Hose inspection on a regular basis is very important. Every time the
coolant system fails with a hot engine causes what I call a trauma. The
sudden loss of pressure and the fact that there are parts of the engine
that will heat to well above normal temps when the coolant is no longer
means the engine will not be the same afterwards. Vanagon engines really
do not wear out. They fail due to cooling or lubrication system
failures.

Dennis
FUNBUS-215K original engine and head gaskets.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of John Rodgers
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:30 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: 2.1 hose price deal

This may or may not be a good deal.

If you are "Citified" and can get a tow or parts easily or get home
easily, blowing a hose is not much of a big deal. But if you live/drive/
or are tripping it can be a really big deal, and if you do the latter a
lot, it would be worth changing all the hoses, just to head off
potential problems.

Out in the west you can get into real trouble if you have a hose blow.
Or, consider how it would be if you were driving the "Haul Road" to the
north slope of Alaska - a road that is now accessible to tourists - and
blew a hose. There is several hundred miles of abolutely no civilization
of any kind, and when you do come across a truckstop or something, they
don't carry Vanagon hoses.

Me? I replaced all my hoses when I rebuilt my engine. I'm more content
with that approach. Especially since I never plan to let my van
go......... just gonna drive it to dust.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Vanagon Man wrote:

>before anyone sets down the satchel to buy a hose kit, if you have a
good
>dealer, call him and ask him to be competitive.  I have developed a
>relationship with my parts dealer at VW, and he is selling me all the
hoses
>and the AT cooler hose for $521.  and no shipping cost, he will have it
in 2
>days. If you are ready to buy, pmail me and I will give you his number,
he
>will do mail order, but you will have to pay freight.
>
>
>Not too bad in my opinion.
>
>Adam P
>Charleston,SC     Coburn, WV
>81  Westy "The Brick "
>70 Single Cab "Whitey"
>74 Beetle "Ol Yeller"
>73 Transporter (STILL at paint shop)
>1988 Vanagon Wolfsburg
>1976 Transporter (New CA bus)
>1974 412 "Goldmember"
>Used Vanagon Parts for sale (mostly aircooled)
>
>
>