Welcome to the adventures of Vanagon!

On Aug 27, 2016 8:53 PM, "Roy Nicholl" <RNicholl@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:

> Ken,
>
> You put a turbo on that 1.6 … actually on the JX version of the 1.6 and it
> was just fine - some might argue better than the higher-revving 1.9TD(i)
> engines - in a fully loaded westy.
>
> I would like to try and put the 2.5l TDi from the 1996 - 2005 LT into a
> Westy.
>
> Roy
>
>
> > On 27-Aug-2016, at 15:58, kenneth wilford (Van-Again) <
> kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
> >
> > I grew up with VW diesels.  My first car was a sweet 82 Diesel Caddy
> > (Rabbit Pickup).  After that I owned diesel Rabbits, Golfs, Jetta pretty
> > much exclusively until mid 20s.  I bought my first Vanagon which was an
> 85
> > 1.9l waterboxer but I really wanted a 1.6l diesel Vanagon.  They were
> rare
> > even back in the late 90s.  After working on Vanagons and driving them
> > daily for about 3 or 4 years a customer came by with a diesel Westy with
> a
> > recently rebuilt engine.  I was excited!  Now I was finally going to get
> my
> > favorite engine in a Vanagon.  I just had to drive it down my street to
> > realize that while the 1.6l was great in a small, light car, it stunk in
> a
> > large, heavy, van.  It was scary to pull out into traffic at the end my
> > street and there really is no traffic here.  I thought maybe it was just
> > that van, but since then I have owned a few and worked on several here at
> > the shop.  I have one customer who bought his new and keeps it pristine
> and
> > treats it really nice.  The 1.6l powerplant is just too weak in the van.
> > You can't keep up with modern highway traffic (65-70 mph), the engine is
> > being pushed to it's limits all the time so they don't have the long life
> > they have in the cars.  I would never recommend a 1.6l diesel Vanagon to
> > any person.  If you want to do a conversion and put a TDI in there, that
> is
> > a whole other story.  There are circumstances where that might make sense
> > and you have the power comparable to the waterboxer with more torque.
> >
> > It's just my opinion but I really wanted to like them and instead I came
> to
> > almost hate them.
> >
> > Ken
> >
> > On Sat, Aug 27, 2016, 2:12 PM Karl Mullendore <tdiguru@westyventures.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> In a heartbeat. Although preferably the factory JX turbodiesel that
> should
> >> have been sold here. Great success in Europe, but I guess the US buyers
> >> weren't quite 'ready' for diesels. The beauty is that every inline
> >> gas/diesel 4-cyl VW engine from 1974-1999 will bolt in when the original
> >> 1.6NA expires, which is hastened most times by heavy right feet and
> >> impatient drivers.
> >>
>