Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 22:57:15 EDT
Reply-To: Vantaztik@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Roger&Zoe Ann Banker <Vantaztik@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: 5 cylinder engine swap in progress
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
In a message dated 5/8/99 6:39:50 PM Pacific Daylight Time, alien1@JPS.NET
writes:
> I am still trying to decide what to do with my head fried Wasserleaker. My
> sister is also looking to convert her T3 in the near future so she is
waiting
> to see what I do. My current thinking is to stay with a VW engine and use
> the Eurospec, the Fastforward, or the 5-cyl.
>
> Has anyone done a conversion lately? I'd love any input I can get.
Before
> I left for my trip, I had a few people tell me their conversion was in
> process. What is the status?
We just took the big first step toward getting the 5 cylinder. It looked to
me to be the best balance of reliability, power and economy. There is no
ground clearance loss, and our Syncro skid plate is retained. We picked up a
donor car cheap and drove it to Detlev's. I was surprised how inexpensively
you can pick up a drivable Audi 5 cylinder. Ours is the 5000S 2.3 liter with
130 stock horsepower, no turbo. It won't shift into high gear, so we got it
for $500. If you are enterprising, you can get some of the investment back
by parting out the donor car. Detlev can also hop them up if you wish, but
the stock torque is plenty for me. The turbo gives more horsepower, but
isn't recommended for the Syncro. I drove Detlev's demo, a non-turbo 2.3
liter. I don't know which was more impressive; being able to accelerate past
traffic going uphill on the freeway, or smoothly accelerating from 20 mph in
4th gear! Even 2nd gear starts require no clutch slipping. The low end
torque will be great for our Syncro when we go trail crawling. And since the
engine redlines at 6300, each gear will have double the useable range of the
wasserleaker. The wife drove it and loved it not only for the smooth quiet
power, but also because with the broad torque range, less shifting is
required. The engine is being prepared, then we will drive the Syncro in for
the swap in late June.
Roger and Zoe Ann
1987 4X5 (4 wheel drive X 5 cylinder) Adventurewagen
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