Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 15:44:02 -0500
Reply-To: Bill Knight <bill@NS.ESC.STATE.NC.US>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill Knight <bill@NS.ESC.STATE.NC.US>
Subject: Upgrading 1.9 to 2.1
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
I received several inquiries about my recent project of upgrading my '84
Westfalia to 2.1 liter power. Rather than answer the individual questions,
I thought I'd post my experiences to the list directly.
I found the job to be very a straight forward swap. For the record, I've
rebuilt several waterboxer engines in the past, so the procedure is not new
to me, and I have all of the appropriate tools. It is a fairly easy job if
you have tools and patience, but I'll guarantee that you will run into some
kind of nasty snag somewhere along the way as I always do and this time, for
me, was no exception. My last engine snag was removing rotted cylinder head
studs, this time it was the lower engine mounting studs as I'll explain
below. There is always a gremlin lurking inside.
The "new" engine came from an '88 Vanagon automatic. My van has a manual
transmission, so it was necessary to swap over the flywheel, reset the
end-play, AND SWAP OVER THE TWO LOWER ENGINE TO BELL HOUSING STUDS. Let me
digress here about converting from automatic to manual... Why did I
emphasize those last few words? I found that the lower mounting studs are
about a half-inch shorter for the automatic. When I installed the engine,
the studs did not go all the way through the bell housing, so I could not
install the nuts. Out came the engine again and I successfully removed the
longer studs from my old engine, but the short ones on the new engine would
not come out, and they finally twisted and broke when I used a stud
extractor. Now of course those are like grade 8 bolts in a soft aluminum
case, so it took careful drilling and the installation of heli-coils to do
the fix.
Since I was in the position to take my time, I completely tore down the
"new" engine, took the parts to the local machine shop (a plug for T-Hoff
here... A great shop for parts and machine work.) to have the case cleaned
and checked, the crankshaft checked and polished, had the rods rebushed, and
had the heads get a valve job. The water gasket surface of the heads were
barely pitted, so I left that area alone. I had the cylinders honed, and
purchased a new set of german rings. The camshaft was worn, so I bought a
reground camshaft from Jim Thompson, and from whom I am still waiting for my
core refund after 3 months.
The engine went back together like clockwork, only trouble I had was with
the rod bolts which, in the 2.1 engine, are the stretch type. Bentley was
not clear about torque when reusing them so I finally decided to replace
them. The bolts were only available from the dealer and they cost $75.00
with new nuts. I used Curil sealant for the case halves, and the factory
stuff (another dealer item) for the head gaskets and the factory yellow
stuff for the head nuts.
When I had the long block complete, I pulled the 1.9 motor out of the
Westfalia and selectively swapped external parts. I used all of the 1.9
parts except for the intake manifold and throttle body. On the 2.1 they are
of a slightly larger inside diameter so I chose to use them since I got them
with the new engine. The 1.9 AFM boot fit the 2.1 throttle body perfectly
allowing me to keep the stock air cleaner box. There is no room for the 2.1
style air box due to coolant hoses being in the way. I kept the Digijet FI
system and find that it works great.
I used the 1.9 exhaust system since mine was almost new as well as the
oxygen sensor mounts differently for the Digijet system which I was keeping.
I also used the injectors from the 2.1 system. Although I believe they are
the same for both engines, these injectors had about 50% fewer miles on them
so I figured they were in better shape. I needed to fabricate a little hose
and fitting for the Digijet air bypass valve to make it work with the new
intake manifold, but that was pretty simple.
I installed a new water pump and used all the original 1.9 coolant pipes,
thermostat housing and hoses. I have, for now, left off the 2.1 oil cooler
since there is no convenient way to connect it to the 1.9 cooling system.
If oil temperature becomes a problem, I will come up with a way to plumb up
the oil cooler, possibly using the coolant bleeder valve that is made for
the automatic transmission model, and route the lines to the oil cooler that
are meant for the transmission oil cooler. That is my plan for now. I have
noticed that the oil temperature is quite a bit higher than the 1.9 engine,
running up about 250 degrees on highway runs at 70 mph. I am taking the oil
temperature reading at the oil galley where the 2.1 motor uses the second
oil pressure switch. By removing the second pressure switch and its sleeve,
a 16mm VDO temperature sender fits perfectly in its place. I also have a
VDO dual contact pressure sender mounted remotely on top of the engine and
plumbed with a length of copper tubing.
I swapped the flywheel, which had been recently surfaced from a recent
clutch job, and set the end play, which required ordering some shims from
the dealer. This would be the time to swap the lower engine mounting bolts
if you are converting from an automatic to a manual. I replaced the pilot
bearing in the crankshaft at this time as well. Carried over the clutch
assembly as well since it was nearly new.
I have noticed, however, that the starter motor, which worked fine with the
1.9 motor, is having trouble cranking the new motor. I've checked with my
parts guy and found that the newer Vanagons use a higher amperage starter
motor. Probably because of the higher compression engine, a stronger
starter is required. I'm planning to upgrade to the new starter soon.
Am I happy with it? YES. I wish I had done it a two years ago when I
bought the van with the original blown engine. I found that the rebuilt 1.9
motor that I had been running to be underpowered for the Westfalia, and on a
cross country trip had trouble keeping at the speed limit during the long
westward climb up to the continental divide on I-40. Big trucks kept
blasting past me which was frustrating. The 2.1 engine has plenty of power
now and I'm confident that my mountain driving experiences will be pleasant.
If it weren't for the Boston Engine heads only lasting 15K miles, I wouldn't
be going through this exercise, so I guess I'm happy the right head
developed its hairline crack in the water jacket so that I would have a
reason to do the swap.
Regards,
Bill Knight
Raleigh, NC
84 Westfalia Wolfsburg 2.1L
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