Vanagon Design Deficiencies

[Merian]

the post above about the aftermarket parts raises a valid issue, and reminded me pf the:

alternator bracket

[Merian]

running the fuel feed over the top of the headers is a bad one

much worse than the Hot Foot
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=237271

[Merian]

[Chuey]

I sold a 1967 Double Cab and started looking for a nicer Vanagon - a keeper. I ended up getting a 1990 Doka and I love it! Thing is, there are some pretty interesting comparisons which I will mention in a separate paragraph.

In the '67 Double Cab, Wife and I took trips - one, at Christmas time from the San Diego area to Gardiner, Mt. 1,100 miles. We could travel between 60 and 65mph at 20mpg. Heater (lack of) was a real issue in the snow in Yellowstone and on the open highway.

In the '90 Doka, trips go like this: 60-65mph at 16-17mpg. The heater is fantastic in all conditions encountered so far.........have not been in snow but several long trips.

I find the fuel mileage (stock 2.1 boxer engine) to be dismal. But, I L-O-V-E this Doka I have.

Chuey

[ThankYouJerry]

[Michael4104]

[Zeitgeist 13]

My first Vanagon regularly got 30mpg. Diesel
_________________
Casey--

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

[Love My Westy]

[nemobuscaptain]

[Merian]

"VW took the pre-WWII air-cooled motor design and stuck some water jackets around the cylinders in a futile effort to save money. VW should have re-engineered the motor, and might have come up with something like the Subaru 4 cylinder."

[Zeitgeist 13]

The WBX would have been cutting edge if it had debuted in '68 along with the Bays. The T3 should've had its own inline four and five cylinder plants, specially tuned to produce torque low in the rpm range like the WBX. Flat engines are dead ends, and were an utter waste of R&D investments, given that they started and ended with the T3.
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Casey--

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

[chase4food]

[Gruppe B]

I'll take a wbx any day over a normally aspirated inline 4 VW engine.

So much hate for the wbx, yet most Vanagons are still going strong 30 years later with original engines.

Let's remember what 4 cylinder engines VW had available in 1983.
1.7lt rabbit engine, 1.8lt GTI? um no thanks....


Agreed an Audi 5 cylinder would make a very nice powerplant!

[raoul mitgong]

I'm sure it has been posted before but I need to vent: The stupid heating/vent design! No way to stop air flow when moving, wtf. Only able to change the temp of the air coming in from ambient to hotter than ambient.
This becomes more of a problem with camping. A head-on breeze or gust can quickly drop the cabin temperature when cold weather camping.

-d
_________________
84 Westy with a 2.1 (Groover)
86 Tintop Syncro (Crow)
86 Tintop Syncro to Westy project (Tom Servo)
91 Westy (Only the top 12 inches of this van (a burn victim))

[Tom Powell]

If levers 3 & 4 are closed, the dashboard vents are closed, and the vents in door panels are closed, how does cold air get in while parked. How does the displaced warm air get out?

Aloha
tp

[chase4food]

[Merian]

"The connecting rods are the same as type-1 on the big end -
If a type-1 rod fatigues after 250,000 miles, would it not happen twice as fast in the 2.1?"

[Zeitgeist 13]

My van still has a WBX, after twelve years, even though I specifically bought the thing in order to do an engine swap. The WBX is a good engine. It's not great, and it's not lousy, but just good, reliable and rugged. However, it's still a deadend design that produced no spillover benefits to the rest of the corporate product line at the time or in the future. That's plain just not good R&D expenditure--period. I'd take a solid WBX over any offbrand lump the hucksters here are shilling on a daily basis, but it's still not preferable to a 1.8t or TDI, which are both better suited to these heavy slab-sided beasts.
_________________
Casey--

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

[chase4food]

From Wikipedia with a pretty good history of the Porsche 911, which also bring back my memory that the 928 was the vehicle that were supposed to take the company into the future, back in 1979:

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In 1979, Porsche had made plans to replace the 911 with their new 928. Sales of the 911 remained so strong however, that Porsche revised its strategy and decided to inject new life into the 911 editions. 911 SC sales totaled 58,914 cars.[13]

Peter W. Schutz (CEO Porsche AG 1981–1987) wrote:

The decision to keep the 911 in the product line occurred one afternoon in the office of Dr. Helmuth Bott de:Helmuth Bott, the Porsche operating board member responsible for all engineering and development. I noticed a chart on the wall of Professor Bott's office. It depicted the ongoing development schedules for the three primary Porsche product lines: 944, 928 and 911. Two of them stretched far into the future, but the 911 program stopped at the end of 1981. I remember rising from my chair, walking over to the chart, taking a black marker pen, and extending the 911 program bar clean off the chart. I am sure I heard a silent cheer from Professor Bott, and I knew I had done the right thing. The Porsche 911, the company icon, had been saved, and I believe the company was saved with it.

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I also remember now the inline 4 engine used in the 924 was a VW engine developed for a light truck based on the then gen 1 Gulf chassis?. No thanks! I will take the WBX any day.
_________________
- Vince 飲食玩睡

what Isolde wants Isolde doesn't always get, 4 I know what is best for her - Liebe macht frei

[Zeitgeist 13]

I think the original 924 engine was an NSU/Audi block. The 928 was a nightmare to service...but none of that has anything to do with the Vanagon
_________________
Casey--

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