Date:         Fri, 14 Jun 96 12:09:28 +0200
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         verbeek@the-hague.stbv.slb.com (brian verbeek)
Subject:      Books & Berg Catalog, LONG

Yesterday i received some new books and a catalog thanks to the help
of a fellow V@L listmember (who's name shall not be printed here, he
might become something like a book shop against his will) I'm very
happy with all of them and here what i found.

First the "How to Hot Rod VW engines" book by Bill Fisher, nice book
as it always has been. This book was actually one of my very first VW
books, i accuired in around '86/'87, i've consulted it almost on a
daily basis since, i know most of the book by heart, it helps me think.
I wanted this new one to replace the almost 25yo one i have (relax, i
haven't trown it away :) ) ok not really 'replace' but now i can use
the new one while preserving the old one. I've seen the new version in
several US VW parts catalogs, and i thought that the newer books were
revised and adjusted to the knowledge, market and low compression of
today. Not. I only had a quick look, but the book itself appears to be
exactly the same as the old one i have, except for the last page, the
old book has a picture of an early bolt on turbo kit. The new one
doesn't and has some empty pages for notes. The old book has six
pictures on the back, the upper left one shows Gene Berg as the driver
of Doug Gordon's Underdog race car. What *really* irritates me is the
front and back cover of the new edition, i assume that these were
changed by someone at HP Books, and i think he didn't know anything on
the subject and he probably consulted the VW Rags to find out what would
sell this book. On the front is a picture of a fully chromed engine,
something that Bill Fisher doesn't recommend in his book, so i guess
that the one who modified the covers didn't even read the book.
Also the headers on the front, "all about turbo charging" or something
like that, Bill doesn't even really cover the subject, he touches it
briefly. On the back you'll find a text something to the effect of
Kewl, soupurfaast, 300 Hp, DIY, in minutes and some horrible pictures.

But inside: still the good old book by Bill Fisher, be carefull with his
compression ratios recommendations though, this is advice based on the
experience with engines running on 1970s fuel. Also, there are some
addresses in there, on one of the first pages it allready tells you that
these may have changed and/or don't exist anymore, (like EMPI in Riverside?)
I also found that the new book's pictures (which are exactly the same as the
old pictures) are sharper and show more detail.

I'm still very happy that i have the new copy, i'm really attached to my old
one, it has become a part of me, it started to wear a little too fast.



The Weber book, this one also: i only looked at it briefly but:
It has a lot of drawings, explanations and some charts with basic jet size
configurations from which to start jetting. It features more than enough
valuable info and data to justify the time spent on reading it from what i
could see. The writer fails to explain a lot of things because he thinks that
these tasks are too difficult to be carried out by his readers, but i'd rather
make that decision myself. Berg, for instance, even explains the procedure on
how to properly align bore a case, he doesn't recommend it nor does he offer
the service to his customers, still he thinks it's valuable to us, and how
many of us have the tooling at home to linebore a case? I can't say more about
the book so far.



The Berg catalog, Interesting, a must have if you're into non T4 engined aircooled
VWs:

I still have to get used with it's "We are the best, most knowledgeable, and all
else sucks" attitude. What i admire most is the tremendous attention to detail.
Gene Berg often tracks problems down to heat expansion rates and material grain
problems. He succeeds in explaining why his products are superior and/or why
one should use product such and such. A good example are chromoly headstuds,
if you see them in a Bugpack catalog you might think that these are the ones
you want to use in that SuperMegaUltraPowerfullFastReliableSmoothPerfect engine
that a lot of us intend to build some day. Berg explains that they are not
suitable for an aircooled VW motor since their heat expansion rate is incorrect.
The stock VW headstuds are perfectly well thought out and are made of a certain
material and heat treated in a certain way to provide the correct expansion rate.
This is neccessary to keep the torque setting on the headstuds more or less the
same throughout the VWs operating temperature range. Swapping the studs for
chromoly ones that do not expand as much as the stock ones will give you a much
higher torque on the stud, it can pull it out of the case (or bend the case and
or head maybe) the result will almost always be loose and damaged heads and
cylinders. Chromoly studs on a race is a different story, it will be disassembled
frequently and you might have problems with heads popping off :)

Really, get the Berg catalog, it's worth it, in the future i want to try and get
a copy of Berg's Installation instructions and his other manual.


Further, if you're interested in getting a lot of info and backgrounds regarding
your aircooled VW, i'd like to say that neither of the above or any other book
alone should be your guide/helper, and if you're new to this list: also check out
the website that contains most of Bob Hoover's postings to this list, if you
haven't allready done so.



Please note that the above is my personal opinion and that i nor my employer have
anything to do with any of the companies or products mentioned whatsoever.


Thanks for listening,

Brian

The Netherlands
'73 Singlecab originally upright 1600