Date:         Tue, 15 Oct 2002 08:09:00 -0700
Reply-To:     Craig Oda's Personal email <craig@ODA-INC.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Craig Oda's Personal email <craig@ODA-INC.NET>
Subject:      bay window vs waterboxer westy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I'm thinking of buying a bay window westy, maybe a 76-79.  I was
wondering how these compared to waterboxer westies.  There are two
areas I'm interested in collecting information on. One is the interior
layout and the other is the engine maintenance.

Interior layout
I think that the Vanagon westy interior is awesome.  Very nice use of
space, nice storage bins, nice to have the front seats swivel.  I like
the popup, sink, stove, refridgerator (which I do use).   I have no
experience with the bay window layout.  However, I've seen some where
the fridge and sink appear to be behind the passenger's seat.  Any
interior pics of bay window westies would help me understand the
differences.  Right now, I have one child, but like the ability to
sleep four.

Engine
I'm okay with less power.  I realize that the waterboxers have more
power than the air-cooled 411 engines.  I've had numerous problems with
the waterboxer and find water-cooled a bit of a pain to work on since I
have to drain and bleed the coolant a lot.  Some of the stuff that I've
done to the waterboxer
   - changed coolant hoses after blowout in desert
   - changed radiator fan switch (minor, but annoying)
   - changed head gaskets twice (and cylinder head once)
   - spent time cleaning cylinder heads and putting JB weld on them due
to pitting, then sanding the surfaces flat (pretty tedious)
   - reinstalled waterpump after I crimped the gasket on install (these
pumps are hard to get to with the engine in the van)

There were numerous other problems, but the above are the ones that I
recall that were coolant-related.  I'm getting more annoyed because the
phosphate-free coolant is not as common and more expensive than the
normal green stuff.  So, I have to bust out the wallet every time I
dump my coolant (and my garbage company doesn't take coolant, so I have
to drive to some recycling plant to be environmentally concious, which
I try to be)

What's bad about the air-cooled engines?  I know lack of heaters, lack
of power, loud as heck.  Maybe prone to overheating cylinder heads and
thus cracking??

General Look
I like the roundish look of the air-cooled vans.  I want something that
is kind-of hippy-like.  I think that the bay windows got more slanted
in later years.  I'm not sure though.

In the end, I may have two vans.  One, the vanagon in a constant state
of rebuild or camping, and another van for when the vanagon is in
pieces.

I'm also thinking of a roadtrek, which would be super-expensive for my
budget, but I might be able to get a loan for an old roadtrek.

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