On Monday 12 January 2004 06:03 pm, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> Answer,
> They are trying to drive them at 70 mph. Putting the Diesels in the
> Vanagon was a very poor desperate move on VW's part to still be able to
> sell Vanagons while the Air cooled ones where blowing up and the EPA
> said you can't sell them no more. And why they geared them to spin so
> fast when all the torque is at low speed is completely beyond me.

Because there isn't that much torque even at the peak, and a Vanagon is
heavy.  Even with the low gearing it still takes the better part of a minute
to get an unloaded Vanagon up to 60 mph.  Higher gearing would only slow it
down more, especially with a full payload.  Remember, too, that in 1983 there
was nowhere in the U.S. where you could legally bring a diesel Vanagon up to
its 65 mph top speed *anyway*.

What I don't understand is how people overrev these engines to the point of
destruction when the injector pump limits the max speed.  Are they going down
long downhill stretches with the accellerator to the floor?