One reason I built a homebrew VW I4. I used as many stock pieces as
possible, so in *theory*, it's easy to get parts for. My homemade
exhaust primaries/"Y" and brackets not withstanding. But then any
competent fabricator should be able to follow what I've made, and
possibly improve on it, should the part fail.

I certainly feel for the Tiico people who might be in a pinch though.
But then I'm learning that most anything can be done to keep these
babies running!

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta "Jaco
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:36 PM, craig cowan <phishman068@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm told that the Tiico kit's engine was of south african origin, and NOT
> the same as a US built block. The internals were ever so slightly different,
> and the fuel injection proprietary so that if a particular component was
> needed, you were forced to either go through Tiico (waiting months
> sometimes), or retrofit a standard part from a US model, which was often a
> simple enough solution hence flew under the radar. Either way, it's still
> not the product they sold you.
> I remember hearing of $700 coolant lines that were on backorder, and of
> course the legendary exhaust cracks in the headers..... Who's going to
> supply the headers for these now? Sure, you CAN still use a US market FOX
> manifold or something of that nature and have an exhaust shop fabricate
> something, but the actual replacement TIICO parts won't be available.
>
> There is in my mind, a distinct difference between a TIICO "Kit" and a
> homebrew I4 conversion using diesel parts. The latter of which, i would
> greatly prefer. There are some definate perks to putting an inline 4 engine
> in a vanagon, whether it be Diesel, Petrol, Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo, or any
> of the other engine's we've heard of people throwing back there,   .......

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