re: Digifant I4 in vanagona and iarbox location

my conversion ('92 18008V digifant in '82 westy, transplant done in spring
'94), has the throttle valve at the rear of the manifold, connected to an
elbow then on to the afm mounted on its "edge" directly above the coolant
reservoir. Upstream of the afm is a "conical" K&N airfilter directly
adjacent to the battery.

yeah, yeah, all the armchair experts will tell you how this is not good, no
obvious cool air path to the filter, and the afm shouldn't be mounted in
that way....

but it has worked fine for 7 years now. Summers don't get too hot here, but
have not noticed any lack of power on hot days, even when fully loaded on
camping trips in the southern interior of B.C.

I had always thought of it as a temp set-up, wanted, (and still do) to
locate an airbox in the drivers side airscoop well. This would allow
provision for the warm air intake on cold mornings, not really a problem
here, engine starts and runs fine, just may get better gas mileage.

My friend here in town with a pretty well identical van conversion has his
battery relocated to the stock wasserboxer location and has a golf/jetta
airbox located in the battery tray. Still no warm air preheat (suppose you
could route a hose across and under), but is quieter than the unshrouded
K&N.

Alistair