In a way we're mostly 'amateurs' on here. I hate the word too, as well as calling my VW-thing a hobby, I haven't found a word for it yet that I can live with, if that makes any sense. After a while VWism takes on a much deeper meaning and we're all becoming some sort of engineer, inventing, using and testing our little improvements or techniques to bring our babies to the utmost original condition. For me it's something that started when I was 15 and my mom found out I had four VWs stashed away somewhere. I've read all I could in the 16 years that followed, and I have hands on experience on many different kinds of aircooled VWs, from stock to high performance, as well as Porsches. Over time one reads some here and there, and learn as you go. This list is a great medium to exchange the different experiences, talk about them, and expand our knowledge even more, yet sometimes, and I have that a lot, we're very anxious to share something, and the subject is not very clear anymore, still we type up a post, quickly send it off, and a few minutes later it could trigger some unfriendly remarks. It happens, we're amateurs, and it's allowed, and can be rectified easily. I am very much a person that would rather say nothing than to give wrong information. This brings me to the VW parts industry, the professionals, we're too easy on them, they just don't seem to learn anything. My girlfriend got me the March 2002 issue of VW Trends, and they have a column called Nuts N Bolts or something similar, and there is this guy writing about his Karmann Ghia, and he writes that he read on the Gene Berg Ent. website that they measured 25% blowby after a 5 minute dyno-run of an engine with 94mm cylinders, and he asks VW Trends if the 94s are really that bad or if there was just something else wrong with the engine in this test. The answer is, wait, let me get the article, VW Trends says:
"As far as the 94mm P&Cs go, while the barrel is admittedly thinner than it's stock counter part, and there will be a little less engine life than if you used the stock 85.5mm barrels and pistons, if you keep the timing to no more than 30 degrees at full advance, and the CR to a livable level (We would suggest no more than 8.5 to 1 with today's fuels), you can achieve good engine life with them" Luckily they are not saying Gene Berg Ent. is incompetent. What I don't get, and it saddens me, WHY won't the magazines, AND the VW parts industry, take on a scientific, well thought out approach? It's in the interest of everyone to have VWs live a long life, and to keep customers happy. Mahle makes just as much on a set of 90.5s as on a 94mm set. Why not advise this guy to go for 90.5s? Why make him believe that "you can achieve good engine life with them"? Why let him waste his money? I've been there and done that, I have fried engines with ALL the chrome you could get. Thank you EMPI, thank you BugPack, thank you retailers, thank you very much for not telling me this is for SHOW use only, that I can't even drive it onto a trailer as soon as I start using your products. I even had a 88mm slip-in (they're sooo convenient!!) set on an engine once, it didn't even run long enough to synchronize the carbs. Thanks again! I spent fortunes on it, in Holland, where this stuff is imported from the US, parts like that are expensive. $200 for a $49 EMPI extractor is nothing. I think that a magazine such as VW Trends, or HotVWs, has the responsibillity to inform VWists in a correct manner, and should have qualified personell looking at technical issues before it gets printed, and becomes gospel to thousands accross the world. BUT, on page 20 there is an article on Type 4 head rebuilding, Headflow Masters repairs a head for Jake Raby's Project, and I'm impressed by the workmanship. Kathy Jacobs, the writer of the article, writes as if it was an article for the NY times, unbiased and to the point. Oh well, enough rambling for today :) I hate being so pessimistic :) It's my birthday btw, have one on me :) Brian ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To UNSUBSCRIBE send any e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To email the admin for list help only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands send any e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Donations help keep the list going. http://www.type2.com/donate.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------
