Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 21:18:13 EDT
Reply-To: KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Subject: First 5-cylinder conversion on the East Coast!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Well, as you have heard, I have been buried in a 5-cylinder conversion
project for the past several weeks. I apologize to those who have been
neglected by my not being able to give them my full attention. Now that the
project is over I will shift all my efforts back into making my part business
my main focus, and not letting what has happened over the last few weeks (not
returning calls, emails, etc) happen again.
As far as the conversion goes, I am very happy with the results.
We used an '84 Vanagon with a weekender interior, Air conditioning, but no
power steering. Our donor vehicle was an '86 Audi GT Coupe with only 80k
original miles (wrecked).
Buying the whole car for the conversion was the best thing we ever did as we
needed several parts from it that I hadn't counted on initially. The car
cost us $500 and the engine was like new basically.
The kit parts, supplied to me by my very helpful and knowledgable partner
Detlev Hanschke (thanks Detlev!) allowed us to do the conversion with a
minimal of hassle.
We used the basic Winkler Kit (modified by Detlev) and his coolant line
setup, intake setup, throttle cable, airbox bracket, exhaust system, etc and
it made for a nice, almost stock looking setup when we were done.
Driving the van around today (our first day after the conversion was
finished) was a cool experience. Putting the van in second gear and feeling
yourself pushed back into the seat was something I had never experienced in a
Vanagon before. The engine purrs like a tiger (quiet but gutteral) and makes
you feel like you've really got something back there. At highway speeds
(65-70mph) the van was very quiet and smooth with plenty of power on tap for
passing, going up hills, etc.
As far as fitting under the rear deck lid goes (to stem the tide of 50 emails
asking about this) it fit great with the only mod to the lid being to cut
away some of the sound dampening material on the bottom.
Ground clearance, with our conversion, was only shortened by one inch. I
could do a conversion without losing any ground clearance (as Detlev has
done) however the customer was more concerned with not wanting to modify the
decklid at all (you do have to modify it slightly to keep ground clearance on
a 2wd Vanagon the same but not enough to hamper full use of the rear bed in
camping).
Engine conversions are not for everyone (expense and time are a factor) but
now I know that if you do one right, with the right motor, you will be very
happy with the end results.
Just wanted to let everyone know that I will now be officially back in the
loop.
Ken Wilford
Van-Again
John 3:16
PS I met Eric from Pittsburg, PA today. A really nice guy. He is
vacationing in Ocean City for a week so he decided to stop by and check out
the conversion.
