I just had my engine repladced. Considering my van is 12 years old, and I had
two hose problems in the last year, I opted to replace every single hose in
the engine compartment including the fuel injection lines. The fuel injection
hoses are a "must" replacement to ensure against fire, which has take the life
of a number of vanagons.

I also installed a new thermostat and Temp 2 sensor(blue) for the fuel
injection. Flushed the cooling system and installed Dex-Cool phosphate free
collant with Redline Water-Wetter.

Engine runs with temp needle top edge just a hair over the bottom of the temp
light.

Runs the coolest I have ever seen, but of course this is a rebuilt engine,
with nearly everything new. But before rebuilding, from the day I bought it,
it ran with the needle bottom edge at the top edge of the coolant light on the
temp gage.

John Rodgers
"88 GL Driver

Douglas Demarest wrote:

> What other components should one
>
> a) definitely replace or
> b) consider replacing
>
> while doing the head gasket job.
>
> My 86 Vanagon has 99,000 miles and appeared to be running perfectly (oops,
> jinx) before I noticed the head leak.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Doug