In a message dated 2/15/2001 1:26:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, Finrun@AOL.COM
writes:

> I have always been concerned about
>  the rubber parts, but I am wondering about the steel now.

I can't advise you exactly, but I do have a tip. When I went into my coolant
system over the summer I found I need to replace a few rubber coolant hoses.
As long as I had the system open it seemed to make sense to replace all the
rubber since my bus is 18 years old and the hoses were original. The tip I
have is that if you find yourself needing/wanting to replace the hoses at
this point Ken at VanAgain (www.vanagain.com) is a great source for the hoses
in that he had them IN STOCK and ready to ship. Other vendors I dealt with
needed a few weeks to back order them and the VW dealer--well they could get
them in a few days except for one which would have taken 3 weeks. And Ken's
stuff is the genuine VW article at roughly half the price the VW dealer
charges--or at any rate much cheaper.

As for the metal pipe--I assume you mean one from the head to the water
pump--my metal pipe was completely covered with surface rust. It would
surprize me if your pipe is rusting from the inside. That's not to say it
couldn't happen, but to me it seems more likely it is surface rust from a
knick like you stated. But of course you want to be sure whether or not it's
a problem before youset out on your trip. And I am speaking in terms of my
1983 bus with a 1.9 litre engine. The pipes may be different on your later
model bus.

Hope at least some of this helps
Jeff
83.5 Westy
NYC