[bondvagabond]

I made some good progress yesterday. Got the transmission crossmember from the auto trans altered so it would fit the 6 speed.

I bolted up the drive shaft adapter which is a length of auto trans output shaft welded to a flange that bolts to new trans output flange. This slips into the internally splined end of the stock driveshaft to give me the "slip yolk" effect needed when the suspension geometry changes the length of the drive shaft. I had read that max allowable runout on a driveshaft was 0.003" and bothe the slip yolk connection and the trans output flange have about 0.030" of play. Will retorque output flange bolt and grease slip yolk to see if that helps. The splines are all nice and square no sharpening indicating wear.

@aerohead: Banks and ATS and someone else all make turbo setups for my engine, but I believe them to be optimized for maximum reliable power rather than maximum reliable efficiency. That is why I was so excited to find that EPA vw data that seams to show that na is more efficient than turbo in same displacement, same compression ratio engine.

@aerohead: when you say the corporate guys do load reduction first then pick power sufficient to the task, are you meaning for engine design? Cause an engine swap is not in the cards right now. If you meant picking final drive ratio than that is a great point. If my motor's peak efficiency is fixed at peak torque it is 1400rpms. The overdrive in my trans is fixed at 0.72, or 1:1 in 5th for 2% efficiency bump. The variables than are tire size and rear end ratio. Thanks to aerohead I will put changing these after load reduction(although tire size/weight/rolling resistance is kind of both.) the tallest gears for my full floating dana 60 rear axle from the factory are 3.33:1 (easy to find used) and 3.23:1 (never Sean them new or used). With a little milling dana 61 gears can be used, giving you 3.08:1 and 2.73:1 if necessary. For those with the machining skills to try that at home just know the ring gear bolt holes are hardened crazy hard and use appropriate best practices.

Reducing drive belt loads is high on my list but I have a few differences from Jacob azizas project. I had a 1967 ford f350 with manual brakes that I used for hauling heavy loads and the lack of a brake booster never bothered me. It was drums all around so might be tough finding a master cyl for brakes that was sized for front discs and rear drums. Am I correct in assuming that the electric vacuum pumps draw no load as long as you are not braking? If that is so, then I guess there would be no benefit to going to manual brakes except maybe slight reliability increase.

The other variation is that I require A/C for medical reasons. Although a young fit 32 year old I was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which makes me very heat sensitive. I have the cooling vests and all that but here in texas when it's 100*f and 98% humidity I need the real deal. I've investigated using a prius electrical a/c compressor, they run off the hybrid pack so would require a heavy battery bank. Other ideas are an insulated partition between front seats and cargo area. Also cops use these hoses that clip on the a/c vent to direct cold air under their body armor, something like that might help, since the engineering problem is to cool me not the interior car air.

Another fun symptom of m.s. Is extreme fatigue. It is so bad that the social security department just renamed it as ms lassitude to signify that it is worse than extreme fatigue caused by many other illnesses. Part of my reason for getting a van was to have an area in the back I could sleep in so I was not shackled to my house for "nap time" allowing me to venture farther from home or stay out longer. In the summer this would dictate some sort of a/c that could cool me while I slept for up to 4 hours. If anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to pull off this space ship issue I'd love to hear it. My motor burns 0.25 u.s. Gallons of diesel and puts out about 50hp at idle so I could potentially run factory a/c, maybe hosed to inside an insulated "sleeping bag" with a thermostat pickup inside that would kill the a/c compressor clutch reducing engine load/fuel usage. One of my last jobs was as a long haul truck driver, and the semis all have diesel or battery powered climate control units that can be found used for about $1000. This would be an expensive option, and I believe the diesel ones burn similar g/hr as my engine at idle, plus another motor to maintain etc.

Anyway, sorry if that is over sharing, but it is pertinent to my quest for efficiency given my constraints. And if anyone has some good ideas on how to accomplish my efficiency goals it will be the helpfull people on this forum.