Date:         Mon, 5 Jun 2000 16:18:37 -0700
Reply-To:     Peter B <peterb@TIICO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Peter B <peterb@TIICO.COM>
Subject:      engine conversion Tii - from the horses mouth
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I am not one to jump into debates, sometimes better to ride themselves
out and let the customer do the talking. I have confidence that this kit
will surface as a very inviting alternative to the various power plants
offered for Vanagons. So much for that.......


Regarding the message below.

First, thank you very much for the compliments and I hope your sister is
happy with the conversion. That is the most important to me.

- the plugs in the intake manifold are put in at the factory. None have
blown out in South Africa in the past 5 years and 500 plus kits. Enough
said.

- That is correct, there is no provision for cruise control, but we do
have some wonderful shops that have done the installation who see it as
very possible and an update will follow shortly.

- I did not here about the camshaft pulley from the customer. If not
correct, I will correct it at the customers request.

- 02 sensor: Thanks to some very savvy people here in the states who
have graciously donated there time, we are very close to wiring the 02
sensor into the ECU, which does have a provision for it. More to follow.

- I was sorry to hear the mechanic did not find my service acceptable. I
was in contact with the shop everyday until their analyzer finally was
able to communicate with the ECU. I felt that I was open and reciprocal
with information as I had it. It took some doing, but Dave at Courtesy
Motors in Madison, WI was able to crack it with a machine that emulates
the 1551's functions, the "UDS PRO" and the "CS2000" from
www.baumtools.com. Courtesy Motors is a great shop who is doing 4 of our
conversions and I found Dave is very easy to work with.


My unbiased opinion (yeah, right!), this is a great kit for the Vanagon.
I would not be involved in importing the kit if I didn't think it was
something special. There is no trying to scrounge around for parts from
a diesel, we supply all the parts new and genuine. The engine fits
perfect, no modification is necessary to the engine lid or the intake
side of the engine compartment. The engine is very serviceable with
parts in the USA. It is a nice well rounded kit that you would be hard
pressed to find compromises typically found in conversions.

Sorry, it was more then two cents worth. Maybe a nickel.

Peter B.

TiiCo
www.tiico.com












If anyone is curious, I got a look at a completed Tii conversion on
Thursday.  My sister bought the kit and had it installed by her
mechanic.  I stopped by to visit the mechanic and took it for a test
drive.  My
thoughts and the mechanics comments are as follows:



Positive things:

    This is a very clean conversion.  It looks like it belongs there.
The dipstick and coolant are still accessible through the license.  The
engine fits with lots of room to spare and no need to raise the deck
lid.
    The engine idles very well.  There is less vibration than a WBX on
idle.
    The oil filter is very accessible and easy to reach.
    You use the stock muffler/Cat and the stock fuel injection.



Not so Positive things:

    The air Intake to the Fuel injector just after the air filter has
two plugs in it.  It seems like these would blow out pretty easily on a
backfire or even just vibration.  The air filter is also hard to reach.
    There is no cruise control option enabled.  I think they’ll have to
rig something.
    The camshaft pulley seemed off center and kind of warbled a bit.
    No Oxy sensor.  Could be a problem for DEQ.



The mechanic liked the kit and the way it ran.  Both of us drove it up a
very steep hill near his shop and were impressed with the power band.
We were able to accelerate from 55 up to 65 on the hill.  In my van,
you can only accelerate to about 58.  The mechanic did not have the best
opinion of Peter (the guy who sells the kit).  His first complaint was
that they had a bad transistor coming off the coil.  The replacement
was hard and very slow to get.  Once they got it, it wasn’t a Telefunkt
or Bosch but some cheap Taiwanese transistor.  He also told me that the
instructions had bad info on the scan tool.  Other than those few
problems, the install was pretty smooth.  He just didn’t like the way
Peter didn’t seem so eager to help.  They were led to believe this kit
had been installed many times before, but the reality is this was his
first US
shipment.  They were in it for 30 hours and they figure the next time
will take about 20.



I am very interested in the kit for my Carat.  However, I would
definitely miss the low-end torque.  My Waterboxer is running too well
right now (knock on wood) to think about it just yet!