Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 20:53:44 -0700
Reply-To: Garth Woolstenhulme <gwoolstenhulme@TRUELINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From: Garth Woolstenhulme <gwoolstenhulme@TRUELINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Subaru in a Vanagon?? Yes!!!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Tim McDermott wrote:
>
> Fellow Dreamers,
>
> I had the pleasure of viewing a Subaru/Vanagon conversion. The Kennedy kit
> looks well thought out. It fits in well and sound great.
Hi all,
I visited KEP last week to see about the subaru conversion as I work
very close to their business. I had planned to return this week to take
pictures that can be placed on a web page for all to see (any takers?),
but it was a bad week--so I will go this week.
Hobert Kennedy is a very nice gentleman. I went on Saturday and he
spent over an hour showing me the different states of progression he
went thru to make this a reliable, factory look/sound conversion. He
had his converted van down (doing work to it) so I was not able to drive
it (but I'm used to a converted diesel with a Scirocco motor so I would
not be able to give a good comparison to a wasserboxer). He made molds
for the various air intake hoses/air cleaner and had plastic hoses
made--so the installation looks factory. The installation looks very
nice--the motor looks like it was made for the Vanagon engine compart-
ment. He went thru several different muffler/cat combinations to get a
pair that had low backpressure and low noise levels--both outside and
inside (he did decible readings and got the inside to 75 db--road
noise--said you cannot hear the motor). He showed me a subaru motor
that he had torn apart and I was quite impressed with the robustness of
the bottom end of the motor--like he said--the subaru motor would put a
porsche to shame with its built-in strength.
He has been in business since the late 60's and anyone doing any type of
conversions involving VW or any hipo VW has heard of KEP. He was also
very honest and told me the limitations and short comings of the subaru
engine in the vanagon. The oil pan is lower than the wasserboxer. The
pan is stamped steel (like most other cars) and he cut/rewelded his pan
to provide more ground clearance. It limits the oil capacity to 3.8 qts
(little less than Golf/Jetta and same as my Honda Accord). The subaru
engine is a 4 valve per cylinder motor and as such does not have as much
low end torque--but is designed to have its power band at higher RPM's
(which actually matches the Vanagon trans gear ratio for freeway
driving). Because it is not a VW and not a Subaru, getting someone to
work on it may be a problem (it is in my all VW conversion) and almost
all work would have to be done by the owner. But the motors are
plentiful and low mileage motors can be obtained for $850--good for at
least 100,000 miles (cheaper than rebuilding the wasserboxer). The
engine is an open-deck block with steel cylinders. He has not heard of
leaking heads like the wasserboxer (no seperate cylinders) and in the
subaru cars 200,000 mile is common--although he thought pushing a brick
around would shorten its life span. All the problems he has had with
his van have been VW related. He has been using the van as his parts
runner (we like about 35 freeway miles from San Fernando Valley) and has
gotten a lot of both freeway and surface street miles. He also has 4
other vanagons (an air-cooled, a diesel, an 85--round headlights, and a
post 86--square headlights) to make sure that the conversion will fit
all years. He is currently looking for a syncro to see what kind of
ground clearance it will have etc.
As I said earlier--I will be taking pictures this week--if anyone wants
to 'see' anything in particular--let me know, and if anyone wants to add
these pictures to their web site also let me know.
See you later,
Garth
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