Back to Vanagon conversion page

PS> I really love the engine.  You tell anybody who has any reservations
> they can contact me.  It's a real shame the Vanagons in this country
> didn't come with this engine.  Sits in just like the engine in my old
> '83 diesel which I dearly love.  Before this engine I would have traded
> my '85 for an '02 or '03 Eurovan, but not now.  Maybe..... if I didn't
> get a payment book with it.

    We took a trip last summer from Indiana to South Dakota, Wyoming, California,
and back. With the A/C in uses most of the way we got 20.5 MPG and the engine
ran perfect for the whole trip. We are now on vacation in Florida and it is
so nice to have My Vanagon running better than when it was brand new in 1985.                                                                      

Thanks again,  Macon Cunningham

Sunday, April 13, 2003 5:10 PM

To Whom It May Concern,

I had Bill Bourg of German Engine Service (Olympia, WA.) Buy and
install my 2.0L conversion for my 1987 Syncro Vanagon GL (I'm the
original owner, with over 192K). Bill did a fabulous job (and his
crew) and the conversion itself is flawless! My hat is off to
everyone who made all of this possible. Vanagons should have been
this way from day one. ALL of my Waterboxer problems are gone along
with all of those annoying electrical glitches and hiccups. The power
to climb hills, and I'm getting 5 mile to the gallon better than
before! To think I almost gave up on my Vanagon, I'm very glad I did
not, as a 15 year old Vanagon Syncro, with a Tiico 2.0L conversion is
better than anything new!

Thanks to all,

Deon Reynolds
Warren, Oregon

Drove the van to Vail over the Holiday, and it performed extremely well over two mountain passes.  Where I would normally go down to 35 mph in second gear, I was cruising along at 50-55 mph in third gear all the way up the pass!  Great validation of doing the conversion.  I got just over 20 mpg on that tank which would certainly be considered hard driving.  So I'm very happy with your engine.  -Joel

The engine has about 18,000 on her now and runs just great. Christopher.

Dear Peter,
     Just a note to say that my Vanagon really hauls now with the 2.0L
conversion from VW South Africa. My boxer engine gave up at 155,000 and
instead of rebuilding this engine with so many built in problems (head
gasket, etc), I did the conversion. I didn't know how it was all going to
shake out, but I like my Vanagon because of all the room in it and also the
ride. The labor was provided by the Wagon Shop in Bellevue, Wash.
     I was very pleased with the outcome. I drove it down to Laguna Seca to
the World Superbike races (2000 miles round trip). Cruised all the time at
75-85 with sprints to 90+....very responsive. Gas mileage was 20mpg. I have
now had a trailer hitch added and tow a single rail motorcycle trailer (About
600 lb with the bike on it). The extra load makes no noticeable difference
performance-wise, and the gas mileage is about the same.
     Another good thing about this engine is peace of mind. Water boxer
owners always  worry  that blown head gaskets are just around the corner.
     Thanks for everything.

Sincerely,

John McGovern, Seattle, WA.

PS You may use this letter on your web site if you wish. Edit if you like. (Thks John! No editing req'd!)
   

James wrote:

ed wrote:

I start my whole Vanagon shopping intending to eventually do
either a , Audi, or Subaru to a Syncro in order to meet our
all-weather school bus plans.  decided to keep it all German. A Lilley-spec WBX just didn't float my
boat, althoug it's a good solution. The 3.2L 911 was considered
seriously, as was the 1.8T and 1.9TD. And maybe some others not so
seriously.

Overall impression: This thing rocks. The Tii
package seems to have been worth it.

Unlike the various tales of Eurospec woe, my Tii Syncro performed flawlessly.

The van cruises at 65-70 with only a finely-tuned hum. Starts
instantly, idles well, revs willingly. Looks like VW put it in there

All in all, I think it's a winner. Good acceleration, good fuel
economy, so the performance envelope is increased in all directions.
Not cheap, but they don't call the Vanagon the 911 of minivans for
nothing :-).

No cheaper than buying/scrounging everything yourself,
but comes in one box, fits under the deck, has a warrantee, and a
zero-time engine and computer to boot. I should recoup about 3/4 of the
installation costs from selling the old parts - anyone need a Digifant box?

Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 08:08:08 -0500
From: Thomas Czerniak <SELTEN@CORE.COM>
Subject: Re: Iron Butt/Iron Bus, Tii conversion (long)

This is the kind of post that is a big help.
Pertinent and first hand information about an
option for Vanagon owners with high miles.
I just wanted to say Thanks to Ed for the info. I
am going the TiiCo route and like to hear good
reviews. I have friends who have done conversions
from scratch,ala diesel, and I have liked what I
have seen ,The turnkey nature of Tiico 's kit is
definitely icing on the cake!
Tom Czerniak

My sister has now logged about 500 miles on her Tiico conversion and is
loving it. I was very jealous of her today as I followed her on a freeway
onramp and up a long hill on the freeway. I could not keep up and I was in
my Ford Ranger with a 4 liter V6! I think she was showing off a little.

Alan
Sherwood, OR

I am a do it yourselfer and have recently converted my 2.1 Waterboxer to
the TiCo Jetta engine and have run it for 2,000 miles. I am in no way
affiliated with TiCo and offer the following for those who are considering
it.

I found Peter B (I know his last name.., believe me B is easier) to be 100%
honest, up front and sincere. Yes, I did have to wait and was
inconvenienced by a lengthy customs delay, but Peter was doing all that he
could and never avoided me. My engine did arrive a bit rusty from the
journey, but it was more complete than I had imagined! Even hose clamps
were included. I paid zero dollars over the quoted price, and only had to
buy oil and antifreeze to convert and run it. Working alone I was able to
pull the old engine in a 1/2 day and installed the new one by the end of
the next day. After doing this once, I feel that I could do it again in a
day and a half. I had little (no) auto experience prior to this.

The engine with automatic has averaged about 22.8mpg over the 2000 miles
now on it. Our last tank was 23, and before that one, we hit 24.1 after
driving @ 65-70 mph with the a/c on! The old engine averaged about 15mpg
under the same conditions. We had lots of power at 70mph (3800rpm and even
got to 75 a few times, but I personally think that this is too fast for a
Vanagon, although the engine could easily do it. We even manage to
accelerate and pass on a hill exceeding 60-65 mph.(fully loaded with 6 of us
+ bags)!

Our reason for the swap was for reliability ( my wife no longer wonders if
she'll get to where she's going) not speed and economy, but that came as a
bonus! We did get allot of resistance from VW dealers who claim that the
ECU cannot be adjusted with a 1551/2. But after telling them exactly how to
do it (thanks Peter) they scratched their head and accepted the fact. I
have since installed my O2 sensor with info provided via Peter. ( Thank you
Dave) It took all of about an hour to do. The system recognizes it and it
works fine.

I am 100 % satisfied with the conversion and it exceeded my expectations.
We hope to keep our 87 another 200,000 miles and it is now possible.

If anyone would like advice, help, questions, etc. please email me @
nitram@tbcnet.com

I live in the Rockford/Chicago area.

Larry Martin
87 Tico Vanagon
85 Vanagon
72 Beetle

> Larry,
>
> Great info on the TII Kit! I've been dealing with the Eurospec Kit
> problems since they decided to launch that project since our shop did 7-8
of their kits. I now have done the TII Kit into a Tristar (4 door Crew Cab) and the
> install was just as easy as you wrote. I'm glad that the o2 is working
for you, I'm yet to get one for the tristar but as you spoke about dealing
with peter, just a phone call away and I'm sure I'll have one too:)
>Thanks for your post. I too am not affiliated with peter, I've met
Peter face to face and he is one of those people in business I wish we could
> clone. This world needs more Peter B's in it IMO.
>
> Kyle Wade
> Volks-Motorsports.com


Date: 7/23/00
From: Scott Bygd (bygd@mac.com)

I have a 87 Syncro GL with 143,000 miles on it (Still Running Good) and
wanted to get a conversion that was more reliable than the 2.1L that was in
it. I had done one other conversion before on a 75 VW Bus. The conversion
was a 200 hp rotary engine and I had to build alot of parts to make it work.
What made me go with the Tii SA kit was the reliability of the inline 4,
more hp, more RPM, that it was approved by VW, used alot in South Africa
(SA), and it was a complete kit with off the shelf parts.

I received my engine on 2/25/00 and started the installation myself there
after, the engine was running on 4/22/00. The time to do it looks long but I
also had other things I did to the van along with the wait for items on mail
order.

Rebuilt the transmission using a taller 4th gear (60 MPH-3000 RPM,
75-3800, 80-4000).
All New Coolant lines.
All New Fuel lines/Filter.
All New Bushings in the Shift Linkage.
4 New CV Joints in the Rear End.
New Starter, Alternator, Clutch Slave Cylinder, Heavy Duty Clutch, Fuel
Pressure Regulator, and New Injectors.

The kit went in vary well and looks like it came that way from the factory.

Things I changed that I did not do per the instructions are:

Used a top part of a snorkel tube from a Diesel Vanagon It fits like
factory on the left side (the other one would fit but it was not a factory
fit).
Used a standard Vanagon snorkel tube upright because it is oval (The
Syncro is round and would not work).
I used a Diesel muffler because it fit like factory and higher than
reusing the old one.

With the engine running now I needed to find a mechanic with a VW test
tool to set the CO to 1%. I found out the mechanics in the Seattle area did
not know how to do it with out a oxygen sensor. Peter was vary helpful in
getting the information/instructions for the mechanics to set it using the
adaptation mode to set the fuel mixture (The new engines coming in from SA
have a connection for the oxygen sensor this will help the mechanics set up
the engine).

Now that the engine is set right it has smooth power all the way up the
RPM range (the old engine sounded like it was killing it self from 1000-1500
RPM). The hardest part of installing a new engine is not being able to push
it to far till it is broken in. Once it was broke in I was able to see what
it could do, it has a real even torque curve and moves out from the light
alot better than the old engine.

After I had 1200 miles on it I went on vacation on 7/16/00 with my family to
see alot of national parks etc. (the wife and 2 kids, canoe, car top box,
tent camping gear etc., and no AC) We went from Redmond Washington -
Wisconsin - Texas - Nevada - Colorado - Montana and back home to Washington,
a total of 7662 miles. We seen it snow 4 times, had some very heavy rain and
wind, 105 deg., and alot of mountains. When I got about half way thru New
Mexico I notices my muffler pipe broke of at the muffler and had it welded
back on in Arizona, I unhooked the brain to do the welding. After the
muffler was done I noticed the engine had a flat spot between 2000-3000 RPM
Like it did when I first started the engine. I took the van into a dealer
and reset the brain on the engine (I found that if you unhook the brain it
resets it self), after that it was back to running great again.

Conclusion:
I feel I made a great choice in doing this conversion the engine has run
flawless to date. The only thing I question about what I have done is the
taller 4th gear it make the engine run at better RPM's than before, but it
is like driving in overdrive on some hills and I need to down shift sooner
than I would like to.

Thanks again Peter for finding this conversion kit it is great.

I have an '89 syncro full camper. recently, I bought a TiiCo kit from peter. I traded my waterboxer (which was fine, I just wanted more power) with my mechanic for the labor to install the kit.
now that I've got ~1000 miles on it, here's what I think:

The following from a 1.9  Waterboxer engine customer:

Peter B...
It's doing very well, thanks.
I hope you got the check for the shipping?
The engine is running great, I'm very pleased.
I should post a message on vanagon.com about the great service you
provide.

Thanks for all you help,
Rich

Hello Peter,

I'm back In Seattle now and back to work. I still dream
about the great ride in your South African powered vanagon. Thanks again for
the test drive. By the way I'm the guy with the maroon syncro on the way back
home from Mexico.

Anyway, I am writing to thank you for that and ask about the availability
of an engine kit. Unfortunately not for me but for one of two friends who are
interested. One friend lives in Maine but travels all the world and the states
for work, and being in the states he lives in his van. He just called me with
the eventual vanagon dilemma: His coolant fill tank is foaming and over flowing
after driving(possibly combustion gases in the coolant from bad cylinder jacket
o-rings) His water pump was replaced and the almighty head gaskets started to
leak. This was all in the span of two days of getting the van ready for the summer of travelling.

So the question there is how long would it take to get an engine to Maine?
I noticed your last order date was April 21. That was yesterday. This is not
for sure but he definitely doesn't want to deal with replacing head gaskets
on the same engine with lots of miles. His van is a 1984 Westphalia with an automatic
transmission.

That is it for now. If you could please e-mail or call back Monday
morning (or sooner) I could let him know right away. thanks again for the drive.


Tim T.

The following is from the Vanagon Forum:

I have done 5 inline 1.8 GTI engine conv. into Westy and so far have had
no elect; exh; or vibration problems. My 82 Westy has 18,460 miles on
it with no problems. It gets around 22 to 24 MPG combined. I have seen
the TII kit installed in a Vanagon and it great. It looks factory. I
would highly recommend that kit. All my swaps were put together by my
shop but for "D" to gas conv.But for a waterboxer conv. I would use TII
kit in a heart beat. The pictures on there web page do not do it
justice.(I have no investment in this company just think it is a good
product that I have seen first hand) The only bad part of this kit is
that anyone with a jack and hand tools and a little auto know how can do
this swap and that cost me money !!!!! Peter has pictures of how this
engine comes and should post them to his web page.

Bob RWK Enterprises
Placerville Ca. VW Performance, engine swaps, parts

Greetings,

I just got my van back from installing a TII Co. conversion kit.

My van is a '90 automatic.

The install was done by Courtesy Auto in Madison, WI. Dave there did an
outstanding job and was excellent about keeping me informed about what
was going on. Everything looks professional, well done, and it runs
well.

I'm still in the first 100 miles, but everything is running well thus
far. The engine looks like it belongs in the engine compartment.
Standing back and taking a look at things, it doesn't look different at
first glance from the outside. The rear clearance seems to be about the
same as the waterboxer.

Driving wise, I now realize how used I was to a weak waterboxer. This
engine/transmission is real smooth when you accelerate quickly by
Vanagon standards.

I did just about everything Dave recommended. He put in:
new injectors (I know the kit has you reuse them)
new fuel regulator (ditto)
cayalytic convertor (mine was suspect)
new stud bolts from the bell housing to the torque converter.

  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------