Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (December 1999, week 3)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Sun, 19 Dec 1999 21:15:11 -0500
Reply-To:     Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bulley <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Air Cooled Conversion
Comments: To: "jbrush@AROS.NET" <jbrush@AROS.NET>

John-

You aren't an idiot. A moron, maybe, but certainly not an idiot.

You CAN get acceptable power from the 2.0 liter without going into crazy-weird stuff. Consider the following relatively inexpensive improvements to your stock 2.0. 1. Replace crank with a counterweighted crank. Gives you a little more top-end for better shifting/driving 2. Race balance whole motor. As above, plus adds reliability, and incredible smoothness. 3. Swap 94mm pistons to 96mm hypereutectic pistons by NPR. Great highway performance, add a couple of horsepower without much 'risk'. 4. Have your heads swapped out for a set of 1.7 liter heads, rebuilt, cc'd, and ported. These heads have slightly larger valves, which will help the 96's breath a little easier. 5. Seal up all the leaks in your tin, make sure ALL of your cooling stuff is in top notch shape. A cool motor will run faster, with more HP. 6. Wrap your exhaust manifold with Race-tec? (sp?) fiberglass insulating web wrap. This eliminates radiant head against the bottom of the heads, and keep your exhaust gasses from cooling, and thus slowing as they leave the motor. Thus, your motor doesn' ave to do as much work to push the exhaust out.

Most of theses are fairly inexpensive, and carry little risk, If you drive like you have a brain between your jug-handles.

G. Matthew Bulley Bulley-Hewlett Corporate Communications Counselors www.bulley-hewlett.com Cary, NC USA 888.468.4880 tollfree

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------- Get your FREE semi-private E-mail account, use your computer at work.

-----Original Message----- From: John Brush [SMTP:jbrush@AROS.NET] Sent: Sunday, December 19, 1999 3:43 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Air Cooled Conversion

I don't usually like to ask stupid questions in a public forum, but I just can't help myself this time :)

I have an 81 Vanagon, excellent condition and of course, paid for. I love it, my children love to camp and tour with it, and I have no desire to sell it. In addition, I don't see very many around here for sale in a condition close to mine even if I wanted one. It has 200K on it, and runs clean as can be, but its slow, as you might guess.

I would like more power. I don't necessarily need a ton, I just want to upgrade a bit, plus I think it is only a matter of time until I am forced to do it, so I would rather get a head start before its necessary. I work better with no stress ;-)

My dumb question is this: Is it stupid to consider upgrading to a bigger, air cooled motor? I drool at the idea of a turbo diesel, or something exciting like that.

Would it be more work than would be worth it to update the van to water cooled? Can a radiator be rigged elsewhere besides waaaay up front? The clutch is all but new, so I would rather not mess with the transmission if I could avoid it.

Anyway, rather than ramble, I will leave the deal at that and see if I am stuck in the world of air cooled, low power vanagons, or not :-)

Thanks for any comments or suggestions. If you want to call me an idiot, I prefer p-mail for that :-)

Regards from SLC, Ut

John


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.