My '87 Westfalia is on it's second (or third?) engine. The previous owners accidentally bottomed the engine case out on a rock while camping, thus cracking it and prematurely ending its little life. I bought the van about 3 months ago with a genuine VW replacement engine that their insurance company had paid for, and this was done in 1998. By the looks of things, the coolant hoses and expansion tank were replaced at the same time. My van even got a new ECU in October of last year, so mechanically speaking, it's now quite young.

The current engine has about 23K on the clock, and I'm planning to maintain it "by the book", so to speak. I use the Bosch W7DTC tri-tip plugs, and so far so good. Coolant is green, but as has been pointed out in other posts, this may or may not mean it is the correct coolant, and at some point I will change it as preventative maintenance.

I will also be upgrading it with the modified ECU chip and 1:25 ratio rockers, both of which are "bolt on" horsepower.

The van itself has approximately 155K on the clock.

Dan

Bill Transue wrote:

> My 1987 Vanagon Syncro is on its second 2.1 > > The first owner had the engine replaced at 40,000 miles (I'd like to know > for what.. I bought it from the second owner who didn't know the reason). > > It now has over 133,000 miles.. getting close to needing that third one! > > Bill > > PS Will you publish the results? I think it would be interesting. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf > > Of JordanVw@aol.com > > Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2000 10:51 PM > > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > > Subject: '86 up vanagon owners..... > > > > > > how many of you 2.1L owners are on your second engine, and if so, at what > > mileage did you replace it? and what was the reason for failure? > > how many > > of you have over 200k mi on your original engine (without rebuild) ?? > > > > TIA- > > chris > >