Could it be that the 83.5, 84, 85 were the first production years for the NEW water-cooled Vanagons/Westies and thus possibly plagued, more than most other vanagon models, with engineering "mistakes" that have come back to bite us ? I've not noticed much difference in the performance or longevity of these year models, but then again I'm not an original owner of such a vehicle year either ... just my 86' Westy and 73' T3. Chris vanagon list co-admin On Fri, 10 Jul 1998 KENWILFY@AOL.COM wrote: > I think the number one reason is the fact that more were sold. Number two is > that when these vans get higher miles on them people either do the head gasket > thing and then want to sell the vans immediately (why they want to sell a van > they just sunk $1500 into is beyond me but this is usually the story) or fear > doing the head gasket thing so they want to sell it real quick before that > happens. True there are some low mileage older Westies out there but the > problem here is that I think that the heads go bad when the vans are not being > driven too (maybe even faster since the coolant isn't circulating). > To me a higher mileage westie that has had the gaskets replaced and is being > driven every day or very frequently is better (motor wise) than a low mileage > one that sits all winter and then is driven a month in the summer. Sitting is > not healthy for a motor. > Anyways the newer westies are considered more desireable since they could have > low mileage without the problems associated with long term storage, they have > a 2.1l motor instead of the 1.9l (there is a difference) and usually come > stock with power steering, A/C, and have power options that the earlier ones > didn't. Therefore people tend to hang on to them once they have purchased > them. > Thats my two cents. > Ken Wilford > John 3:16 > ************************************************ Christopher M. Smith, PhD National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure San Diego Supercomputer Center University of California - San Diego San Diego, California 92093-0505 (619) 534-8370 (voice) 534-5113 (FAX) csmith@sdsc.edu |
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