[Vwdiesel] Wasserboxer Westy

[James Hansen]

Hey Tad.
Coolant system was an issue. The head has very narrow sealing ridges where
it meets the head gasket, corrosion was a real issue if coolant was
never/seldom changed... and they are like a 305 head, too narrow to skim.
When you are shopping, if the owner gives you a dumb look when you ask when
the coolant was changed last, consider passing, or price out what heads and
gaskets cost these days.  If it looks like it has had ANY stop leak product
used, pass, as it's probably sick already. Coolant pipes to the front were
prone to corrosion as well.
They were an excellent powertrain otherwise... By now, there are quite a few
around that have a sick motor, bad head gaskets, etc, and are good
candidates for a diesel or other conversion. Saw a marvelous synchro on
Vancouver Island a few years back with a 911 6 cylinder shoehorned into the
back, lift kit, roo bars all round, big warn winch hanging out the front, it
was awesome. 
If Andrew Libby is off playing a gig on a mountaintop or something and
doesn't catch this, be sure you get to pick his brain before you go looking,
especially a synchro, he's btdt.
On a personal note, I looked at wasserboxers for years.  I have never seen
stuff that held value for so long.  I still have my 73 westy that I restored
while in university, and wanted to move up to the slightly more spacious
interior with a real fridge. The wasserboxers were the next logical step, it
was around 1996... and I saw so many bad ones, I sort of gave up and went
the truck camper route since we could use my parents old one that I camped
in with them as a kid, they had gone to a 5th wheel trailer.  We've moved up
from that to a larger truck camper 5 years ago which was a huge mistake,
because it has a shower, and if we lost the shower to go back to a westy
after the kids no longer camp with us, that would be most most most
unpopular, except maybe for a weekend getaway.
-james

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Tad
Sent: August-12-13 5:40 PM
To: VW diesel mail list
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Wasserboxer Westy

Hey all - not strictly diesel content, but ya'll seem to know everything so
I figured I'd ask.

I'm thinking about looking for a VW camper van, probably a wasserboxer.
 Thinking maybe end of summer would be a good time to pick one up from
someone who's decided to move on to bigger and better things.

So, I'm looking for suggestions/ideas as to what to look for and where to
look for it, weak spots, known issues, etc.

Any thoughts or comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Tad
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