On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Doktor Tim wrote:

> Negative. The cooling system sees steel, aluminum, rubber and
> plastic/nylon. The flanges are either aluminum or plastic/nylon.

This may be true on the Wasserboxers, but both the hose nipples bolted to
the head of my diesel are brass.  This is also true of my friend's Dasher
diesel.  The salvage yard I went to had a big basket full of brass hose
fittings pulled off VW cars.  I suppose it's *possible* all of these
engines have had the hose fittings replaced at some point with aftermarket
parts.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'82 Diesel Westfalia
'94 Honda Civic Si