Interesting post.

One thing got me this morning, 80-90% of you guys are driving a vehicle
equiped with a T-Belt.

So what is the point of that thread about T-Belt and Subi????

I feel that some are just trying to find a "low/bad point/reason" in
that type of conversion?

Some people (Bostig, Vanaru, Ticco) are working hard to do very good and
reliable conversion for our aging vans...

Let's applaud them!

I have arguments with Jim, but it's fun, i hope he think the same, i
almost got one of his conversion, but things went the other way because
Hans is a friend, i'm sure the ZTEC is an amazing conversion, i can see
all the work they have put there, i'm eager to try one one day. I also
have some customers with VW TD and 2.0L VW engine, they loved them, they
are mostly trouble free. So bravo to you all. There is also a guy call
B-Bob who work hard to build reliable wasser, well, thank you Bob.

Frank C. went all around Mexico last year with a B.Bob engine, again, bravo.

And you know what, i have built also an engine for a 62 yo lady that
went all around Mexico last winter (remember the radiator thread), she
did 14,000k,  so Bravo to me!

GoWesty, Van-cafe, Busdepot, Vanagain and some other sell good hard
parts to find, so Bravo to them.

There is no perfect world, but i think we are going the right way.

Ben

Dvdclarksn@aol.com wrote:

> Yes they certainly will break. It happened to me with my 82 diesel
> Westy. The Stooge that installed my engine (was sold as "new" but was
> a polished junk yard relic-won't go there now) neglected to replace
> the timing belt cover. When I asked him why he said that I really
> didn't want that on there because  a rock could get caught inside of
> it and break the belt?! Well just the opposite happened. A rock spun
> up and broke the belt, bent valves and resulted in replacing the
> entire cylinder head to the tune of $1600.00. Granted this was not
> death by natural causes but more of a freak accident that left me
> madder than hell anyway. I was young dumb and ignorant and learned an
> expensive lesson. I work in the service dept. of a Honda dealership
> and we replace most timing belts at 7 yrs. or 105, 000 miles per
> Honda's recommendation. We usually don't see many break unless they
> get to about 175,000 miles or more. Honda realized this and saw that
> many people were dismissing this as Honda's attempt to generate more
> business in the service dept. before it was really needed. What I have
> seen now is that the timing belts on the new Honda v6 engines are
> thinner and narrower than the ones that were used on the early 80's
> Civics!  Maybe they are made of a stronger rubber compound or maybe
> they will truly fail around the end of their predicted life span.
> Timing belts will fail, not often but it does happen and when it does
> an interference engine will require big bucks for valve replacement
> and head work. It can be an expensive gamble.
>
> David Clarkson
> 90 Westy (240k)
>
>
>
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