At 08:25 PM 9/5/2000 -0400, Robert Lilley wrote:
>In a message dated 9/5/2000 5:22:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>wdavidson@thegrid.net writes:
>
> >  a rebuilt high performance experiment... (perhaps experiment is not the
> >  right word... try hobby engine)
>
>The WBX is a combination of best of both the T1 and T4 engines.
>
>And what I have USED is PROVEN T1 performance parts not guesses or cheap
>parts hoping to last.  I have tried too many HP parts that did not work (many
>are still being used today to unknowing people, slick advertising) in my past
>18 years of VW T1, T4 and WBX engine experience.  I have used what has worked
>for me and not used what has not worked for me.
>
>
>[[[[ SNIP ]]]
>I did not change the compression (you could get the higher compression
>pistons).  I made the intake flow more and with the chip tuned the FI system
>hotter.
>The HP estimate before the chip is @120 to 130 after the chip 132  to 156 HP.
>
>VW dropped the 2L I4 for the 2.3 to 2.6 I5 because the I4 did not make enough
>power.  VW also is using the .457 five speeds with the 2.6L engines because
>they can handle the power the I5s put out.

I'm normally a lurker on this list, but this discussion caught my eye. My
'87 bus is very close to the 180k mark on the original bottom end (Heads
replaced at 120k) and I know that I will have to do something in the very
near future.  Here are some issues that I have with both trains of thought:

1) Is the I4 swap smog legal in California?

2) Has anything been done to the hot WBX to reduced/eliminate the dreaded
head corrosion?

3) Is a hot WBX (high-flow heads, rockers, headers, ecu) still smogable in
California?

Number 2, in my opinion, is still the WBX's Achilles heel. Especially when
you consider that high-flow heads are going to cost roughly double of
replacement stock heads...  But at this point I'm still undecided as to
which route to go.  If I could drop my bus at a shop, plus 10k, and have a
1.8T + 5 speed swapped in I'd do it in a heart beat...

-Sebastian Hill
'87 Wolf. Ed. Vanagon
'00 Passat GL