Date:         Thu, 13 May 1999 23:54:03 -0600
Reply-To:     Larry Hamm <ldhamm@XMISSION.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Larry Hamm <ldhamm@XMISSION.COM>
Subject:      Re: gearing
Comments: To: s_walker@MINDSPRING.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Scott Walker wrote:
>
> Hello,
>     With all the recent talk of tall tires, I am interested in attempting to
> determine what rpms my motor will be turning at a given speed. While my tranny (DZ) is not listed
> on Helmut's page, I'm sure that the other diesel trannies are similar enough
> for my usage, which is to determine whether or not I need to swap to an air
> cooled gearbox for best usage of my I-4 conversion.

Scott,
I swapped an '86 Jetta engine into my diesel Westy, and can tell you
that you certainly need to do something to make up for the extremely low
gearing of the DZ box.(5.86) Most people just graft the diesel
bellhousing and input shaft onto a gas trans, which works fine. I like
to get off road to camp, so I left the DZ as is and added 15" wheels
with 235/75-15 tires, and gained about 1.75" ground clearance. It's
still a bit low geared, but is happy to cruise at 75-80mph, and I have a
bit more grunt for those fire trails. I don't have a tach or I'd quote
some RPM's for you.
Larry
'82 diesel->Jetta Westy