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Vanagon engine longevity

I know I could also post to the numerous Vanagon lists out there, but this is faster, and hopefully someone will have some good advice.

I traveled several hours the other day to look at two.Vanagons. One, the

1987, has 227,000 miles on the engine. I did what I call a ":poor man's compression test," since I didn't have a compression tester with me. I put it on a steep hill and parked it in gear (manual trans) to see if it would creep forward, and it did. People tell me this is a sign of low compression. Even if I do a compression test, couldn't I still get a good reading and the engine might be worn in other ways? Not sure if it is worth the risk with so many miles.

Also, this one and the other one have rust. They both have rust around the windshields. How much money is involved in pulling the windshield and trying to repair the area around it? The other one hasbody rust all along the driver's side horizontal seam, sort of bad but not rusted through. It also has a little rust around the windshield. The pop-top on this one is kind of "fuzzy" and would need some attention as well.

Any ideas for estimates on repairs?

Thanks

Reply to
Ed
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compression.

Watercooled Vanagons are notorious for leaky warped heads. If it still has the original Wasserboxer engine, it will need rebuilding and the rebuilt engine will eventually suffer the same problem. It's actually not uncommon for people to just do a conversion to an inline 4-cylinder from another VW or transplant a Subaru flat four engine.

For VW conversion info, check out

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Their conversiondoesn't look like you get a lot more power, but you at least get betterreliability.

Also check out

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If I remember right they haveconversion kits too.

Reply to
Matt B.

As far as I've heard, the consensus is that the leaky heads resulted from corrosive coolant originally used in the engines. Any rebuilds would plane the heads, and use the reformulated (phosphate-free) coolant so they would not suffer the same problem.

I'd rather keep the stock engine, but I have looked into several replacements, and I know that people use Jetta, South African Vanagon, Subaru, and even Toyota engines in the Vanagon.

What I really need to know is what can happen to the stock engine in terms of wear at 227,000 miles, and can you tell at all how bad, or how near the end of its life it is, from a compression test. The van seemed to have good power when I drove it, but, as I said in my original post, moved a bit when shut off and left in gear on a hill.

Reply to
Ed

On your engine wear question. At one point the waterboxer went from 1.9 L to a larger displacement. the larger one uses the same connecting rods with different bolts. The rods don't wear well and the big end getts egg shapped. A proper rebuild includes rebuilding or replacing the rods. Reused ones fail shortly after a rebuild. Having once owned a "low mileage" (under 100k miles) 84 vanagon I can tell you it is also time and not just miles. With the kind of miles your talking about the engine is about gone. Not to mention that main bearings are getting hard if not impossible to get. If your dead set on a VW camper look at the newer ones by winabago on a Eurovan chassis. I've got a ev-mv and even though it does not seem as roomy as the vanagon it's a better van by a far cry.

JoBo

compression.

Reply to
Jo Bo

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