As a few other folk can attest, the waterboxer that came out of my
non-GL 91 had as much (seat of the pants) power as a Subaru 2.2. No
problem keeping up with traffic and it was surprisingly peppy.

Of course, it did come out and get replaced with a Subaru...but a 3.3
not a 2.2....

On Nov 1, 2007, at 10:06 PM, Rob wrote:

> I can just picture that low mileage '87 VW cruising over the Sierras
> along with the rest of the traffic. Back in '90 my low mileage '86
> couldn't keep up with traffic on that freeway hill.
> Be nice to see.
>
>
> Rob
>
> At  11/1/2007 06:51 PM,Mike wrote:
>>  My stock,original, low miles, '87 Westy has 2.1 and an automatic. It
>> doesn't perform as poorly as you say yours does.  I guess your
>> engine must
>> be very tired, and is obviously lacking power, if it can't even
>> maintain 45
>> mph up a long freeway hill.  It sounds like it's time for a
>> rebuild.......talk to Boston Bob for the real answers to your
>> problems.
>>
>> Mike B.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Scott Daniel - Shazam" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
>> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
>> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:15 PM
>> Subject: Re: That recent post bashing Tiico..one on Yahoo subaru too.
>>
>>
>> Stock waterboxers....yup, can be real reliable.
>> Seriously lacking in decent power in many situations however...
>> Like my 85 weekender with 2.1 wbxr engine and fuel system, and auto
>> trans....
>> The best it can do on some freeway hills is 45 and sometimes even
>> only
>> 40.....
>> And all the other ( too numerous in California ) cars are going
>> 70 or 80 up
>> that same hill.  Like it's a safety issue even.
>>  You combine that with the joke head gasket system, and old tech
>> engine
>> management system, and fuel mileage that could be better......
>> and lots of
>> things are hard to work on too, on stock waterboxer engines, like
>> a water
>> pump job with the engine in the van - a pure knuckle ripper of a job.
>> Consider all that, and the search for a better engine becomes
>> obvious.
>> Scott
>> www.turbovans.com
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
>> Behalf Of
>> Zeitgeist
>> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 5:14 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Re: That recent post bashing Tiico..one on Yahoo subaru too.
>>
>> My WBX is too damn reliable.  I feel cheated of my shot at vocal
>> malcontentedness.  My old '87 GL was too reliable, as well.  I
>> feel doubly
>> cheated.   My anger and remorse is palpable.
>>
>> Just thought I'd share my story of woe and misery with my factory
>> conversion...
>>
>> On 11/1/07, Rob <becida@comcast.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> That made your day didn't it?
>>>
>>> Rob