I've done my share of ADVENTURE; having driven vanagon westies in
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Part of the great adventure was always ............ Is this SOB going to
make it there?
the next great adventure was, Is this SOB going to make it home.
I guess I developed that attitude after I blew a transmission.
Another trip I blew #3 Piston.
Another trip the injectors made the Westy jerk for 500 miles at 60 mph.
Another adventure was a fuel leak at a split plastic OEM filter and I got
about 8 miles to the gallon for 2000 miles (just glad it rained most of the
trip so I avoided a fire).
Another adventure was a front wheel bearing that made a grinding noise for
months before I found that the NEW rotors were bad.
Carrying on with adventures like blowing alternator belts, blowing passenger
car tires (shucking the treads).
Turning on my windshield wipers and finding that the feral cats had wiped
out the serrations and my wipers just rotated on the drive post.
It didn't take long for me to put $4000.00 worth of parts on my $2000.00
Westy. That is with me doing all the labor except installing new front
suspension parts.
Many of the parts I replaced twice or more in ten years like clutches,
heater boxes, mufflers. hatch / strut shocks, tires, brakes, CV joints, CV
boots, clutch master and slave cylinders.
It's hard to think of a part on that Westy that haden't been replaced in my
time of ownership.
That extends right on up through sun visors at $100.00 a pair and all new
interior from another Westy.
My westy was an on going maintenance responsibility and required
mollycoddling the whole time I owned it.
Most people would have thrown in the towel but I stayed with it through the
second engine before I found a buyer that was willing to pay RETAIL for my
Westy.
I'd venture to say that almost any old rag of a car would make it to the
West coast if we all just backed off to 65 top end and 45 mph going up
hills.
I found those to be my driving restrictions many times.

Stan Wilder
Engine Ceramics
214-352-4931
www.engineceramics.com