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Subject:Rebuild? was: Model/year recommandation
From:Rob S.
Date:Thu, 9 Oct 2003 01:57:40 -0400

What exactly goes wrong that requires every vanagon to have an engine
rebuild done around 100K miles?

My 82 is original un-rebuilt motor (as far as I know)   and it runs out
VERY strong.

with 92,000 and a broken odometer...   should I be ready to spend for a
rebuild soon, regardless of how good it runs now?

should I not fix the odometer so that it never reaches that dreaded
100K mark (where the engine will instantly destroy itself)?

-Sealover

On Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 12:19 AM, Art McGinn wrote:

>   jp: as a longtime bus owner and later a vanagon owner, i have a very
> strong bias against the water-cooled vanagon and a very strong
> preference
> for the air-cooled van, although the latter are getting harder to
> find. the
> waterboxer (water-cooled) has inherent heating problems, as most the
> posts
> on this list indicate. an air-cooled  vanagon in reasonable shape with
> a
> recently rebuilt engine and a recently rebuilt transmission (rebuilt
> engine
> is necessary since the most recent was new in 1983) could run for many
> years
> with minimum trouble if reasonably maintained. good luck on whatever
> you
> choose. cheers, art mcginn, san fran, '82 westy (ex-'82 vanagon,
> ex-'68 bus)
>