Vanagon EuroVan
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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
Comments: To: Vanagon <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Comments: cc: David Thompson <david.thompson@edwards.af.mil>,
          Marc Dawson <mcdawson@polymail.calpoly.edu>
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


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