Date:         Thu, 6 Jun 2002 11:54:46 -0700
Reply-To:     James Adams <james_adams@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         James Adams <james_adams@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      TiiCo Conversion Engine
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hello,

I have recently had a TiiCo engine put into my 1990
Vanagon GL and I am not very pleased with it,
especially considering what I paid for it.  So I
thought that I should run a few of my impressions past
the expert readers of this list to see whether I am
justified in my disappointment or if perhaps I was
just expecting too much.

Let me enumerate my complaints below - any feedback on
these will be very appreciated.


1) The engine coughs and sputters if I crank it and
drive it right away.  In order to avoid this it needs
top be cranked and left running at idle for about 15
minutes.  Otherwise it will drive very poorly (in
first and second gear mainly) for about 10 miles.
Especially in first and second gear it behaves as if
there is some sort of problem with getting gas or air
to the engine (coughing, I'll call it) until it hits
about 3000 RPMs at which point it races and seems to
be getting too much juice.  I was under the impression
that a modern, and in this case brand new, engine
wouldn't require any significant warm up time.  I
realize that it is always a good idea to let the
engine warm up no matter how new or modern it is, but
the fact is that I'm a typical American and I don't
"take my time" as often as I should.  Typically I want
to crank the engine and drive away.  One reason I went
with the TiiCo engine is because it would be a brand
new, modern engine which I assumed (incorrectly,
obviously) would not require much if any warm up
before driving it.  I based this assumption on the
fact that other modern cars, such as my brother's 2001
Jetta, don't require much, if any, warm up, even in
the winter time.

2) My engine is loud and vibrates *MUCH* more than my
previous Vanagon 2.1L engine (rebuilt once).  Is this
just the nature of this engine ?  I feel like I'm now
driving a hot-rod and this is not at all what I am
used to nor what I wanted.  I must gun the engine in
1st and 2nd gears and need to drive this engine much
more like a race car, which I'm not accustomed to.
With my old engine I didn't have to "race" the engine
to get normal acceleration, but with this one I do.
When I found out that the TiiCo engine is the same one
that is used in new South African Golfs and Jettas I
went to the VW dealer to test drive these vehicles and
they were dreamy.  No warm up required before driving
it, smooth progression through the gears (no feeling
of driving a race car, having to gun the engine, etc).
 Of course I probably shouldn't have expected that my
new engine would feel as smooth and quiet as these new
US VW vehicles, but I certainly didn't expect that
this new, *EXPENSIVE* engine would be as rough, loud
and vibrating as it is.  My previous engine was smooth
and quiet, and I expected that a brand new, very
expensive engine would be approximately the same in
this respect.

3) The engine has some knocking when going from 1st to
2nd and again from 2nd to 3rd gears.  This is a very
"light" knocking which isn't always noticeable, but
when I'm driving between buildings or other places
where I can get a good sound reflection I can hear it.
 Passengers in my van have commented on this as well,
without prompting them, so I'm sure that this isn't
just in my head.  Add this to the fact that I get
significant vibration at about 3000 RPMs and you may
understand why I feel like something's not all right
with the engine.


I have had this engine installed by a very experienced
and, in my opinion, a very competent mechanic so I
don't think that the problems I'm experiencing are a
result of a poor installation job.  But perhaps the
engine can be tuned to smooth out the vibration,
remove the knocking, and improve the performance of
the engine when it's first started or "cold" ?  I
realize that an engine needs a few thousand miles to
"break in" but I am a bit worried that the problems
that I'm experiencing are more serious in nature.

Any feedback on this will be greatly appreciated.  If
anyone can suggest procedures that I might attempt to
improve the situation then please forward me your
ideas (tune up ?  valve job ?  obviously I'm pretty
clueless about this sort of thing).

Thanks in advance...


-James


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