At 13:10 9/24/98 -0400, ErikO@ebyte.com wrote:
>The only person I know of that has purchased a KEP plate is David
>Marshall and if I recall correctly he said it was a work of art. Keep in
>mind that it also comes with a flywheel and new imput shaft (am I
>correct on this David?). It's also important to note that David ordered
>his plate with the stock slant for the engine. He didn't have to worry
>about deck lid clearance in the crew cab. I believe they also make one
>that puts the engine at the stock diesel vanagon slant. That's what most
>of us would need.

Work of art - YES!  Fabulous!  New input shaft no.  This is the parts that
I got:
- Adapter plate
- Flywheel (This is the HARD part to make)
- Pilot bearing
- Bolts (to fasten plate to engine and transmission)
- Instruction book
- Stickers and other advertising

>$500 for the KEP plate might be a little steep, but considering what
>you're getting, it might not be a bad idea to fork over the cash to a
>company that specializes in making adapter plates for VW's. Sure we
>might be able to have them made for half that, but the union between the
>engine and trans is pretty important, so you might be better off going
>with a tested product. Plus, if they are including other parts to help
>make it fit, like the flywheel, ect, then it might be worth the money.
>However, if you come up with a good plate yourself, I have several great
>machine shops I used to work with that could reproduce it. So I guess if
>yours fits well and you're not blowing clutches, lets get some drawings.

The $500 is well worth it IMHO.  No guess work, no screwing around.  I took
the kit to two local machine shops and they said it would be more
economical to get KEP to make them.

>The eurospec conversion brags about the Hella wiring harness, which I
>bet will appeal to alot of converters. It really wouldn't be too
>difficult to go to an electrical supply outlet and buy a dozen spools of
>color coded wire and make up your own. You could probably buy enough
>wire for $100 to make up 20 or so new harnesses. Sell them for $30 or so
>to pay for your time.

The wiring harness is simple to make.  All the connectors are freely
available and so is the wire.  The computer boxes are also freely
available.  What I have done for my self and a friend is make a custom CIS
with knock sensor harness.  Basically it is CIS as found in the Rabbits
with a CIS-E knock sensor installed in the mix.  The wiring harness that I
have made up terminates in 8 wires that connects to the Vanagon's system
without cutting a thing.  All gauges work and the engines run like a charm.

>If we can get Ron to track down new diesel oilpans and pickup tubes from
>an overseas vendor that would solve that problem. It also would be easy
>to have a competent machinest/welder to make up a batch of our own. One
>benefit to this would be we could make some modifications that would
>allow a "standard" oil pump to be used and perhaps change the shape to
>make it fit amongst the syncro skidplates.

Why not redesign the skidplate.  The skid plate on mine is OK for the
inline four but it can be make a lot better.

>Intake and exhaust is a side issue with a lot of workarounds, we can
>cross this bridge later. Personally I am beginning to think the CIS on
>my van isn't the best route to go. I think it has a certain degree of
>unreliability and I am almost certain that it isn't as fuel efficient as
>other systems. I'm actually looking into the feasibility of going to a
>Honda dual port injection system. Call me crazy. If I can make it fit
>properly I'll give it a shot. All I'll be out if it doesn't work right
>is an intake manifold, cheap. I don't want to go with one of the newer
>VW systems because I just don't think that 4 "precision nozzles" can be
>as efficient as one injector shooting into two ports. We'll see.

CIS is a wonder and efficient system.  Digifant is horrible - ask any 88 to
92 Jetta / Golf owner.  The motronic system on the 93+ Golfs and Jettas are
an improvment over the CIS system but they are a lot more complicated to
setup initially.

>_________________________
>Erik O          Akron, Oh
>'82 GTI Powered Westfalia
>
>   West.of.Wolfsburg
>  http://ebyte.com/wow
>
> Greatlakes.Camping.Info
>   http://ebyte.com/gl
>_________________________
>  Ebyte Communications
>    http://ebyte.com
>
>

-- David Marshall  Quesnel BC Canada  mailto:david@volkswagen.org --
--       73 Audi 100LS, 78 1.8L VW Rabbit, 80 2.0L VW Caddy       --
-- 87 Audi 5KQ, 85 1.8L VW Cabrio, 88 2.0L VW Syncro Double Cab   --
--         Volkswagen Homepage http://www.volkswagen.org          --