On Jan 19, 2024, at 11:51?PM, Richard Montgomery via groups.io <rikmont@...> wrote:

?

thanks for your post! I'm still smiling imagining the scene...!

Rick

On Friday, January 19, 2024 at 07:35:01 PM CST, lreinreb <lreinreb@...> wrote:

? ?I have been following this site since before I did a conversion to my '84 westy, Buttercup, using a $500.00, 210,000 mi. '96 2.2 Subaru donor car. I want to offer a little encouragement to the people considering?it. All the posts about check?engine lights,ecu?warnings, and idling problems can be discouraging, I would like to counter that with a story about my experience with the van on the road. I did the DIY conversion in 2020, including fabricating engine mounts, wiring harness, shift linkage and reversed trans. over a period of a few months.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?In 2022 my wife and I decided to visit friends and family across the country as far as Quebec and Maine. We had put a few thousand miles on the conversion by then and I trusted it enough to figure it would get us back to Calif. again. So off we went, with no problems til Portland, Oregon when a fan thermostat refused to turn the fan on in traffic. a light tap with the end of a screwdriver got it working again. After that, the van performed flawlessly across the country and back, going as fast as I needed to keep up with traffic. On the return trip, we had been enduring 100 degree days across the midwest and over the Rocky Mts. on highway?70 with no AC, so decided to take highway 15 west to the coast for some relief. US 15 across Utah and Nevada passes thru a geological feature known as the basin and range complex. We were traversing that, heading down slope off one range and across 5+ miles of valley floor when I saw in my mirror a F350 Ford towing a big 5th wheel trailer blowing black smoke as it was fixing to pass us. Lacking AC, we have all the windows open as it is over 100 degrees and I realize that he is going to smoke us out with "burning coal" so I step on it just enough to keep ahead of him. He has this huge box he is dragging so it wasn't hard to stay ahead, 3400 RPM in 5th was around 70 MPH so our little Buttercup was not straining. As we started to climb, I shifted to 4th and 4000 RPM and can see the smoke cloud increase in my rearview mirror as he kicks down?a gear. Finally up at the top of the pass, I see that the wind has shifted and the smoke is blowing back on his trailer, so I let him pass. He just stays in the fast lane, no let up,trailing a black cloud, as we resume our cruising?speed. The next up slope, 10 miles later, we see the same rig, over at the side of the road with the hood up and white smoke, not steam coming from the engine compartment. I couldn't help myself from giving him a friendly beep, beep,beep as we went by. That extra 40 HP makes the difference in these vans. You won't regret it. Paul

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