[Vwdiesel] Wasserboxer Westy

Tue Aug 13 13:56:58 PDT 2013

It's a big topic and worthy of a longer response than I have time to write
at this time.  Vanagons have held their value well and in the last decade
have appreciated remarkably.  It is very rare to see a good running clean
straight syncro (no 'H') Westy sell for less than $25,000.  With upgrades
in powerplant, suspension, brakes, etc..., it is not unheard of to see them
sell from owners fo over $60,000.  GoWesty is known to have sold a few
completely restored and thoroughly upgraded ones for over $100,000! 8-O

As far as issues with used vehicles, there are a few that I would point
out.  Rust is the worst.  Luckily I'm in AZ where it is mostly a non-issue.
 I'm not really a fan of any of the stock vanagon engines that were
available in North America.  The 1.6 non-turbo diesel is pathetically
underpowered in a 4,000 lb vanagon.  The air cooled 2.0 flat four gas
engine that was offered for the first 3 years is a little better WRT power,
but got 20ish mpg at best, is fairly high maintenance/unreliable with the
valve seat dropping issue and is very expensive now to source or rebuild.
 Underpowered, expensive and unreliable doesn't leave much to like.  As has
been mentioned, the water-cooled gas engines tended to have leaky head
gasket issues.  This was largely due to the fact that VW spec'd the coolant
as lifetime coolant.  To their credit, sorta, most of the issues occurred
after the warranty period...  The 1.9 waterboxer (WBX) is a little better
than the air-cooled for power.  Still grossly underpowered by today's
standards, but does reasonably well and is a stout little engine provided
the recommended coolant change interval of 'never' is ignored. :-)  Every
two or three years is a reasonable interval.  The 2.1 WBX is almost
reasonably powered when coupled to a manual trans.  The 2.1 got TTY rod
bolts which are known to fail around 150,000-200,000 miles.  When a rod
bolt fails the engine is destroyed usually beyond even being a core.  The
manual transaxles had a faulty part, the 3-4 slider hub (4-5 slider ont he
5-speeds) which was originally machined with square edged grooves and so
stress fractures occur.  The faulty part was actually used back in the bay
buses also but wasn't really an issue due to the reduced power output of
the older stock engines.  The vanagon manuals usually fail around
150,000-200,000 miles due to the slider.  Often the issue is seen as being
stuck in or stuck out of 3rd or 4th (4th and 5th w/ the 5-speed).  Often
times the sticking will happen just briefly and one is able to keep driving
until the broken bits turn what was a rebuildable core into shrapnel.  I
have one broken slider hub on my wall of shame.  Luckily I knew enough to
stop driving the van and pulled it for rebuilding prior to further damage.
 Once rebuilt with the updated slider (later ones have rounded grooves) the
manuals are known to last incredibly long times depending on how much
torque is pushed through them.  The automatics are the 010 3-speed used in
lots of VW/Audi vehicles of the era and are known to be very robust units
albeit limited in their regearing options.

As far as diesel conversions, I have done several of them using the 1.6TD,
1.9TD (AAZ), 1.9TDI AHU/1Z and the 1.9TDI ALH.  The TDI conversions I have
done to date have all used mechanical injection pumps built by me.  At some
point I may do a full electronic install just for the fun of it, but the
added unreliability of the added layer of complexity tends to curtail the
fun.  I'd rather have the higher quality end product of a properly built
mechanical TDI (mTDI) than the full-electronic engine management and so
I've been waiting for someone stubborn enough to pay me to do an electronic
conversion.  :-)  I currently own three vanagons.  One is an '84 pop-top
with an AAZ coupled to a 4-speed manual trans.  The AAZ is intercooled and
running a k14.  Another is an '83 high top camper with an AHU mTDI,
intercooled and running a VNT15 with mechanical vane control coupled to a
5-speed manual.  The third is a '91 tintop ALH installed at 15° and coupled
to an automatic with the taller european 3.7 R+P.  I have big plans for the
ALH but it is currently non-intercooled and running a VNT15 with stationary
vanes.  Despite baing very detuned from what it will be when I'm done with
it, it will thoroughly spank a 2.1 WBX and despite routine flogging and the
torque absorber in the automatic trans, it manages to pull off better than
25 MPG with all in-city driving.

I don't know if I answered the question...  Anyway, I hope that helps in
some way.

Andrew

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 10:25 AM, ralph meyermann
<ralphmeyermann at gmail.com>wrote:

> There are a few out there with inline turbo diesels, and Subaru has a turbo
> diesel engine for around 6k if ya want to keep it diesel? Or find a 1.6 na
> westy and upgrade like I have recently done?
>
>
> Velma 82 na diesel westy
> On Aug 13, 2013 10:54 AM, "James Hansen" <jhsg at sasktel.net> wrote:
>
> > 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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