Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 09:27:28 -0700
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: WBX6 RE: difference's between model years
In-Reply-To: <51F65425-0AF8-412D-B6C7-6B69601EBFDE@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I followed the release of the Vanagon with the idea I could replace my '68
Westy when it came out. VW only talked about a special water cooled engine
in the new model before it was released (obviously the body was built to
accommodate a radiator), but they could not get their act together in time
for the model switchover.
Unfortunately, they did the easiest thing, which was to just keep using the
2.0 air cooled engine until they could figure it out. As we now know, they
never did.
One problem they had is that all the I-4s of the seventies were small. The
Jetta introduced in 1979 had engine options ranging from 1.1 to 1.6 liters,
and the 1.6 diesel, which did make it into the Vanagon.
Porsche did put a nice air cooled engine in though (from Wikipedia):
"Porsche has created a version called B32 in a limited edition. The van,
based on the luxurious Carat model, was equipped with the 231 PS (170 kW)
3.2 liter Carrera engine and was originally developed to support Porsche's
testing activities in Algeria. Ten of these were built, with some sold by
Porsche to special customers. Porsche themselves also used the
Porsche-engined bus to transport staff rapidly."
I finally bought one in '86 (a used '84) with 30k on it, and at 45k the left
head leaked. It was out of warranty, but VW did pick up the cost of two new
heads, and I paid $1400 for labor and miscellaneous parts (nearly $3000
today, I was not a happy camper). The good news is it went another 150,000
miles and was still running fine when I replaced it with a 2.1.
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Stacy Schneider
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2014 9:07 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: WBX6 RE: difference's between model years
What's really amazing is that within 4 years new it already had an
engine transplant .
Must have been one of the earliest transplants out there .
Stacy
Happily Married since 1986 .
> On Sep 29, 2014, at 19:28, raceingcajun <raceingcajun@COMMUNICOMM.COM>
wrote:
>
> In 1986 I drove my 1982 formally diesel in-line 1.8 gas Jetta
> transplant to Volkswagen school in San Antonio for a new products
> course. My van was a hit with all, including the German
> instructor........who's only comment was; "that's the one Volkswagen let
get away"!
>
> Howard
>
>
>> A 6 cylinder WBX? Great, that would probably come with an even more
>> Imagine if VW had put the WBX R/D money into refining an I4 or I5
>> from the There's nothing wrong with the Wasserboxer that another
>> couple of cylinders wouldn't have fixed...
