Thanks, all. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. You can ask
the camp people, but they're probably not going to know enough about our
vans per se to help out much.

BTW, I overheard a park ranger warning a young Japanese couple with a rental
econobox NOT to take such-and-such a dirt road. He mentioned towing fees of
up to $2,000 to haul them out of the valley and on to Ridgecrest or
wherever. Yikes! Almost as bad as the folks that gave the valley its name.
Hey, all they had to do was smoke their oxen and eat 'em for breakfast.

Seriously, what WOULD you do in Thorndike with a bad valve? Can you imagine
the towing charges to get Westy to the nearest Vanagon mechanic?