Well, Volksies, I'm back from the first big trip with the new Boston 
Bob 2.1 Big Valve engine.  Ottawa ~ Pittsburgh & back to have Turkey dinner 
with my family down there.  Two turkeys and way too much food but had a 
grande time with all the relatives.
       The engine now has 3,182 km on it.  Now running 10w40 oil it used one 
litre of oil on the way down and one litre of oil on the way back.  So it 
seems the rings are still not fully seated.  There still seems to be some 
crankcase pressure which is showing up with some small amounts of oil exiting 
the dip stick tube end.  Oil pressure reading 2 ~ 5 lb. @ 900 rpm, 19 lb. @ 
3000 rpm, 22 lb. @ 4000 rpm.  Gas mileage on the trip was 16 ~ 17 mp/g, yes 
mp/g not km/l as most of the gas was bought in the US I did not feel like 
doing the conversion back to litres !!  Anyways, the low gas mileage may be 
attributable to the big valves and crappy road conditions.....it was steady 
snow storm down and back.  Roads in upstate PA near Bradford were the worst, 
covered with some kind of cinder sand mix, we got pelted a number of times by 
passing trucks, resulting in a chip in my not even one year old windshield 
and numerous paint chips in the new paint.  Pissed off, you damn right I am 
and I'm just now composing myself to write a letter of complaint to the PA 
dept of Highways !  Probably only good for venting at best though !  
       So, how does this big valve motor perform ?  Well, pretty good I'd 
have to say after taking it through the mountains of PA.  Still needed to 
shift to third to get up most of those hills between Bradford and Kittaning 
but we're still dealing with a little less that 100 hp in 3000 lb vehicle 
that was loaded with four passengers and all kinds of luggage !  Acceleration 
is where the biggest difference of the big valve motor shows.  Definitely an 
improvement there.  The engine is also very smooth running at highway speeds 
which I held at below 120 km/h for the trip, In fact the majority of the trip 
was done at around 100 km/h.  The complete balancing of the engine and clutch 
definitely shows up there.  
       Back home now I've changed the oil & filter once again and will put 
the engine onto a normal service ritual.  Hopefully the rings will seat in 
soon and the oil consumption will go down.
       It was nice to not have to lift the engine lid during a trip......just 
for a change !!  Thank you Bob for the nice waterboxer engine !  

Cheers��

Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm">BusFusion</A> a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 12 ~ 15, 2003
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains
Member: <A HREF="http://www.vanagon.com/">Vanagon List</A>, <A HREF="http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/">LiMBO</A>, <A HREF="http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/">IWCCC</A> & Capital City VW Club 
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm">STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel Mufflers</A> �
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html">Frank Condelli & Associates</A> or http://frankcondelli.com