Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:07:33 +0000
Reply-To: Daniel O Stevens <dosteven@SYR.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Daniel O Stevens <dosteven@SYR.EDU>
Subject: Re: Air/wasser swap
In-Reply-To: <201110280101.p9S11KrD015866@mx2.syr.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Wait till you find out what happens when the oil change guy (or yourself) over torques the Oil base plate bolt.
It only takes ~9ft #'s iirc
But once that's broken on a T-IV engine..
it's pretty much game over..
though some have made some creative fixes.
Add in lack of horsepower (depending on where you live & drive) as well as lack of heat
And always still at risk of overheating and dropping a valve seat out of the head. A very common problem on T-IVs as well.
I went the VW inline 4cyl route... I'm far more familiar, and have a shed full of engines & parts.
Head gaskets are real, not modified valve cover gaskets like the 1.9 & 2.1 and the heat & power are appreciable. Not to mention the exhaust is $150 end to end.
Whatever you do best of luck and don't toss that T-IV engine.. they still have value.
Just not pushing a camper across the Mtns (IMHO)
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:33:08 -0700
From: Mark Hineline <hineline@OCOTILLOFIELD.NET>
Subject: Re: Air/wasser swap
> Thanks, Greg. A few notes:
> Leaving the transmission in place, you should be able to swap the
> engine and cooling system from the donor without much hassle. If you
> swap the transaxle as well you may need to bring along the shift
> linkage with it, as there were differences between aircooled and
> watercooled and diesel setups in that regard.
I'd actually like to swap to the later linkage, which is more robust,
and fewer NLA parts.
>
> But if I were you, I'd look for a later model 86-91 donor van with a
> 2.1L digifant setup. The cooling and FI are better engineered than
> the 1.9L equivalents.
If it's still a fairly straightforward swap, the 2.1 would make sense.
> The diesel vanagon used a different rad than the later models but I
> am sure you can adapt the cooling hoses to make do, or else swap the
> rad as well.
Radiator is gone from my van.
> Overall, it's MUCH easier to just drop the 2L and repair it; the
> waterboxer might make more power but it's not without its own demons.
Agreed, but as I said, I've had bad luck with the two liter. The idea
that a single bolt can completely disable the van AND require a
complete engine teardown just freaks me out. One bolt!
There are some other reasons why wasserizing might make sense. One is
that there are just fewer and fewer aircooleds in the boneyards these
days.
But I'm not completely decided.
Mark
