Blue Eyes wrote:
>
> I've talked to several 5-speed atmo 1.6 diesel Vanagon or Westy
> owners, and every one reports a higher top speed.  I think the
> top end toque drop is limiting the vehicle speed rather than peak
> horsepower, so I think that tweaking to a slightly taller effective
> gearing will work if the diesel is running well.

John,
Thanks for the input. I'm not very familiar with the diesel torque
characteristics. I know when I bought my '82 Diesel Westy it was just a
dog, but then it had 212k miles and I had recently sold my '78 Westy
with the warmed-over Buick 3.0L V-6. So my butt was out of calibration
for the diesel. Just couldn't imagine that a gearing increase could help
top end speed, but there is no refuting test results over theory!
Michael will be happy to hear this!
Larry