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Date:         Thu, 31 Aug 2000 08:37:46 +0100
Reply-To:     Jeff Warner <jwarner@NETWALK.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Warner <jwarner@NETWALK.COM>
Subject:      Thoughts on Tents, Heads, Tires, and Hoses (longish)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I haven't submitted to the list in a while. Didn't feel I had anything to offer. But lately some subjects have been raised (or raised again) so I thought I should finally offer my two cents worth. So you'll know where I'm coming from, our family of 4 have owned and loved our '87 Vanagon GL for a little over 4 years now. We use it almost exclusively for vacations, recreation and trips to the lumber yard. I've experienced several of the problems commonly discussed on this list (A/C, tires, head, Cooling system, fuel pump, etc. I'm a fairly experienced back yard mechanic and am not usually afraid to do it myself. Although I'd like to think that I'm usually smart enought to defer to the experts when necessary. Our Vanagon has 187,000 miles on it now and even though we love it we are planning on becoming Westfalia owners eventually.

Tents - I've seen a lot of discussion about tents lately and felt I should mention one that I've scoped out. I spent about 2 months researching my options for a side tent and after narrowing my choices down to about 4, settled on the Cabela's Truck Tent.

http://www.cabelas.com/texis/scripts/store/+/CatalogDisplay/displayPOD/CabFALL1998/CabFALL1998ASAbAA/IA880F

Although it's designed to attach to the back it appears it could also work off the side. After several discussions with the company I've established that it should fit the back very well. Even better, it's only $200! I was prepared to buy it when I suddenly stumbled onto and purchased a used Westfalia side tent w/floor in relatively good condition. I thought those of you looking for a tent should know about it and I may yet buy one anyway. If anyone does pick one up, please let us know what you think.

Heads - About 5 months ago I suffered a major meltdown when I lost the left side coolant pipe and got a big hole in the thermostat housing at the same time (I believe the first caused the second). The end result was a badly cracked head on the right side. The reason I bring this subject up is all the discussion about head gasket repairs and costs. I would like to impress upon those in the list worried about this problem that it isn't necessarily such a big deal. After repairing the cooling system I went to this list to purchase a used head that I could "throw" on the motor so I could find out if it was still okay after the overheating experience. A wonderful couple sold me a head they didn't need for $50. I doctored up the fairly nasty head gasket I had removed with some gasket compound and installed the head. End result was the engine was fine and the gasket no longer leaks. I spent a total of $70 on this head repair and that was 4 months and more than 1000 miles ago. And I don't baby it either. Once I felt certain it was okay I was back to my usual 75+ MPH @ 4200 RPM on the freeways in no time. I'm not suggesting it will always be this easy. And I never intended this repair to be permanent and plan to redo both sides with a new gasket set and some work on the heads. By the way I just picked up a complete VW engine gasket set on eBay for $86 including shipping. My point is this really isn't that difficult of a job. You've got to watch pulling off the head to make sure you don't pull off a cylinder with it and getting the exhaust flanges back into place was a bear. But the point is I did it myself in one evening and will certainly do it again. I've pulled many heads in my life and this was by far the easiest. So if your head starts leaking, don't wait, just do it!

Tires - One of the first things I did when I bought the van was replace the tires. I checked the sticker on the door jamb and proceeded to Pep Boys and bought 4 light truck radial tires of the larger size, with a slightly higher load rating and inflation rating sufficient for the van's specs. That was nearly 30,000 miles ago and the tires have performed flawlessly, have almost all their tread, and I was out the door for less than $200! They are certainly a store brand but they look good and drive real nice. My point is, look for a light truck tire, buy according to the specs and go for the larger tire size. Name brand isn't everything i.e. Firestone!

Hoses - I've read a lot of discussion about cooling hoses but nothing about the plastic parts in the cooling system. I've had only one hose fail so far and it was one of those nasty little elbow hoses at the oil pump. But I've had 3 plastic parts fail terribly and so I thought I should bring it up. First to fail was the fitting at the rear of the right head. It just popped off! Second was the one on the other side but I caught it before it stranded me. VW has replaced both of these fittings with metal pieces. The most recent to go was the thermostat housing which appeared to have developed a small leak which grew into a gusher when the metal pipe blew out. The replacement for it is still plastic. The point here is check these plastic parts and definately replace the two at the rear of the heads. You might have all new rubber but you might very well have rotten plastic.

Okay, enough said. I'll crawl back into my hole now. But thanks for being there. This list has been as invaluable to me as I'm sure it is to the rest of you. I hope somebody gets something out of these ramblings.

Jeff Warner http://www.BENGALCharger.com '87 Vanagon GL '88 Fox GL Wagon '89 Fox GL 4-door '74 Fun Bug

'74 Datsun 260Z 2+2 '73 Datsun 240Z '72 Chevelle Wagon '68 Dodge BENGAL Charger


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