It's a fact that the Air-=
cooled vanagon engine or should I say fuel injection system (Air Flow Contro=
l) has less power than if it was carbureted . VW 's Vanagon AFC system, rede=
signed for the 80's to meet stricter emission standards, runs too lean and h=
as less power, and as a result, overheating, sucked valve seats, and burn ro=
d bearings, etc., are the bane of this engine.
Lowering the compression ratio helps, carburetion or other modifications=
will squeeze out more hp, but still the late model busses are faster-strict=
er emissions standards chopped hp off the Vanagon air-cooled engine.
It may be possible to construct your own flux capacitor using old Electr=
olux vacuum components and spare pinball machine parts, but then your need f=
or speed is dictated by either a heavy foot or the neighborhood you drive in=
.
In Seattle, I am in the fast lane quite often now that I have a 95 Golf =
engine pushing me along. Still this is not an overabundance of power at 115 =
hp, but it's needed in cities like these, or on long stretches in South Dako=
ta. I get out in rural areas often to slow down.
If there was even more power than this I might be scared, as my road roo=
ts are early bus and bug.
So this quest for power does have it's dangers. The happy balance is str=
uck i think when you have reasonable power, reliability, and a flux capacito=
r.
You are not alone: you're not the first to think of using the flux capac=
itor, nor the last.
Mr. Fusion
1982 Westfalia
PS
In WW ll the Bundeswehr(German Army) used wood gas generators to power K=
ubelwagens , Shwimmwagens, and other military vehicles. The Germans anticipa=
ted fuel supplies being cut off by allied forces, so they invented a way to =
make an alternative fuel to runs the engines or the Wehrmacht-methane!
The generator was large tank that digested wood fibers which produced m=
ethane to be burned by the engine instead of gasoline.
This big tank was under the hood of sedans, jeeps, etc.
The predecessor of the flux capacitor?
Note: mount the vacuum cleaner to the front of the vanagon.
All this time spent recently, in and around the wiring of my van, starin=
g at
gauges and wiring diagrams with symbols denoting the gauges i was just
staring at...
well it's gotten me to thinking- who needs a TDI conversion, a Porsche 9=
11
3.2L conversion, an Audi 5-cylinder conversion? the next logical step=
is
some sort of flux capacitor based conversion? why worry about taking =
your
van over the mountain when you could just jump far enough forward in tim=
e to
erode the Rockies into something more along the lines of the Appalachian=
s?
or better yet, turn the Appalachians into the rolling hills of Nebraska =
or
some other state that i'm pretty sure is more or less flat.
or perhaps some sort of system that creates a total vacuum just ahead of
your respective trusty vans at, and even below, highway speeds? i ima=
gine
the drag coefficient (which i believe for the Vanagon is described as "a=
kin
to a building rolling down a hill") is non-issue when there's no air to
measure it against. best of all, you'd probably leave a booming wave =
of
continuous thunder in your wake. you'd be more than a match for the k=
ids in
the lowered Civics with the glass packs and/or "boomin' " systems (as i'=
m
told they, the kids, like to call them).
i imagine the threat of total suffocation to any passersby on crosswalks
could be considered a drawback, or even a danger, but we're the ones sit=
ting
in the very front of our vehicles like little meat bumpers. a certain
amount of shared risk would even the scales i think. it might even br=
ing us
closer together as a society (but not too close, or you'll suffocate -se=
e
above-).
a friend of mine once took my speedometer out and placed number one stic=
kers
in front of the larger increment markers, but that only worked for a wee=
k.
imagine my initial surprise/fear as i found there was nothing i could do=
to
slow down enough in a school zone. the best i could do was 110mph.
luckily, i thought, these new model kids they make now can move at ne=
arly
the same relative speed as good ole me and my AIRCOOLED van. then lat=
er
that day one of the one stickers fell off as i pulled into my work parki=
ng
lot (at a blistering 125mph, in second gear!). my dream world was
shattered, and my van was again slow.
did i mention that while routing the final section of my spiffy new brig=
ht
yellow 16 Gauge tachometer wire from the stern to the bow that i found,
attached to my wiring harness with two plastic pull-ties, a
ten-or-so-year-old pack of Cherry Lifesavers?
no joke. it changed my whole day.
was this an option on the 1982 Vanagon L Westfalia?
the base models probably came with Butterscotch Lifesavers (yuch!), and =
the
GLs with real Scotch.