>I have an '84 Auto Trany Westy Vanagon.  It gets about 20 mpg on a good
>day.  It has a range of about 250 miles on a full tank.  I had the 1.9L
>engine upgraded to a 2.1L and now it has adiquate power.  '84 is the first
>year that the Vanagon was made with water cooling.

Watercooled Vanagons came out right from the start, 1980... the
diesels. The wasserboxer I believe came out partway through 1983.

>In about 86 or 87 they
>switched to a 2.1L engine and modified the cooling system a little bit.
>You will find that the water cooled vanagons have a lot of problems related
>to the cooling system it they aren't maintained properly.

Corroding and leaking headgaskets... expensive, and a major design
flaw. 2.1s also seem to have a real habit of breaking conrods.

>The auto trany
>is defiantely nice for city driving but I would recommend a stick if you
>live in the hills.  All the extra power you can get climing is a plus.

You could always consider an engine swap, say to Subaru power or
other. There's another list just for Subaru vans... Subaruvanagon.
Lots of happy Subaruvanagoneers!
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut