Diesel Vanagon! Turbo Diesel even!
We purchased this car 3 years ago in November 2012. It's a great car, eally fun, uper for trips, oving stuff, nd moving a lot of people. The car is in great shape, '91 Vanagon with freshly installed '94 Golf turbo diesel engine with only 78,000 miles on it. This engine is arguably the best diesel conversion for these vans due to its great combination of fuel economy, ower, nd reliability. It is much faster than your average Vanagon, as better mileage, nd can be run on biodiesel.
The van had a diesel conversion done before I bought it. The original engine failed in last year, o I replaced it with a similar VW TDI engine in great condition with low miles.
In the last two years, e've had the following work done:
- '94 Golf turbo diesel engine w/ 78,000 miles on it. (professionally installed spring 2015 at Trafton VW shop in SE Portland)
- transmission (completely rebuilt automatic done by River City Transmissions SE Portland)
- new Bosch alternator
- AC servicing
- Coolant pipes (high end metal ones installed at Heckmann & Thiemann in SE Portland)
- all hoses
Features:
- seating for 7 (two removable rear facing seats)
- AC
- two super strong heaters
- very well sealed and no wind noise cab
- high traffic removable rug protecting the excellent condition interior floor carpet
- power windows and doors (I decided to replace the passenger side window with a manual crank opener when the electric opener failed, river window is working fine as the electric that came with the Carat)
- nice integrated retracting dashboard shade
- a cool pop-out table
- Yakima locking core roof rack for car top carrier or impromptu hauling
- Great interior condition
- perfect kid-mover van that actually looks cool
- can sleep two adults on the rear fold down bed, nd one or two kids under 10 (I built a removable front seat sleeping platform you can have that works great for a kid from 4-10 or so)
Blemishes:
Passenger side sliding door is dented, ut operates and closes fine. Right side behind sliding door has a trim panel missing.
Between 2 to 4 years ago the previous owner did the following repairs/updates. His words here:
- 22 mpg - about 8 mpg more than the gas engine these came with.
- runs almost emissionless when using bio-diesel.
- gearing for the A T was changed so that the engine would run at lower RPM's when at highway speed, he way a diesel is supposed to.
- installed Bilstein HD shocks all around
- Gowesty carpet protectors in the front compartment and rubber mats.
- upgraded with dual-batteries which can be selected (A or B or AB or OFF) with a marine grade switch under the passenger seat. It has an integrated inverter which is accessible under the passenger seat and has two AC110 sockets and 2 USB ports.
- stereo has been upgraded to take a line in and has new speakers, n amplifier, nd a subwoofer
- Custom made some awesome, nsulated curtains for the sides and back that work with the integrated front window screen
- replaced the entire front wheel assembly (fall 2012): new rotors, earings and pads
- Radiator replaced (fall 2012) with brand new OEM parts
- completely rebuilt injector pump
- new oil pan
- rear brakes overhauled (fall 2012)