Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1998 15:43:41 -0400
Reply-To:     Patrick Dooley <pdooley@GTE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Patrick Dooley <pdooley@GTE.NET>
Subject:      head scratchin fun with the 2.3
Comments: To: Sam Scholten <vwvanagon@yahoo.com>
Comments: cc: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

>Patrick,
>
>Thought you would be dreading a reply from me on this, huh?
Naw, always up for a good fight...:)
>
>Aha, a DO-ABLE swap! When I blow up, this sounds like a good route to
>take. 2.3L Ford turbos (the ones in the T-bird) are plentiful, and it
>is easy to find a choice one. What are so bad about them? They hold up
>better that Rabbit gas motors, and I can back this up!

Don't want to start a thread on Rabbit vs 2.3, but my rabbit motors put up
with a helluvalotta abuse without dieing.  I took a motor with 180k miles on
it and added a turbo w/11 psi boost and no problems.  Biggest enemy to these
motors is detonation.  Even then at worst they blow a headgasket.  big deal,
15 bucks and 2 hours of work.  I have seen rab motors boosted to 20 psi that
have blown the gasket but never damaged the cilinder walls or holed a
piston.  These are cast pistons, too, unlike the 2.3 forged pistons that my
friend holed and scuffed the bore of his motor when he overheated.

On the other hand, the 2.3 is bigger, and with the turbo would move a
vanagon around rather nicely.  The cast iron head is bulletproof and never
warps, like aluminum.  These are modern engines, OHC/EFI/knock sensor/etc...

>Problem: I have never tried to contact Esslinger Engineering. Nobody
>around here carries this kit, so I'll have to go to EE. A search on
>Dogpile turned up nil. Where did you get this bad boy?
>
Esslinger Engineering
626 444 4919

PS - I'm working the bugs out of my kit right now.  The flywheel they sent
was 200mm.  28mm smaller than 091 flywheel and may not work at all.  I.E.,
don't pull your credit card out and call Esslinger until me or somebody else
gets to the bottom of this.