Mark and all you other Vanagon-Nuts :-) On Mon, 1999-05-10 10:40:04 -0700, Mark Mages wrote: > As I was driving through the foot deep water that is > all too common in Houston at this time of year, I was > wondering if anyone has hooked up a snorkle system to > their vanagon. Stock in Syncros, but probably not necessary in a normal van. The crucial points on a Vanagon are the spark plugs. They will be shortened by the water long before the air intake will be flooded. Another crucial point is the venting of the gearbox. On Syncros the gearbox as well as the front diff vent into hoses which end somewhere high up in the van. Don't know about normal Vanagons, but I'm assuming they just vent. Without any hoses. And where air can go out (or in), water can go in, too. Water in the gearbox isn't such a good idea. However, since the oil will swim on top of the water, it's relatively easy to drain all the water from the gearbox via the normal oil drain plug almost without draining any oil. You just need to loosen the oil drain plug completely without really removing it and to quickly screw it back in as soon as real oil is coming out. I dearly hope you'll never need all this good advice ... :-) > ... > Would you need to set up something for exhaust too? As long as your engine doesn't stall the emerging gasses will keep any water from intruding into your exhaust system. This little extra pressure while fording once in a while doesn't do any harm. However, if your engine stalls, water will enter into the muffler and perhaps into the cat. Once stalled you will most probably not manage to restart the engine, due to the additional back pressure at the muffler and due to wet plugs. So you'll need another vehicle or a winch to pull you out of the water. Once out you should punch a little hole into the belly of the muffler to drain all that water. You can later seal this hole using a little screw. The cat, too, will probably need to get a hole punched in its belly (no, not the mamal, the catalytic converter :-). Any residual water will quickly evaporate, once you have managed to dry up your spark plugs and to re-start the engine. Again, I do hope you'll never need to do this. Sincerely Rainer '89 Caravelle GL Syncro 16" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | Rainer M Woitok | Phone: (+49-9131) 85-27811,-27031 | | Regionales Rechenzentrum | | | Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet | Fax : (+49-9131) 30 29 41 | | Martens-Strasse 1 | Telex: d 629 755 tf erl | | D-91058 Erlangen | | | Germany | Mail: Woitok@RRZE.Uni-Erlangen.DE | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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