In a message dated 1/23/01 12:37:59 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Bluemax91G@NETSCAPE.NET writes:

When the 2.1l eng was introduced it was rated at 95hp in 1986. 1987 models
also rated at 95hp in sales catalogs but the owners book rated the eng at
90hp. all sales literature after that listed the eng at 90hp. The bentley
book rates the 2.1l at 90hp.I guess vw needed a 13hp incress for the extra
wt of the syncro models. Then in 1988 when they droped the syncro models
they 8hp increase was all they needed.

Um, first there are no differences between the engines in the years 86-91
here in the US. The hp numbers used by auto manufacturers in thier
literature is always kinda subjective. In other words they try to make thier
products look as good as possible using the highest numbers. They get a
decent hp number that most of the time is meaningless because it is not brake
hp (power at wheels) and every other car out there uses a different standard
to get it's hp rating. Why did they change the literature? Maybe the first
batch was an error or typo and they fixed it later. Maybe they couldn't
sleep at night thinking about all those disappointed Vanagon owners who were
going to have thier vans dyno tested and find that they actually only had 90
hp instead of 95, I really don't know :)

Second point, VW made Syncro Vanagons from 86-91. So there would be no
reason to change the hp output of these motors since they were still putting
them in syncros anyway.

Just FYI,

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
Van-Again
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
Office: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242