Hello Volks,

Well, today is my birthday and I have been having fun looking up new toys for
my Syncro. Taller springs and OME shocks are the first thing in order.

Now for some fun. I worked at VW of Santa Cruz way back in '87. This dealer
sold more Vanagons and Cabriolets than any other in the USA at that time. It
seemed as though half our service work was on Vanagons. I was down to 45
minutes to replace a water pump on a waterboxer with AC, including bleeding
the system. One company that imported Reebok shoes and Champion sports wear
had a fleet of 30 to 40 Vanagons for their sales people. It was rare that
there was not one in for service or repairs on any given day. I don't know if
it was wise for them to choose Vanagons for fleet use but they sure spent
mucho $$$ on service.

While at the dealer I did more head gasket jobs than I care to remember. What
a tedious job to clean them properly so they would reseal. We didn't have
those wonderful dishwashers to clean parts that are available today. Over a
couple of years I only saw one engine that had to be replaced due to a broken
head stud. I did see many cylinder heads get replaced though. A real tough
part was getting the wrist pins out of the pistons on high mileage engines
that didn't have their oil changed often enough. (We always replaced the
seals under the cylinder barrels, half of the time the cylinders were stuck
to the heads.) We had to give the old heads back for cores as VW melted the
aluminum back down and recast it for reuse. I don't know if they used it
cylinder heads but maybe some other parts.

Here is a question for everyone based on a real life experience; Had a
customer who used their '86 Vanagon daily for a dry cleaning business. If
they never changed or checked their oil (from new) how long will the engine
last before the oil pressure light will refuse to go off?

John Wessels