Well, I've been absent from the forums for a month and a half or so due to being in a position of having both time and money at the same point in history. So.. I left my home in BC, drove across Canada to Halifax, down to NYC, across to San Fransisco via conneticut, illinois, iowa, colorado, nevada, and whatever was in between, then up the napa valley and oregon coast. I drove my 84 rabbit, originally a factory TD model but the engine was shot when I got it. Currently equipped with a completely redone 89 jetta hydraulic lifter engine, k14 turbo (15 PSI) from a 94 jetta TD, top-mount saab 900 intercooler, and a trial-and-error tweaked fuel pump. Also appearing are seats and rims from a 1990 corrado, golf 16v rear disc brakes, mk 1 GTI front and rear swaybars, and home made front and rear strut tower braces. I haven't calculated the US portion of the trip, though from Kelowna, BC, to Halifax, NS, was a 6200 km drive and only cost me 348$ in fuel. Prices ranged from 79-99 cents per liter. Brandon, Manitoba being the lowest, and Fredricton, New Brunswick being the highest. total fuel volume worked out to roughly 385 liters. The car ran superbly across the continent, pushing a comfortable cruise of 120 k/h at 10 PSI for 12-14 hours a day, never went above the 1/4 mark on the temp gauge. When my stock turbo kicked the bucket I decided to see what it would run like with the smaller K14, and after fabricating a custom oil pan, return line, and hacking the manifold heat shields, I discovered it was well worth it. Boost comes on lower and quicker and makes the 1.6 very responsive. At 120 k/h, I can still ham on it and pass cars with little effort up to 150 k/h. The only issues I had were the fuel shutoff solenoid wire fraying and vibrating apart in nevada (easy roadside fix) and my #2 injector line cracking clean off at the injector end in northern california. I drove around for a few hours on 3 cylinders spilling fuel all over the place looking for a replacement part.. a long convoluted goose chase ensued where i met more local color than my sanity could handle (everyone referred me back to this redneck with a beetle shop outside of town who was NO help at all.. "why dont'cha patch it with rubber hose? or make a new 'un outta brake line?) and when I was about to give up and have a fellow VW pal mail me my spare set from my home garage, I came across a diesel vanagon up on blocks in a driveway. rang the doorbell and this old guy just gave me his injector lines, so long as i promised to mail them back before he finished rebuilding his engine. He mentioned in passing if i knew if they still printed vanagon shop manuals, guess he's been having trouble finding one.. he'll be getting one in the mail along with his lines, that's for sure. I'm thinking I might need to get this Giles character to do a proper job on my pump though, it's the only weak link left. Can't imagine how nice this motor would be with no governor and proper fueling. It's proven itself durable, at least.. after 5 weeks of touring the continent. I recommend everyone try to do it at least once in a lifetime, though the golden rule will always be that the spare parts you need are never the ones you take with you.
Topic: the ultimate roadtest (Read 3207 times)
