Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 13:44:12 EST
Reply-To: JordanVw@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: JordanVw@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Air-cooled Vanagon history
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
In a message dated 1/6/01 1:08:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
swellmaster@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
> If VW made air cooled vans for MANY decades, then why then was there a
> problem with the vanagon air-cooled. I figure by 1980, they had worked out
> alot of overheating/ ventilation problems. Air cooled engines are cheap,
> easy to work on, and have relativly good power (with some mods.)
>
> So why did they go to the wasser-leaker?>>
>
>
cheap, easy to work on and have good power???? LOL !!!!! LMAO!!! :<)
ive owned a plethera of buses, the oldest being a '67 splitty microbus w/ a
1600 single port upright bug engine, the newest being a '90 Carat w/ the
waterboxer 2.1L. None have had "great" engines. All VW BOXER (air, or water)
engines are sh*tty in their own respect. You want a good engine? put the VW
inline 4 in there. case closed. I didnt say ALL WATERBOXER engines are
sh*tty, just the VW ones. too bad VW didnt steal the blueprints from Subaru,
they might have had a winner.
i currently have a '78 westy with the aircooled 2.0L F.I. w/ hyd lifters.
this is the same engine as in the 80-'83 aircooled vanagon. The obvious
LACK OF HEAT aside, the aircooled 2.0L have their own problems. they suck
valves, drop valve seats, crack heads, #3 cyl. ALWAYS goes bad (too close to
oil cooler, overheats) , suffer from loss of compression, plus a bunch of
other stuff. they are NOT "cheap and easy to work on". an aircooled 2.0L
rebuild is the same price as a waterboxer rebuild.
Why do i have my '78? because i wanted a bus westy. i like the way they
look. i also picked 78 because it was the best year for the late buses. 78
was the first year for the hydraulic lifters, and the last year for the
non-emission exhaust. but it still has no heat, no power, and i had to
replace the drivers side head (typical #3 valve seat came loose).
When VW went to the waterboxer, all they did basically is take the aircooled
type4 engine and make it watercooled. the cheapest way possible. they
should have scrapped the boxer design then, and went to the inline 4. but
they didnt .
so that's why the vw's originally equipped with boxer engines are the ones
that everyone is doing engine conversions on, all thru the years. i remember
even companies like "transvair" was doing conversions (corvair flat 6, albeit
another boxer, but at least more power) back in the late 60's., and have seen
many late buses at vw shows over the years with big radiators stuck on the
front, back, or wherever that had a watercooled (many times, not even vw)
engine pushing them around.
When i was at the Englishtown NJ VW show last october, i was speaking to an
older guy with a beautiful white over coral colored '67 21 window deluxe
microbus. he was telling me he wanted to put the Subaru engine in there, and
add a radiator underneath w/ cooling fans. I was asking why would you want
to do that to suck a beautiful vehicle?
he said: "Its my daily driver. Only car i have. i DRIVE it. "
i agreed, and didnt say another word.
chris
'84 wolfy w/ super sunroof
'78 westy
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