Sharing some Aircooled love

[NobyDoby]

After reading many many topics here on the Samba, I'm getting the idea that the Aircooled Vanagon isn't getting the love and appreciation it deserves. Many believe they are slow, unreliable and can't climb a bump in the road. On top of that they are heavy drinkers. So far the believes ....

Here is my story.
Last week I went on a 700 km trip from the Netherlands to the Belgium and French Ardennes (and back). That's the place in Europe where they didn't adapt the roads to the cars ...

With an almost fully loaded Westy we did extreme U-turns, climbs of 15 tot 21% and it never came below 70km/h (in 3rd) and almost always could hold 80km/h in 4th. It never gave a glitch or lost any parts.

The first half of the trip it did 8.12km per liter on regular gasoline (19 mpg). In the Ardennes I changed my vacuum curve a little with the result that it did 8.94km per liter (21mpg) on the second half. I must admit that the last 150km were down hill or flat

Yes I did some work to the engine but it's all finetuning and decent maintenance. No major changes.

So if you give your Aircooled Vanagon a little love it will give you a lot of Aircooled Love back. Even without breaking the bank (Very important because I'm Dutch ).
_________________
1980 Aircooled Type 4 CU 2.0L T3 Westfalia:
Flowed AMC 39x33mm heads with Porsche swivel adjusters and CR 8.0:1
94mm Mahle dished P/C's & 71mm Stroke
Original VW CU Bus Hydro Cam w/Febi Hydro Followers
Dual Dellorto's DRLA 40 - 32 Venturi's
SyncLink Throttle System
MSS Central Airfilter
123Ignition Tune & NGK BP6ET
Vintage Speed Dual Side Super Flow Type 4 Exhaust

[Zeitgeist 13]

It sounds like you've really got that AC engine dialed in perfectly.
_________________
Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[NobyDoby]

Yep.
Super smooth running engine with torque over wide rpm range. Starting at 125Nm @ 1500rpm, 148Nm @ 2500rpm - 3500rpm and 125Nm @ 4500rpm. Horses peaked with 82HP @ 4300rpm.
_________________
1980 Aircooled Type 4 CU 2.0L T3 Westfalia:
Flowed AMC 39x33mm heads with Porsche swivel adjusters and CR 8.0:1
94mm Mahle dished P/C's & 71mm Stroke
Original VW CU Bus Hydro Cam w/Febi Hydro Followers
Dual Dellorto's DRLA 40 - 32 Venturi's
SyncLink Throttle System
MSS Central Airfilter
123Ignition Tune & NGK BP6ET
Vintage Speed Dual Side Super Flow Type 4 Exhaust

[Satch]

Nice report, sounds like a great trip. Good to hear the air cooled is treating you right.

[Fiddlestyx]

You get back what you put in. I feel like more people need to learn this.

[VWinVT]

Wow! 82hp in an aircooler!?! That must have been big $$ for that build. My stock aircooler (67hp) does struggle with grades, especially when loaded.
_________________
1981 Westfalia with a 2001 Cabrio ABA

Small wheel turns by the firing rod,
Big wheel turns by the grace of God.
Every time that wheel turns 'round,
You're bound to cover just a little more ground.

[tim3]

i love my aircooled..

I have taken it everwhere.. it cruises well above 70mph on the regular and getting about 20mpg freeway.
_________________
Click to view image

[Howesight]

To the OP:

Here in most provinces and states in North America, we would not be permitted to replace the EFI with the dual Weber carbs due to emissions testing. The air-cooled engine gets additional cylinder head cooling from the evaporative cooling that carburetors provide. The Ardennes and other locations you are lucky enough to travel to are all generally much cooler climate areas than, say, Southern California, just to name one major area of Vanagon Westfalia vehicles. You also have much better fuel quality in Western Europe, especially higher octane petrol, which allows a tune with higher compression ratio and a more aggressive spark advance curve or map. In short, those locations are where the air-cooled engines experience ideal operating conditions.

Over here, the fuel, ambient heat, OEM design features (like EGR, very lean AFR in the EFI system), lower quality gasoline, and the high speed expectations of freeway travel all conspire to make the air-cooled Vanagon experience a short-lived and slow one. It is truly shocking how much difference ambient temperatures can make to the air-cooled Vanagon.

Your torque and horsepower figures are excellent! Could you share more of the details of your build for those brave enough over here to try a performance 2.0 AC build?
_________________
'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[vanagonjr]

[NobyDoby]

My setup:

- untouched shortblok (original hydraulic CU cam) because this was already overhauled by previous owner
- new AMC heads with stock (39/33) valves (because the originals were cracked and valve guides came out by themselves)
- completely disassembled new AMC heads, checked all parts (all OK and within specs), only gave the valveguides a bit more clearance (too tight)
- ported heads and manifolds and reworked combustion chamber around the valves
- reworked valve and valve seats (3 angle)
- compression ratio to 8:1
- new valve train geometry with new pushrods and Porsche swivel feet adjusters
- short CSP manifolds (To let it all fit under the decklid)
- Dellorto's DRLA 40 with 32 venturi's with vacuum connections (because the original Solex's where leaking all over the place and one housing was severely cracked)
- velocity stacks
- original heat exchangers
- Vintage Speed exhaust
- MSS Central Airfilter (Expensive, not absolutely needed, but takes the breathing noiselevel down and looks cool )
- 123Ignition Tune distributor (with vacuüm connection) + Bosch spark plug wires + NGK BP6ET
- Dellorto's and distributor finetuned on rolling road
- Vacuum curve finetuned during last 2000km

Some pics and info can be found here: http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=143948 posted under the same name.
_________________
1980 Aircooled Type 4 CU 2.0L T3 Westfalia:
Flowed AMC 39x33mm heads with Porsche swivel adjusters and CR 8.0:1
94mm Mahle dished P/C's & 71mm Stroke
Original VW CU Bus Hydro Cam w/Febi Hydro Followers
Dual Dellorto's DRLA 40 - 32 Venturi's
SyncLink Throttle System
MSS Central Airfilter
123Ignition Tune & NGK BP6ET
Vintage Speed Dual Side Super Flow Type 4 Exhaust

[THE KESZTHELY KID]

Hiya Nobyd,

I just took a look at your link on ShopTalkForums.com and you have a Pant Wettingly stunning looking engine there.
I doff my hat to you.

DANK U for making me smile
_________________
Current owner of 1980 T25 Westphalia Joker.
1973 Karmann Ghia Coupe - Semi-automatic!!
1983 Trabant 601S Sedan

Daily Driver - 2017 Renault Captur - Automatic

[NobyDoby]

You're welcome! Happy to have made somebody smile.

Or in Dutch: Graag gedaan! Fijn om iemand een glimlach te kunnen geven.
_________________
1980 Aircooled Type 4 CU 2.0L T3 Westfalia:
Flowed AMC 39x33mm heads with Porsche swivel adjusters and CR 8.0:1
94mm Mahle dished P/C's & 71mm Stroke
Original VW CU Bus Hydro Cam w/Febi Hydro Followers
Dual Dellorto's DRLA 40 - 32 Venturi's
SyncLink Throttle System
MSS Central Airfilter
123Ignition Tune & NGK BP6ET
Vintage Speed Dual Side Super Flow Type 4 Exhaust

[GoEverywhere]

[GoEverywhere]

[Howesight]

Here in British Columbia, back in 2015, there was no way that a carbureted type 4 engine would have passed our strict emissions testing standards. But that is now history since our province has ended all emissions testing several years ago. I consider that decision to have been a poor one. The reasoning was that the new crop of internal combustion engines featured impressive emissions performance.

But since emissions testing ended here in BC, there are now so many (mainly younger) folks in new or nearly-new cars they have "tuned" by removing the Cat, installing aftermarket exhaust systems, and re-flashing their tunes. Driving behind these cars leaves you sucking awful choking fumes that could easily be cleaned up with CAT converters.

And don't get me started on the Diesel Dudes rolling coal with plumes so thick you can't even see through them. (They think this is amusing and establishes their "rebel" cred. )

Way back when emissions controls started in the late 1960's (with air pumps, reduced compression ratios and other primitive first steps to abate smog), there were real issues with the smog-engineered cars. They lost power, drivability, fuel mileage and even engine life in some instances. But today's EFI and direct injection engines make tons of power, are smooth, get great fuel mileage, and do all that with very low emissions - - until some A-hole decides to "improve" his new pickup by removing all that engineering and basting other drivers with his exhaust plume.

Okay, rant over.
_________________
'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[Abscate]

[steve244]

Book him, Danno.

Better keep your eye on me too.

GoEverywhere, would you share your parts list for the build?

Once my stock rebuilt is in, I want to adulterate the old engine the way you did.
_________________
82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...

[GoEverywhere]

[GoEverywhere]

[steve244]

Thank you! I kinda like the heat exchangers though. Did you give up being warm for the headers?
_________________
82 AC vanagon approx 200K miles (3K are mine).
DD is a 2015 Leaf
Road Trip to Hell (FL 2023)
The Vanagon's drivetrain and chassis restomod thread. Best sung to the tune of I Did It My Way...