All, I should have stipulated/clarified that the thermostat housing on the
receiving van is an 87 Wolfsburg and the donor car was also an 87 Wolfsburg.
 I realize the Syncros have the metal thermostat housings but for whatever
reason, the sensors on these two are completely different.  Not a show
stopper but I hadn't seen one in a while (not that I remember) and it was
unexpected so I had to rethink my mission and figure out what was going on
before proceeding.  Maybe the V-gods are looking down on me and said, "Hey,
throw the kid a bone.  Give him the motor with the Uber-expensive
syncro-only thermostat housing"...     Nah, Some PO just changed it by
accident or on purpose and I lucked into it.  Yeah, that's the ticket...

On a distantly related subject, very few shops advertise their machine work
on Wasserboxers.  Who are the big names that do machine work on our motors?
 I've got plenty of pieces parts to scrape together a few motors but would
like a competent (aka: experienced) machine shop, inspect and clean up some
things.  I don't think we even have a shop around here that does type 1
motors let alone a Vanagon motor.

Sorry for any confusion on the T-stat issue and thanks for all the replies
thus far.

TJ

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 22:12, TJ Hemrick <x53gunner@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't remember having this issue on my syncro so I'm throwing this out
> there.  Is it possible to remove the plastic upper part of the oil filler
> tube from the lower metal portion so I can drop the engine?  It's been a few
> years but the tube on my sycncro was slightly cracked so it would just pop
> off.  The one on I'm working on (non syncro-not that it really matters) is
> real tight.  I don't want to break it my getting too aggressive.
>
> Also, the used motor I have has a single contact sensor on the thermostat
> housing.  The contact points towards the front of the van just for reference
> and it's on the lower portion of the the thermostat.  Mine has two spade
> connectors but this thing has a flat round disc shape (about 1/8 inch in
> diameter) with a stud holding it about an 1/8 inch off the surface of the
> sensor.  I'm thinking pure temp sensor but why mine is different from the
> donor motor has me wondering.  I asked the PO that I bought the motor from
> (he did a bostig conversion and damn is that thing SWEET!) what year the van
> is so I can figure it out.  I'll probably end up swapping the thermostat
> housing unless I have the cable/connector in the stash I bought.
>
> thanks,
>
> TJ
> 87 Wolfie
> Melbourne FL
>
>
>