Date:         Mon, 11 Sep 1995 12:15:15 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         repark@srv.PacBell.COM (Bob Park)
Subject:      81 Westfalia Blues

Thanks to D. Carment who urged me to post here, and S. Johnson who lined me
up with listserv@lenti info.  I'm the proud former owner of 65 bug (new)
and 72 basic camper (used).  My current baby, an 81 Westy, is in the shop
for engine #8 in 75K miles.  Seems this is a record, of sorts.  Here's the
saga, if you care to comment.

I bought my 81 at 15K miles.  Screwed up the first engine out of stupidity,
trying to treat it like the 72, which tolerated lotsa backyard tinkering.
Second engine lasted until a round trip from W. to E. coast.  Suffered at
the hands of an ignorant PA shop, which didn't know how to pop left valve
cover hidden behind cat. converter.  Cover popped on I-80 in Wyoming,
overheating and  contributing to eventual engine replacement.  Engines 3 -
5 were from VW dealer, who blamed 2 more engine failures on fuel injection,
transmission (automatic), and I forget what else.  Finally, I think they
found a plugged cat. converter, probably caused by PA shop hammer, before
replacing engine #5, which failed soon after 1 yr. warranty expired.  I
took 81 to trusted Porsche mechanic for engine #6.  He installed oil & head
temp guages and aux. oil cooler, which confirmed engine temp. within range.
At 500 mi. he yanked the engine and sent it back with an oil leak at
head/block.  Engine #7 suffered fractured crank before 500 mi.  My baby is
near complete with engine #8.  What would you do?  I'm tempted to trade it
for a (curse me) Plymouth Voyager to match all the neighbors.  Except, at a
kit car show this weekend, I saw a Mazda conversion engine w. adaptor to VW
tranny by Kennedy Eng.in So.Cal.  I also have 88 RX7 which runs like the
old 72 bus.  Could live with a hybrid.  So, whadya think?