Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 00:30:51 -0500
Reply-To: Erik O <koesel@UAKRON.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Erik O <koesel@UAKRON.EDU>
Subject: Wasserboxers Suck! Was Extraordinarly Bad Engines... Bla, Bla....
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
This is really a pointless topic to discuss here as everyone has very
different opinions and different histories with this engine. One thing I
have noticed is people chumming in saying they got 70k to 90k before
they had to replace their heads, then they're at 140k+ and doing fine. I
really don't think you can expect much more out of an engine than that.
These vans are big, heavy creatures that are just destine to abuse their
engines. I'm running an '86 GTI inline 4cyl in my '82 Westfalia and I
wouldn't expect to get much more than 80k out of a NEW engine of that
type. The cost of "fixing" the heads on the wasserboxer is a little
outrageous I'll admit, but considering that is the major cost of
maintaining these beasts, who cares if that's the thing to do every 75k
or so. We need something to do on the weekends :) OVERALL COST OF
OWNERSHIP folks!
If you can get an inline VW engine in your van do it, you can replace
it with a used one from a junkyard for a couple hundred bucks. If you
can't, stick with the tough little wasserboxer that came with your van
and really performs well. All you have to do is make sure you let it
warm up a bit before you start bringing the RPMs up and pushing coolant
under those gaskets. I would love to see how many miles one could get
out of a Subaru Legacy with a VW wasserboxer under the hood if they just
let it warm up a bit before they zoomed off.
Believe it or not I think the wasserboxer is the major reason why we
started driving these silly looking vans in the first place. My first
watercooled van was an 87 Syncro and I loved it! We wanted heat,
performance, ect that we weren't getting from the air suckers. Who
really expected that these vans would go over 150k on the same motor? I
think we're lucky to get 50k. And if they did out perform "Toyotas" in
engine reliability, what would we talk about? We need a reason to get
greasy occasionally.
Basically what I'm saying is although I no longer own a Vanagon with a
wasserboxer, I still love those engines, even if the chicks don't dig it
:)
_______________________
Erik O Akron, Oh
82 GTI Westfalia
http://ebyte.com/gl
http://ebyte.com/wow
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