Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 18:18:58 +0000
Reply-To: Marius Strom <marstrom@MICROSOFT.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Marius Strom <marstrom@MICROSOFT.COM>
Subject: Re: Why no bolt-on HP upgrades to the 2.1 WBX?
In-Reply-To: <CAEuQn0YBn87KEKUHWiSuzT-ehBRDP+nCmXysj=0_nW6-UN-50Q@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Uhh, Rocky Mountain Westy sells a tuned exhaust setup for the 2.1WBX that is awesome. Rocky Jennings and tencent sell a throttle body/vacuum switching module that behaves much better than the stock. Tencent sells an oil cooler setup (ok, that one's not directly performance related).
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Roland
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:32 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Why no bolt-on HP upgrades to the 2.1 WBX?
Ok, so it is now Thursday in Osnabruck, Graz, and SA, and it is the day before a long weekend, and many be going splittin' for the weekend, and worried this message may be deemed something that should wait until Friday but....maybe it is ok to ask.
I was wondering why there are no HP upgrades to the 2.1 WBX. There are so many other engines that all have upgrades -- intake flow enhancement, exhaust headers, sparkin' plugs, reworked heads, super charger kits, lightweight rods/pistons, larger valves, and (oh my!) nitrous?
Anyway, I can't recall any performance upgrades to the 2.1 mentioned here, or bolt-on kits sold by the knowledgeable vendors (I've bought from all and so thankful they serve us). I have had a few other cars, and essentially all have many options to increase engine performance.
it is kinda a poll:
- the 2.1 WBX was a purposeful, optimized design and maxed out the way it is.
- ya can't do much more with just 2.1 liters?
- requires reprogramming the ECU which nobody knows how to do?
- heads are maxed, no flow increase possible, the material is too thin, can't tune the head.
- we Vanagon-ers prefer it slow, nobody would invest in a market that prefers to cruise.
- the owner of 95 HP in a 4,500 lb vehicle would not get excited about 110 HP in a fully loaded 4,999 lb vehicle.
- the 2.1 was a compromise, just a 1,500 CC bug engine patched to sell T3s.
- need to add 2 more cylinders --Porsche got more than 200 hp from it's 2.2 liter 6 cylinder. (and for the interested over 1,000 hp from it's 16 cylinder 917).
- And disclaimer... I know that tencent and gowesty and others offer high HP WBX, but they aren't really 2.1s anymore, and they require a full rebuild instead of bolt on performance upgrades.
So what is it about the 2.1?
Why is conversion to some other engine, or total rebuild (same cost as
conversion) the only path to higher HP?
Why can't the 2.1 be improved with some bolt on upgrades?
Thanks
Roland
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