The Saga of my 1.8T Vanagon

[davevickery]

A big day today after a year and half of slow but steady progress on this van's comeback, I passed my emissions test. Wahoo. The van has been off the road now for 4 or 5 years and the emissions numbers were 1/5th of the limits. And that is without a cat.

Some of you who follow the classifieds will recall that no one wanted to buy my van in its project state. And a few of you may even remember when the previous nimrod tried to sell it for a couple years, before I came along and make a drunken bid on ebay.

Here is one of the before pictures so you all can appreciate the level of mistreatment this van receieved while in this guy's hands.

Fortunately it isn't all bad. Here is the exterior a few years back and I figured when I bought it I could redo the interior and remove that dreaded sunroof and put on a poptop.

The last year I spent what spare time I had on the cosmetic stuff because trouble shooting turbo engines and cleaning up old wiring isn't my strong suit.

I finally got around to the engine and replaced old intake hoses, and fixed leaks, some hoses didn't have hose clamps on them and others were cracked. I figured out from this that unmetered air getting into a turbo engine really creates a lot of issues. I changed the oil, plugs and the thing runs like a scalded cat.

Some of you will appreciate frustration of fixing someone else's dumb stuff. And the pain of realizing you got into something you should have run from. Finally a year and a half later and I am not kicking myself for buying this van. The 1.8T will throw you back in your seat and has a ton of low end torque. It is very fun to drive.

So I thought I would do up this post to show the come back of this van. I have million little things still to fix, but I am relieved not to have an unregistered vehicle sitting in my HOA controlled neighborhood anymore.

Dave

[TequilaSunSet]

Holy fucking Dr Octopus, I could never be that drunk to to buy a van that looked like that... were those tubes from the Blue Man Group?

All razzing aside... glad to hear you giving some respect back to your Vanagon... keeps us updated.
_________________
Don't harsh my mellow...
1985 Hightower Vanagon 1.8T- Gone
1972 Panel Bus- Gone
1967 Bug- Gone
1964 Euro Sunroof Bug- Gone
1969/72/63 Sunroof Bug- Gone
1975 Brazilian Bug in the Philippines 🇵🇭- New to me

[chazz79]

Was it used in a fast and furious movie?
_________________
One day as a lion, or a lifetime as lamb

The green monster in bits and peices: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=332556&highlight=green+monster

[Zeitgeist 13]

OMG, epic cluster-frogging. Clearly a genius in his element
_________________
Casey--

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

[greenbrier62]

Uh....what are the hoses for?
_________________
1987 Vanagon camper
2005 VW Passat TDI
1962 Chevy Greenbrier

[?Waldo?]

I imagine the hoses were an attempt to direct the A/C up to the front in place of the center duct that was removed for the sunroof.

[Vanagon Nut]

[D Clymer]

Ah, the infamous Horrido Beetle (Previous owner's user name on VWVortex) 1.8T Vanagon. I always wondered what happened to that van. Aside from all the strange touches, it looks like it has a lot of potential. I'm glad to see you're putting some work into it. Do you have any shots of the engine conversion? If memory serves, I think that was a really early Stephan's Autohaus conversion.

D

[shadetreetim]

That awesome display of technical genius has left me speechless.

What the... Who the...
_________________
Tim Potts

Doing my best every time I drive it to dispel the myth these Vanagons have to be slow!


'89 Vanagon Bluestar/Country Homes 1.8T & .77 4th
'74 Jeep CJ5

[ietalon]

[tangojeff]

Maybe those hoses were an attempt at a communal bong? Actually, I once saw a We$ty with a cool plenum system to extend the rear A/C past the kitchen and to the front headrests. The owner used Raingo vinyl square downspout material and some couplings. This product comes in brown or white.

[davevickery]

[Zeitgeist 13]

That's a stout looking crossbar. How is the engine vibration with those stock WBX rubber mounts?
_________________
Casey--

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

[davevickery]

The cross bar only uses the 2 outer vanagon mounts but seems fine. When it was running rough I could feel a bit of vibration but it idles very smoothly now, so I don't feel anything and once you are moving you don't feel anything out of the ordinary. The rubber mounts are beat and dry rotted so they need replacing.

Here is one of my clean up photos. I do like the rubber mats up front but I put down pergo and carpet in the back. The front seats had already been swapped for GL seats which are better than those cheap tweed seats.

[davevickery]

A few more things getting done.

Ordered a new exhaust system for the van. Having no cat and an open performance muffler and a leaking downpipe gasket made the van way too noisy for me. I drove one of Stephan's conversions and I liked how quiet it was. I went online and ordered something that looks like it will fit and is supposed to be quiet. I'll have a shop bend and weld the tubing. Hopefully I picked a good muffler. I got a Walker Quiet Flow III in a 6" diameter x 28" long with 2.5" inlet/outlets and a magnaflow generic cat made for a 6.0 liter truck and a flex coupling. I recall with a subie conversion I went through a few different mufflers before I was happy. I just want quiet, I'm sure I'll lose some power, but I really don't care as long as it isn't too much and it still runs smoothly. The current exhaust is ugly anyway, I want it tucked up a little better.

After that I need to get the temp gauge working. I'm thinking an aftermarket gauge might be easiest or figure out how to connect something to the stock cluster gauge that will work.
Dave

And the new exhaust looking good and sounding a lot better, and DEI Titanium exhaust wrap, to quiet it down a bit more and hopefully keep the engine compartment temps down. Next up adding some heat shields and maybe a scoop to funnel air past the turbo and downpipe.

[purplepeopleeater]

ohhh, hehehe...I remember that off the vortex.

glad its in your hands now.

FYI, I have had that same muffler...its fairly quiet.

[dredward]

[xoo00oox]

[davevickery]

Making some satisfying progress on this restoration. Installed a new 3 window poptop canvas. This is the BusDepot brand. It isn't as drum tight as their "OEM" version but seems like the best cost/quality combo out there for $279.

I also added some poptop shocks. These came off a Subaru forester for $12.

Got a good start on the rear cabinets. Haven't cut the doors yet as I am still trying to decide what I want to do. This layout is far superior to the stock westy layout. 2 small cabinets vs. one huge one that everying just get piled into. The rear width remains the same, just lets you organize things better. The Formica 927-58 which is supposed to be stock grey is on order.

And the all important 1.8T badge.

[greebly]

What a hooka bong dude.How did it smoke?