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Posted by: aircooledtechguy Aug 19 2015, 03:34 PM

I thought you all would dig this. This unassuming '81 Vanagon came in this morning to get a good once-over before a trip this weekend.




The current owners are a Bellingham couple who purchased it long ago from local Bellevue Porsche legend Denny Akers.




This was his family car back when new and of course he couldn't leave well enough alone. It's been converted to a 2.7L -6 with CIS done right.






I can tell you that this baby is NOT underpowered anymore!!

Posted by: Cairo94507 Aug 19 2015, 03:38 PM

My old Porsche mechanic, now long retired, had a VW bus that he put a 3.0 in that was cool as hell. I think that is a terrific modification for those buses.

Posted by: KELTY360 Aug 19 2015, 03:58 PM

Gotta love an aircooled Vanagon Six. Fits nice.

Posted by: whitetwinturbo Aug 19 2015, 05:10 PM

..........love to see this brick get up and go.... BUT could be scary at top speed

Posted by: Tom_T Aug 19 2015, 05:58 PM

Great deal!

Porsche themselves also did it with 2 chase/support vehicles for the 959's Paris-Dakkar Races in the early `80's & then with about another 15 special limited production "B32 Carrera" Vanagons....



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PS - they also did at least one Euro Westy/Joker/California Camper B32....



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Cheers!
Tom
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Posted by: JmuRiz Aug 19 2015, 07:16 PM

Has an A/C pulley on the 2.7
I'd have to think that Vanagon with A/C would be even better.

I love those custom CIS setups. They are cool on theses and 914s

A total sleeper for sure. With some aesthetic mods, it would be amazing.

Posted by: GeorgeRud Aug 19 2015, 07:39 PM

One of our local Porsche experts had a Vanagen -6. It really was a hoot to hear that can take off.

Now, when does someone put one into a VW Thing?

Posted by: RRietman Aug 19 2015, 08:09 PM

I've ridden in this thing with Denny. It's fast. he wasn't doing wheelies, but I got the impression he was trying to keep it down. at that time he was looking for twin turbo donor for it.
Randy

Posted by: Tom_T Aug 20 2015, 03:53 PM

A high school buddy a year ahead of me in San Diego (he was class of 69), from a wealthy family - got a new `69 911S as an early grad gift, which he soon cracked up!

So he got a beater - rusty & primered `60 Splitty Bus, & transplanted the motor & all running gear from the 911S wreck into it.

He could & did pop wheelies in the HS parking lot, & his fav lunchtime off-campus activity was grabbing a few buddies (for ballast), & going off challenging Vettes, Z28s, SS396, Stangs, etc. to stop-light drags!

Great fun!

Also - all of those Porsche B32 Carrera Vans had AC, as does our 88 Westy - & yes, it does make a huge differnce, especially on our summer XC trips through the desert Southwest, South & Midwest!

However, the humidity caused condensation to form & chill on the rear plastic ductwork box & drip on the back seat & rear cargo area, since VW didn't plan for all that water & a way to drain it outside, which required another sort of "Vanagon Hack"!


Tom
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Posted by: Maltese Falcon Aug 21 2015, 12:54 AM

On my 3.2 carrera/4wd vanagon synchro I also discovered my rear cushion soaking wet one hot afternoon.
I did some digging around the rear ductwork and found a drip hose leading out of the plastic tray, then runs down inside of the right rear 1/4 panel. Apparently dust mixes with the condensation, moves into the tube and clogs the flow. A straight piece welding rod cleaned that out.
Then I vacuumed out the rear condenser with a small shop vac, adapted to a small piece of 1/2" Dia rubber hose, any larger won't get in there.
Worked well, on hot days the condensation would stream out of the bottom of the right rear fender

Posted by: a914622 Aug 21 2015, 07:54 AM

He used that for the shop van. The dash was all 911 gadges. I got the front struts for my 914 from him and we had to run over to the other building to get them, he jumped in the bus!!!! . His early 60's big with the twin cam 356 was in hot vw a few years back. That is crazy crazy fast.

Posted by: Mikey914 Aug 21 2015, 08:00 AM

My mechanic has one too. As he says, aerodynamics of a brick, but you can get from 0-90 pretty quick.

Posted by: JohnBFR Aug 21 2015, 11:06 AM

I've done a few, they are always fun. My father used to have a Westy that we would take tours around the country in. Once we found that it couldn't navigate the mountains due to the lack of power he swapped in a 2.4l 911T engine. He and I made multiple Miami to Cali trips in that, camping each night. Eventually that one rusted too badly and he bought another that got a full down to bare metal restoration and swapped the engine over. Many more summers were spent, then when I was in high school I used to drive it sometimes because it would do better burnouts than my 914LE driver ;-).

Eventually he gave it to me and I traveled with my son in it as well. For a time I was really hard up and myself, my son, and my fiance, all lived in it for about 8 months so we could save rent money and pay off all of our debt. I had fabricated a zip-in panel for the roof to shroud a big wall unit A/C that would keep it down right frosty inside on the hottest of days, and I mounted a flat screen TV and an x-box behind the front seats. It was actually quite nice and at times we miss the simplicity of not having so much crap!

Unfortunately that Westy met it's demise when a very large tree in my back yard fell and squished it. It ended up getting sold to somebody whom was going to fix it, I only hope he was able to.



You can see the 911 fan through the stock license plate cover (we removed it and screened it for better cooling) while camped out for a race at Barber Motorsports Park:









One of the other fun ones I did was using a 3.6L Subaru SVX 6cyl engine with a 915 gearbox. That thing was a rocket!

Posted by: Tom_T Aug 21 2015, 01:01 PM

Maltese -

I did regularly check the condenser drip lines @ the L & R corners, & they were always draining fine, but the humid air back east would condense on that huge plastic shroud with the 5 air ducts facing forward & 2 downward, where the fan (usually on Hi to blow cold air from over the rear seat to me up front) would then blow out the cold condensate out those vents. So it was well forward of & the duct/shroud wasn't set up to drain into the condenser's drip pan.

The key was it would always start & stop the frigid rain forest drips about Amarillo when the humidity got up there & continue for all of the east, south & midwest areas we visited (CA, OK, AR & IN were the regular stops with various routes & fun or biz stops along the way).

Never a problem with it in dry CA or Southwestern states - ever.

So I got some spare leftover clear pvc 1/4" tubing & straight tapping cock used for Refrigerator water supply lines (for the ice maker & water), & a heavy duty plastic tray used for wall paper (about 4" w x 66" L x 4" D), then drilled the bottom of the pan near one end & screwed the tap in & the clear line ran from there & out to the bottom sill of the rear of the sliding door. The pan was then attached to the front of the shroud below the ducts to collect the drips & run out the tube at the sliding door, & all were secured with velcro tabs to add/remove only when back east.

If I were more ambitious, then I'd have figured out something permanently mounted inside the shroud to drain into that condenser drip pan & out the dual rear drains. But we stopped driving the Westy our long trips in the early 2000's, when it got in the 150k+ range & after gas got so high after 9/11 & since, that we could just fly for less - with my wife & kids on the free Southwest flights I'd earn from biz trips.

The kids & I still did the Indy to Tulsa leg in a rented car though for some road tripping fun, & a stop at Lambert's Cafe in either or both Sikeston & Ozark (Springfield) MO!


John -

We had the same problem on grades, which I solved by screaming downhill at 95 & hoping to not drop below 60-65 at the next hill, but in the Rockies on I-70 going east the reality was down to 35 halfway up on the first grade, 30 on the second, & 25 on the third grade! We just learned to be patient & pull over to the right on the bigger grades!

That looks like it was a sweet set-up. Back in the 80's I'd longed for a 911E -6 for it's better power & MFI for stable fuel delivery at all altitudes, but didn't want to hassle the water to aircooled conversion on our later waterboxer.

Today if doing a Porsche -6 WBX swap, I'd probably look for a wrecked 996/997/991 or 986/987/981 & swap in the full running gear (engine/transaxle/cooling & fuel systems/brakes/suspension/wheels/tires) & would do the IMS's "PMS" fix if the earlier engines.

Of course in reality for our needs & for practicality, ease of swapping & for the 48 mo/48,000 mi warranty coverage - I'd probably most likely just do a GoWesty 2.4-2.7L -4 WBX upgraded engine, then use it with more assurance that I'm covered much longer than any other engine rebuilder will. I plan do have my guy Hans do that whenever ours next needs any major engine work, but it's still the stock 2.1L H-4 WBX (new engine when original blown in 1999, top end done again in 2005).

Ours as recently restored/refurbed at the June 2015 Steve McQueen Boys Republic charity car show, now at 214k mi & original owners:



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Cheers!
Tom
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