Hmmmm.  So, the story about management giving engineering a few months
to turn the air-cooled engine into a water cooled one, thus accounting
for the bizarre heads and extremely complex coolant circuitry is not
true?  If it was originally planned to be water cooled, why didn't they
do a better job?  I am not speaking as one who is expert on engines, but
simply took from some folks whom I respect greatly who say that it is
not a good design.  Most folks on this list seem to agree with that
regarding the heads and gaskets.

David McNeely

On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 6:36 PM, neil n wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 4:19 PM, mark drillock  wrote:
>> VW knew the Vanagon was going to be mostly watercooled from the start
>> and
>> designed for it in advance. That is why there is room for a radiator
>> even in
>> the first year of aircooled. The diesels are watercooled and they
>> went into
>> production during the 1981 model year, sold as late 81 in other
>> markets.
>
>
> Thanks Mark. For sure. That much I was aware of.    :)
>
> I guess the way the holes in the plastic were configured is mostly
> irrelevant.
>
> Were there diesel or WBX gauges that mounted to this 3 hole
> configuration?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yhreorm
>
> Couldn't find pics of coolant temp gauges on BD or VC's websites.
>
> Neil.
>
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines