I swapped the engine on my 1970 VW Kombi with 091 Gearbox to a Toyota 4Y watercooled motor.
Now this is supposed to be a pretty torquey engine and clearly doesn't like revving much.Revving past 3K rpm , you can feel the gearbox tremble .Honestly It is pretty gruntless for speed but very good for loads.
Problem is , as it doesn't like high revs, climbing hills is painful and slow!I have to maintain the revs at 3k rpm which usually means downshifing to 2nd gear in order not to feel like the engine / gearbox will pop!3rd gear can't handle hills that well either.
I read I could swap the gears to make it match the engine demands.
I was suggested to a 1.14 3rd gear and a 0.70 4th gear.I was advised that this combo would drop the rpms and enable me to move faster at lower rpm thus theoretically utilizing the power band of the engine better.
I am essentially looking at being able to climb hills better / easily and also maintaining descent comfortable rpms at highway speeds.
Question is: Is it worth it to ? I have read that this 3rd/4th gear kombo leaves an annoying gap between 2nd and 3rd and can even make climbing hills difficult as you have to downshift.
Others say better to leave the gearbox as is and just play around with Tire diameter.This option doesn't appeal much to me.
I have also heard that the subbie engines(EJ22 and EJ25) will be a better match and should consider getting one instead.
Basically, gurus, any input or advise on the most reasonable approach without robbing the central bank is welcome.
Which approach?
