Large, larger, too larger

I picked up a new set of rubber today and now when they are compared
with the 16's I have mounted they look gigantic!!!
Hmmm... will they hit something in the chassi?
Right now the bus has Nokian Hakapeliitta 205/65 16C (load rate 107).
They are really nice winter tires but the summer heat kills them. I
have a set of 17" rims left after a car sale so I thought they will be
nice as summer wheels and got these Dunlop Sport XL 235/55 17 (load
rate 103w). They are actually mounted on VW T5's here from retailers.
A quick comparison is a bit scarying though. Will they fit at all?
Let's see tomorrow! :-)

The image with the five spoke rim is the 17's as today with 225/45.
They actually have a smaller diametre than the 16's. The new Dunlop
tires are compared with these, that's the image with the stacked
tires.

Wire shifter prototyping

Did some ugly welding to measure up the wires for the new shifter. It amazed me how easy and smooth the shifting was, I can shift with my bare hands with the wires only!
I bought some cheap ball joints and it feels really tight despite the cheapy joints.

Controllers arrived!

It is not only batteries needed when converting a Prius to a plugin hybrid. Finally all parts from pluginsupply.com have arrived and now I can start the project for real!

It took quite a while to get the parts but they look very well assembled. Worth waiting for after all. :-)

New oil plug

When the gearbox is flipped upside down the air valve must be plugged. I realized that the little steel tube holding the air cap was not very difficult to rip of or knock into the housing. Not good. So I solved it by threading the hole with a standard M12 tap, made a new tube with an oversized M12 thread in one end and a smooth 12 mm dia in the other, with a cut for a large screwdriver. I filled the thread with black silicone and worked the tube into the hole. It will NOT get away from there.

To make services easier I mounted a plumbers valve. It's the high qually brand Ballofix and I happen to know that they survives decades of oil abuse. Now it's just a dust cap left and I can change oil with racing style... :-)

Gear box trimmer

Back to the T25 gearbox conversion. Finally!
Too much work this winter has affected my van projects very negative. But it is time to plug those thumbs out from the arse and make things now, the snow is gone - time for camping!

I need to cut down the bellhousing 15 mm to make the adapter fit as engineered. Tim (my English e-mail buddy) has made a table where he puts the box standin straight up. I am going another route. I made a swing arm.

Lathe/mill work to make a centre axle that fits on the gear box axle.

Welded on the swing bar.

Lathe/mill work to make a slider for the router.

Tadaa!

Not a switch. It's an add!

We bought a Prius a few months ago. Super nice condition and low miles. We actually wanted to by the new chargable Prius but when we found this one it was a too good price to let it go. To get the plugin function I want I talked a lot with a very nice guy down south who already made a few EV conversions and specifically Priuses. The other day a bunch of batter cells and a charger came via Fedex. Time to assemble the battery bank.

And of course, this is an add-on to the system in the car. Nothing removed!

Vanagon average fuel consumption

There's a thread at thesamba.com (the vanagon forum) where members list their fuel average.

I took the data and visualized it.

If the information was too incomplete it was ignored.

If an MPG was rated "x to y MPG" or if the MPG was given in city and highway driving the value in use is (x+y)/2.

If the MPG is listed in different speeds an average is calculated or the MPG closest to 65 mph is used.

There are a lot of different engines swapped into vanagons and they are taken into account.

MPG is Miles per Gallon, which is opposite compared to l/100 km. When using MPG a higher value is better.

To get a l/100 km-value out of an MPG, divide the value with 235.22 (235.22/25 mpg = 9.41 l/100 km).

Enjoy!

New injectors makes a difference

Before we went on a small camping trip I replaced the injectors (finally). I suspect that the old injectors were really bad, one was probably leaking compression too. It seems these nozzles can be pretty much Scheit and still deliver heaps of power.

Anyway, as written below the new nozzles are a tiny bit bigger. If that is making a difference or not, I don't know. But there is a uge difference...

One of the copper rings was stuck. I was forced in the end to get it out with ugly tricks. Unfortunately I damaged the injector seat a bit but I think it doesn't really matter.

How is the engine now? When running cold it still knocks a bit at idle but more distinct than before. When it's warm idling is very smooth. I had to adjust the idle as it ran pretty high.
There is WAY more ompf! It didn't smoke when giving full pedal before. Know it does for real! Remember, the nozzles aren't that much bigger.
And best of all; the engine is noticable quiter. High way is now a comfort ride even for the people in the back seat.
I'll retard the pump a tenth or two which will loose a little bit of revving happiness but it will make it even more quiet.

If you can you should replace the nozzles.

Injector info

This is very good info about injectors, check the Bosch item ID when you order new nozzles.

It's all a copy from the detailed site, http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/TDI-nozzle-FAQ.htm

.158 injectors: DSLA 150P 672, OEM on the 90 hp auto transmission mk4 ALH 1998-2003 engine, actual measured size is .138mm.

.184 injectors: DSLA 150P 706 (some say France) OEM on the 90 hp manual transmission mk3 AHU/1Z (post smoke recall for the 1996 passat) 1996-1999 engine and the mk4 ALH 1998-2003 engine, actual measured size is .170mm.  Remember that if you have this size nozzle and replace them with ".184" .170mm actual size nozzle you will see an increase in power because of the size difference.

.184 injectors: (Euro market: DSLA 150P 357)/(US market: DSLA 150P 442) (sprint 357/442 or PP357), OEM on the 90 hp manual transmission mk3 AHU/1Z 1996-1999 engine, actual measured size is .185mm.  Similar to the "smaller".184 injectors used in later cars except it has a larger opening and was used in injector bodies with lower opening pressure (190 bar) used with different ecu programming pre-smoke recall in the 1996 passat.  PP357 should give about +5hp, +10ft-lbs over comparable sprint nozzles with less smoke.

.205 injectors: DSLA 150P 520 (sprint 520 or PP520), found on the 110 hp Euro AFN/ASV engine, actual measured size is .205mm.  These are the stock nozzles found on the 110hp Euro cars which also used a larger turbo and different ECU to account for more fuel.  PP520 should give about +10hp, +25ft-lbs over stock nozzles and about +5hp, +10ft-lbs over comparable 520 sprint nozzles with less smoke.

I have the second .184 injectors, hopefully getting some extra push. :)

Engine coming out soon for an upgrade

I'm ripping the power plant out soon, the new gearbox is going in and I'm going to make a new air filter box, retard the pump timing a bit and finally replace the nozzles. I have a "diesel knock" and it's the third nozzle that seems worn out or dirty. Time to change!