitted with big valves (40 mm inlet and 35.5 mm exhaust)
and match-ported to the inlet manifolds. To pep up the performance
still further an Eagle 120 cam was dropped into the case and this
operates the valvegear via Type 4 solid tappets (in place of the
standard hydraulic tappets), chrome moly pushrods and bolt-up
rocker shafts. The engine is topped off with a pair of Dellorto 45
DRLA twin-choke carbs, a Bosch 009 centrifugal advance distributor
and a Bosch blue coil.
Externally, the only indication that the engine is anything other than
stock is the B.A.S. exhaust system, a specially made tuned length
system from the German tuning firm Ahnendorp Autoteile, purchased
via BR Motorsport in Leamington Spa. --------end.
This is my 2 cents worth for now !
Has anybody heard of Max Morley and Volkspares ? How about
any of the others mensioned (excluding Ahnendorp Autoteile of coarse)
Kevin Disse
kdisse@tekstar.com
'87 Syncro GL
'88 Westy GL