Date:         Sun, 4 Aug 2002 22:35:28 -0400
Reply-To:     Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject:      90 Westy... Blown 2.1...WTB 2.1 core
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Well, the friend had her Westy towed to my pal's shop yesterday.

The good:
It's more like a 9 out of 10; maybe a 9.5.  Absolutely no rust anywhere.
The interior is perfect and there are very few small road marks and only one
or two insignificant parking lot dings.  All in all this is one of the
nicest original vans I've ever seen.

The bad (for all of you who have p-mailed your potential interest in the
engine-less van):
She is going to have the engine replaced.  I have volunteered to do it since
my pal doesn't have the time to do it with his current workload and her
schedule needs.

The ugly:

She's going to need a CORE for exchange ...anybody got a cheap, rebuildable
2.1 for sale?

There is a sizable (baseball size!) hole in the top, left side engine case;
directly between the #3 and #4 pistons.  Without removing anything and
prodding around, it appears that the  #3 cylinder is intact.  I'll know more
when I get it up on a rack later this week. In talking to her since my last
post...seems she had the oil changed the day before by some hot rodder that
has a garage out in the sticks... STP oil filter and all. I can't figure
what possessed her to do that! It should be interesting to see what happened
to cause such a catastrophic failure.  I haven't done an engine failure tear
down since I was an Engineer in the Navy.  Big bucks and big blame back
then.  This could just be coincidence/fate/karma here.
More later.

--
Stephen
Chillicothe OH