What distributor with MicroSquirt ?

[luftvagon]

1981 Vanagon Westfalia 2.0L air cooled motor. I'd like to stick with distributor ignition due to simplicity, as long as it works. Keep it simple, no?

What distributor would work well with MicroSquirt?
Centrifugal Advance only?
Centrifugal Advance and Vacuum Advance?

[Steve Arndt]

Crank trigger is worth it.

In answer to your question, the 2.1 vanagon. It has four windows, and is already "locked out". Let the ECU control timing.

[luftvagon]

Crank trigger is worth it.

In answer to your question, the 2.1 vanagon. It has four windows, and is already "locked out". Let the ECU control timing.

Which crank trigger do you recommend? CB Performance? Mario? anyone else make one?

[Steve Arndt]

I made my own since I have a special pulley. I think Mario has a few T4 setups that work with the existing cooling fan.

[luftvagon]

I made my own since I have a special pulley. I think Mario has a few T4 setups that work with the existing cooling fan.

I emailed him. He has not done anything for vanagons.

[Steve Arndt]

He has done Type 4 engines though, which is what you have.

Steve

[MarioVelotta]

I have only done a type 4 in a 912 with a T4 conversion. I don't know if it will work or not in this application. Maybe you can tell me?

The trigger wheel replaces the spacer behind the pulley.

[luftvagon]

That may not work. The fan is enclosed in the dog house, but the pickup wheel may work.

[Steve Arndt]

A lot of people have worked on mounting trigger wheels to the crank mounted fan on T3s and T4s. I'm not recalling which threads here have the info, it will take a little scrounging in the T4 forum, and the efi forums.

Steve

[sideshow]

One will loose the AC belt drive pulley but on a trip to the junkyard I found a V6 transverse Ford Mini Van mostly disassembled, no engine, but in the debris field the crank pulley was still present. By trimming down the ford flange for the VW crank pulley I was able to pinch it between the spacer and hub. This worked well during mocking up and was then welded to prevent any unwanted rotating.

Now all I had was four cylinder pickups (the V6 one was trashed and well beyond repair) and after ruining a few pieces of bed frame angle iron I gave up on a simple bracket and made this one out of three pieces and plenty of welding. I use a M8 through bolt and tapped a M6 into the motor mount.

The shroud required some trimming clear the body of the pickup and I even had to trim back quite a bit off the plug pigtail as I didn't want to take that much off the blower shroud.

Sure it is a little less refined than some of the others, but I don't have a lot of talent to spare.