Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 07:54:46 -0800
Reply-To: ddawson <ddawson@SMJUHSD.SBCEO.K12.CA.US>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: ddawson <ddawson@SMJUHSD.SBCEO.K12.CA.US>
Subject: eurospec-tion
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Eurospec Vanagon Visit
I love Vanagons. I hate Vanagon engines. Over the years, I have owned
three Vanagons, an ‘86 GL ,’91 Wolfsburg Edition and currently an ‘87
Syncro GL. With a certain amount of guilt, I have also convinced my
brother-in-law (B-I-L) into buying Vanagons. He has owned an ‘86 GL, an
‘86 Syncro Westfalia and currently a ‘90 Syncro Westfalia. The problem
with this has been that I really like him as a B-I-L. Anyway, with all
these Vanagons, we have used the hell out of them while suffering through
all the ills I have read about weekly on the list: poor idle cold; poor
idle warm; slowing mysteriously to 13 mph while innocently cruising
Highway 101; hesitation; burned up ignition switches; weird oil warning
light behavior; and head lights that go out at 65mph on a remote road. We
have learned work the phrase of "DO YOU SMELL HOT ANTI-FREEZE ?" into
all conversations. The examples can go on and on...all of us can fill in
the list at infinitum. This has all happened in the face of meticulous
care and maintenance. Ford Quadravans are starting to look good and both
myself and my B-I-L are looking that way. However, we like VWs, as we
both also drive air cooled Type Is daily.
A few months ago, while putting together the wording for my Vanagons (For
Sale) sign, I noticed the mention of Eurospec on the Vanagon List. I read
the available article from "European Car" which peaked my interest. Could
the 2.0L Gulf/Jetta engine conversion keep us from the World of
Quadravanland? I contacted a gentleman by the name of Kyle Wade, who
works for Volks Cafe in Santa Cruz, California. Volks Cafe has a
contract with Eurospec to install this engine package into water-cooled
Vanagon's. Apparently this installation can be done to any combination of
2WD or 4WD, Westfalia or 7 passenger GL, automatic or manual transmission
and I believe either gas or diesel. This all sounded promising, so I
called my B-I-L, David, who lives in Tehachapi, California, and along with
my son, Marc, who attends Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, we trekked north to
Santa Cruz. We had a Saturday morning meeting with Kyle for a
inspection, test drive and question session.
After the three and half hour rain soaked drive from my home in Santa
Barbara County, we arrived around noon at the Volks Cafe on Soquel Ave. in
beautiful downtown Santa Cruz. Before our meeting, we dined on hamburgers
at the Foster Freeze across the street which took me back to the 1960’s.
This also gave the rain a chance to stop. About 12:15, Kyle greeted us at
the front door and he immediately took us in the back of their shop where
the inspection and questions got under way. Kyle has worked for Volks
Cafe for many years and now has a responsibility with Eurospec in Gilroy,
so we figured this was a golden opportunity to talk with a knowledgeable
person who was in the know and had a ground floor understanding of the
product. This proved to be true as Kyle answered all our questions in
great detail. We really thank him for the time and information he shared.
Great VW guy!
On the floor was a complete engine assembly strapped to a pallet and it
had just be delivered via a 2.0L powered Vanagon from the Eurospec
facility in Gilroy. This particular engine was scheduled to be installed
by Volks Cafe at the beginning of the week. It was configured for a
Syncro with air conditioning, power steering and I believe cruise control
(?). Because of brackets and belt requirements, the customer must
pre-specify their vehicle’s options then, each engine package is prepared
for that installation. The engines are complete from the K&N air cleaner
to the chrome exhaust tip and include all new parts which is an immediate
advantage over a traditional 2.1 rebuild. There are plug-ins and wire
leads for OBD-1, a dynamic oil pressure light and or gauge, and an oil
temperature gauge. The assembly has radiator hoses, fuel lines, vacuum
lines, fan belts and pulleys and they all mate up to the Vanagon’s
existing chassis and peripheral systems. All the Vanagon instruments
work with this engines sensors and senders. The system uses the stock
Vanagon fuel pump and filter. I counted only about 7 or 8 coolant hoses
where my Vanagon back home seems to have about 200!
The engine supplied is a brand new piece from VW of Germany and is rated
at 115 hp , 122 lb-ft of torque and I believe a compression ratio of 10.5
to 1. It has an engine family designation of 2LVGGFA and a CARB # of
EOD-459. All the necessary paper work and ID stickers are supplied with
each engine. This gives all of us in California, a high level of comfort
during our biennial ritual of smog device certification. I did not ask
about the difference of the total weight between the 2.0L and the 2.1L.
There is also included an engine supporting cradle made of shinny black
round steel tubing, mounting plates with all new high grade bolts, nuts
and washers along with new motor mounts. A cast aluminum trunnion
supports the cast iron block for the mounts and muffler system. This
stuff is first class and looked almost hand fabricated. Some stuff was
aircraft good, all the rest is as good or better than Volkswagen would
have done it. I believe Kyle said the mounting system is all VW and
basically from the diesel. Also from the diesel, is a new 5 quart oil pan
design that is angled at the bottom and, along with a different oil
pickup, allows the compact 2.0L to be laid over toward the driver side of
the engine compartment to clear the engine cover. There will be no loss
of ground clearance for my Syncro and the conversion also allows for the
retention of the stock square tube ladder structure, affording the
previous undercarriage and engine protection. The dip stick is in the
center of the engine compartment and, along with the passenger side
relocation of the coolant and power steering fluid tanks/reservoirs and
oil fill, appear to be serviceable only through the topside engine cover.
The rear license plate access won’t do it anymore. I actually prefer the
new locations in some respects. Looks a lot cleaner and more secure.
The package also includes all new digifant fuel injection stuff such as
injectors, air manifold, airflow meter (stock Vanagon), throttle body,
idle stabilizer control valve and ECU. The cylinder head on this engine
is in and out on the same driver side, so the intake manifold casting
clears the rear wheel well by only about an inch. The ‘86 Jetta based ECU
(I wonder if this could be reprogrammed for a few more hp) is mounted on
the driver side rear wheel well wall facing aft. I believe this is the
normal location for pre-’85 models but, my ‘87 will have the ECU location
move from under the weekender rear seat. Perhaps the wire length
resistance calibrations won’t allow any pigtailing back to the under seat
location. I thought the ECU might need a little more vibration/heat
isolation. All of this is plug and play with the only exception being
the water temperature sensor in the coolant expansion fill bottle. The
installer will need to cut two wires in your vehicle to allow for the
bottle’s new location. There is a complete ignition system including the
distributor, coil, controls and all wiring.
One of the problems, among other things, I have always felt with Chevy
V-8’s, Porsches, Ford V-6’s, Subaru, Audi, Wankel et al conversions has
been the "hammer it to fit and paint to match" approach. Some of these
engine can perform beautifully but, when traveling far from home or even
servicing them on a day to day basis, they seem to have hills I choose not
to bleed on. This 2.0L VW conversion has my serious attention because
there is a minimum of cross breeding. It is almost all stock VW and
therefore, much more livable in the long run. If one makes this kind of
investment, it will need to be a long term deal. I have heard of many
mechanics that will not touch a cross bred conversion. This engine
combination seems to have no such problem. This VW engine is very
familiar to VW mechanics and is very serviceable. It is a VW engine in a
VW body. The 60,000 mile timing belt appears to have a simple replacement
procedure as do the oil / filter changes, hoses, spark plugs, ignition
parts and diagnostics.
I hope Eurospec will include for their customers, a small shop manual
printed for this engine and vehicle combination. It should include
routine maintenance procedures, intervals and any unique operations
necessary for long term care by both owners and local neighborhood VW
mechanics. We also felt that a parts list of the components with the
model and year of their origin is a must. I keep picturing myself walking
into the Napa Auto Parts store in remote Page, Arizona ( a great part of
the world) four years from now wanting SOME TYPE OF VW radiator hose! I
have to know the origin of the selected parts. Wiring diagram changes
have also got to be on paper as I believe they will be. Kyle suggested an
‘88 to ‘92 Jetta Shop manual.
We felt some disappointment with the exhaust system. Starting at the
exhaust port, there is a stock VW exhaust manifold. The exhaust system
from here on is a beautifully purpose built, custom made 2 to 1
Y-collector, housing a mount for the 4 wire (?) O2 sensor and a welded in
pre-cat. Then it elbows rearward toward the Catalytic Converter. The
system then elbows across the back, using a very heavy gauge tubing and
then goes into a huge muffler, which is basically in the same position as
the original piece. After the muffler, there is another elbow with a
chrome tipped pipe exiting straight out the back on the passenger side.
With the restrictions of an in-line rear engine vehicle, the design is
pretty is efficient. The problem with all of this is, is that the parts
are not VW and they are NOT stainless steel. This presents the problem of
one of the more wearable parts not being either easily purchased from off
the shelve sources nor made of more durable SST which would minimize the
non VW issue. Personally, I would pay for a complete SST exhaust system.
I wonder if Borla or S&S would be interested or able to offer a
competitive option here? I contacted Borla a few years back concerning a
muffler for a ‘91 Range Rover and even though they didn’t offer an
application for my vehicle, the guy that owned the company hooked me up
with a similar physical and back pressure matching unit.
Overall, we were all very impressed with how complete and well thought out
this conversion is. It looks like what Volkswagen should have, but
unfortunately didn’t do. It looks exceptionally good and based on my
standards of long term serviceability, it appears Eurospec has picked the
correct parts for durability, ease of maintenance, a little better mileage
and improved driving performance.
The fun part of our visit was the test drive. The Vanagon which Kyle had
available to test drive, was a ‘85 2WD Vanagon GL. It had 15” alloy
wheels with 205-65 Continental non re-enforced tires. It also sported a
brake kit that had larger front discs and larger one piece rear drums.
YIKES...THE BRAKES WERE GREAT! The van also appeared to be slightly lower
with it’s Carat springs. The lack of power steering was interesting.
We loaded up our four adult crew and headed for the mountain pass freeway
heading over to the Bay Area. This thing was awesome. We could actually
accelerate in fourth gear HEADING UP THE GRADE. I actually experienced
the sensation of acceleration for the first time in a Vanagon! Besides
owning VWs as a fun thing to do, I have been fortunate enough to own a few
great German cars. I know what a properly behaving vehicle should drive
like. The 2.0L makes the Vanagon drive correct. This was not a hot rod
but, you could pass at will and it pulled very strong on the freeway.
Flooring the throttle was rarely necessary and actually half throttle was
all that was necessary most of the time. I suspect the engine is putting
out a little more than 115 hp with the exhaust setup and K&N but, this is
strictly speculation on my part. It was easy to drive on surface streets
without the need to hold third gear so long. The power curve was even and
it started down low. The test Vanagon had no tach, so I have no numbers
but, things started to happen not far above idle. I could accelerate
easily from 20 mph in third. Very friendly to drive both in town and on
the highway. Kyle reported that this vehicle got 22 mpg overall. He told
me to expect +2 mpg above what I am presently getting. My Syncro averages
15.8 with a 175,000 mile motor so I am expecting somewhere between 18 to
20 mpg on the freeway. Except for a little rattle from an early prototype
muffler bracket and the item mentioned below, the engine had a very nice
sound. The engine sounded very quite in town as well as on the freeway
and ran very normally. I kept thinking, why didn’t VW do it this way in
the beginning. It was fun to drive. The 2.1L quirks were gone and the
new engine felt very respectable.
We did feel concern about the air gulping sound the engine makes on hard
acceleration. There is a spring wire reinforced accordion styled air duct
routed from the intake airflow meter on the driver side of the engine bay
to the passenger side of the compartment. There is a plastic mount that
secures the ducting to the inner body sheet metal and seals the K&N into a
chamber of cool air coming from the vent behind the passenger side window
class. I am not sure this is a very clear explanation but the result is
an air vibration that produces a harmonic noise as high volumes of air are
demanded by the engine. Perhaps a smooth tube would generate less noise
and more power.
My last BIG concern is the warranty of only six months. This is all new
high quality stuff. Why does Eurotech only stand behind it for a half a
year? This is a bad message. They should allow the vehicle at least a
full cycle of driving seasons and 15,000 miles. Better yet would be a
warranty of two years and 30,000 miles.
All that is left is the decision about spending the $6000 ($5000 for parts
and $1000 labor) on my $6000 ‘87 Syncro. This has to be a long term
proposition to get a proper payback. We own a clean van which I have
recently rebuilt or replaced the transmission, CV joints, clutch assembly,
wheel bearings, shocks, tie rods ends, ball joints, rims, tires, relays,
fuses, bulbs, switches, seals, sensors, senders, fluids, lubricants,
filters, brakes and so on. I still have a lack of reliability. Is this
2.0L conversion the final step? Is it a good value? What will the resale
value do if my needs change? This is the best engine conversion package I
have ever seen for a vehicle, any vehicle. It is very well thought out
and executed. I think this is the right product for my family, we just
need to now, justify the 6 Gs for the 2 Ls.
We will see.
David
VW driver
|