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Wed May 20, 2015 6:55 am

I am now the proud new owner of a 1991 Vanagon ;-}

Though it was a pretty difficult negotiation with the prior owners wife to get a hold of it,

It's a pretty solid van despite the ~250K miles on the chassis. Many wear prone parts have been replaced and upgraded, tranny has been looked at and upgraded with a limited slip. The square headlights have been replaced with rounds + relays and H4 inserts and it's got Mercedes rims. Shifter has a short throw kit, or I think it does;

The mod that sold me on the van was the 2004 WRX 2L Turbo;

I don't see how much air gets through the inter-cooler with it stuffed up against the top of the engine bay, but there is a 1/2 inch or so above it... There is an oil cooler in the pass side vent channel. Zietgiest suggested getting the air cleaner farther up into the driver side vent channel which I will attempt. From what I have learned the motor was put in about 2008 with a Small Car kit. I think the modern kits are a bit more elegant. The headers on my van appear pretty creative -

but the install looks real clean and meticulous.

I've been thinking for years of a TDI vanagon, but every time I found one I liked it was way outside my price range. Couple that fact with how much I miss the '65 and '91 Mustangs I use to own and I fell hard for a Vanagon that could easily pass average traffic on an uphill climb. Though I have not tried to do donuts like I use to do in my Mustangs. Of course, it does not get the mileage a TDI would get... On my third tank of gas I almost managed 20 mpg.

I've been reading a lot here about brake upgrades and plan on G60's out of a Audi V8 and then rear disks. Before the brakes I am going to take care of a few small things. I have power windows, door locks and mirrors. The pass door lock will operate all the locks, but the driver door will not. I read about the A1 Electric kit and actual met Zeitgeist 13, a member that lives in my town, for a conversation on the key-less entry/alarm kit they sell. The kit should be here by the weekend ;-} The passenger door has been fitted with a hand crank, I assume the power window went out and the prior owner got lazy, couldn't trace the problem, there was a national shortage on replacement parts...? Going to tackle that after the new key-less kit. The mirrors work at least.

I buffed out the paint with an 8" foam buffing wheel using a #3 paste first, followed by a #7. The paint looks pretty good, save for the front;

it appears that a quarter million miles is rough an a snub nosed vehicles paint ;-} The clear coat on the top is also in bad shape. I think all I can do about that is carefully sand it off and then polish. I'm just going to leave the front the way it is until all the mechanical is handled, the shoot the nose from the door forward. My neighbor builds custom trucks and he is willing to help me with paint.

Another issue I want to address is a seemingly minor leak from the tranny shift shaft;

Hopefully I can just pop the linkage off, pry out the seal and tap in a new one. Probably not the 'correct' way to do it though I would love to know if anyone else has pulled off such a stunt.

The van has cc controls, but no vacuum motor or actuator. Wiring is still in the engine compartment though. Going to try a VW vacuum pump with a subbie diaphragm, anyone have luck with this?

Another 'hot' item on my list is the fact the heat lever on the HVAC will not go fully closed,

I skimmed through the thread where an amazingly meticulous member is striping and rebuilding his syncro with a custom undercarriage paint scheme and saw that he put a shut off valve in the coolant line to the front heater. Tempting... Need to read more on that.

Why 'Hula'? My mother in law gave me a little solar powered hula girl for the dashboard after I got the Van. Why 'Hyper'? 220+ horse power mated to a tranny originally geared to push a box down the freeway with only 90 horse power. It's fun, but a little frantic at times ;-}

Thanks for reading. I'm not new to cars but I have little experience with Vanagons, save for the '69 Bay I had in '85. I would love any input ya'll have and I will post any mods/learning opportunities I get into with Hula in this thread. It only took me 3 tries to figure out I had to right click on the image and select 'copy' instead of hit control + C to get the correct image text to post - I can this van handled ;-}

Wed May 20, 2015 6:59 am

Nice bus. Looks like the PO put up a fight... :D

Wed May 20, 2015 7:38 am

The Gorge Runner!
You got a good van with a good vibe, enjoy it.

My van was a roof peeler and rock chip collector too. I prepped and sprayed the roof with linex then immediately shot it with the base color and clear. Made a huge difference in the tin top noise at freeway speeds. I prepped the front panel and shot it with 3m rocker gaurd before base and clear. Works really well. The texture vs smooth finish took a bit to get used to but the positive comments from others validate that it doesnt look too bad.

Wed May 20, 2015 7:45 am

nice looking van and already converted and road tested is a bonus
but being that I have a turbo in my van, I have to say I'm skeptical of the effectiveness of that intercooler.
that's just being cheap, lazy and uninspired by the installer..
you should be able to plug in a blue tooth OBD-II unit and run a Torque app on a cell phone or tablet to see actual IAT temps.. need to see them when actually under load.

Wed May 20, 2015 8:21 am

Wow, van has a rear stabilizer rod. 8) That’s a bonus while cornering.One Mod is saved for you.
More pic of it’s mounting please. Thanks

Wed May 20, 2015 8:55 am

This is one of the best sorted out modified vans I've seen in person. The PO clearly put some thought and time into the effort. I don't know anything about those engines, but the IC seems to be pretty ineffective in that location.

Wed May 20, 2015 10:14 am

Love the photo of you and the PO "fighting" over your new ride.

Have fun!

Wed May 20, 2015 10:38 am

FWIW my Rancho rebuild has leaked from the selector shaft seal from day one. They sent me a new seal because I didn't want to take it out and send it back but the seal didn't stop it. It's not really a leak, just a little wet around the selector shaft, I finally just accepted it.

Wed May 20, 2015 11:06 am

Love the Van and the looks of the engine in there. My daily is an 04 WRX and I have always thought the WRX motor would work great in a van with all the torque these motors have.

As far as the intercooler, what would you guys suggest for a better location? Side mount like Ford use to do on the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe?

Wed May 20, 2015 11:12 am

An air to liquid IC would be my choice. That way the core could stay in roughly the same location, but the heat exchanger could be moved forward to gain access to more airflow.

Wed May 20, 2015 12:36 pm

seems an odd choice of torque curves, but am curious to hear your driving impressions

Wed May 20, 2015 1:15 pm

water to air is the best (IMO) but most complicated system.
some air to air systems that run a fan 100% (yea I run a pump 100%) are noisey.. whirring into a campground after dark like a DRONE....
but there are challenges to where/how to place the front intercooler coolant radiator. mine is in lieu of AC

here's a great site to get familiar with for turbo'd van owners.

https://www.frozenboost.com/

Wed May 20, 2015 8:59 pm

Zeitgeist 13 wrote: An air to liquid IC would be my choice. That way the core could stay in roughly the same location, but the heat exchanger could be moved forward to gain access to more airflow.

I have a WAIC on my AAZ :shock:

I tried the small exchanger and fan concept. As was mentioned previously, it was loud and not welcome late into a camp site. Also embarrassing at stop lights.

I changed it out for a huge exchanger and no fan at all.
IAT usually runs a tad over 20F above ambient if I'm pushing it.

WAIC is tucked in (upper left)and the engine heat doesn't bother it

Wed May 20, 2015 11:07 pm

Thanks for all the info and feedback ;-} I got home late and will reply to everything tomorrow. Got my A1 Electric door kit/alarm today too. It's going to be a good weekend!

- Yup, the Gorge Runner. Never met Mark but I've heard a lot of good things about him. I have talked to Simon who helped him with it. I'll put more of that story in here too. Only fitting to give credit where credit is due ;-}

Wed May 20, 2015 11:10 pm

Have a search for a Subaru Legacy charge cooler, they are designed to go in the same location as you intercooler. Could well be a plug and play option with the added bonus it was designed by subaru for your engine.
Here's a pic of one I have kicking about to give you an idea what they look like

[URL=http://s811.photobucket.com/user/lloydy2010/media/31A5B3C5-CAEB-4CC1-8546-E00D7DE9F64B.jpg.html][/UR

Thu May 21, 2015 3:45 am

Gizmoman wrote:

I cannot help but think one good bouncing stone or other road debris and you have a hole in it.
Overall it looks like you're going to have a great summer!

Thu May 21, 2015 8:53 am

Quote: Hopefully I can just pop the linkage off, pry out the seal and tap in a new one. Probably not the 'correct' way to do it though I would love to know if anyone else has pulled off such a stunt.

I've done this. It's a PITA, but possible. The procedure is exactly as you describe :)

Robyn

Thu May 21, 2015 9:08 am

Merian wrote: seems an odd choice of torque curves, but am curious to hear your driving impressions

We were talking about gearing when he was over here, and I was wondering about the torque curve. I just looked it up, and peak torque occurs around 4k, which is way way up there. Wasn't expecting that, as I thought it would be more in line with the 1.8t, which peaks just below 2k.

When I've replaced those shifter seals, I've disconnected the linkage, then pulled the reverse switch cover off on the other side of the trans. This allows the selector shaft to be drawn back just enough to get in there with a seal puller to easily pry it out of the case.

Thu May 21, 2015 4:46 pm

newfisher wrote: The Gorge Runner!... I prepped and sprayed the roof with linex then immediately shot it with the base color and clear. Made a huge difference in the tin top noise at freeway speeds. I prepped the front panel and shot it with 3m rocker guard before base and clear...

Hey Newfisher - you know the van, can you tell me anything about it? I think Mark (prior owner) got it from the first owners. Susanne or Paige told me he picked it up in Montana and the original warentee card is still in it from a Montana dealer. Thin, I know, but it's kinda neat to think I'm the third owner.

I'll check into Linex and the 3m rock guard. I am thinking of shooting the front sometime soon. Was going to just try and burnish off the milky clear coat and then polish but if coating the top quiets the van down i'm game for that too.

Thu May 21, 2015 4:53 pm

danfromsyr wrote: ...
you should be able to plug in a blue tooth OBD-II unit and run a Torque app on a cell phone or tablet to see actual IAT temps.. need to see them when actually under load.

I have a scanner, have not checked temps at load yet though. I found a PLX Kiwi under the back seat. This is a device that lets me monitor OBD data via wifi on my iphone. Haven't got the thing connected to my phone though. It would be smart to see just how hot the intake is on the hot day. I don't plan to flog the thing much, but I want to be able to pass when heading into the mountains on hot day ;-} I thought it would be sweet to get a mini iPod or something and mount it with something screwed into the ash tray, then have gauges and such on that.