Hi Robert,
  I am glad your experience of looking under the hood in your Vanagon
didn't turn out as disastrous as mine.  My Vanagon has been running rough  for
quite some time so I thought I would check for an air leak.  I started  up
the motor and put my head into the engine compartment, with my ear to the
motor.  Next thing I know I am on the ground with a splitting headache and
blood dripping from my forehead.  I forgot that I had a hoody on with tie
strings on the hood.  The strings got caught in the alternator belt when I
turned my head towards the motor, then my forehead was immediately slammed in
the tin where the is supposed to be a seal but mine was missing where I  hit.

To make a long story longer I ended up at emergency to get my head stitched
 up.  I have a nice new C shaped scar above my eyebrow going up my forehead
 and my motor still runs rough. All I can say is Do Not wear a hoody with
tie  strings when you work on a running motor.

Good luck,
David

In a message dated 5/25/2010 1:02:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM writes:

So I'm  underneath the van tonight looking at the engine with a 250w halogen
light,  trying to see if I have a broken motor mount (I'm pretty sure I do).
I hear  this thump from the rear now and again; I've listened to all
parts of the  engine with my "mechanic's stethoscope" and it all sounds as
it
should. The  thump is intermittent, only happens when the engine is running
and happens  in any gear or park. I can actually lift the engine some on the
driver's  side and see a gap at the rubber block. (I remember one of the
first things  my local VW Jedi told me when he saw I had a Vanagon was that
he's replaced  a thousand of those mounts.) I hope it's the mount, because I
can't really  think of anything else that would sound like that that isn't
really bad.  Nothing is hitting anything else in any obvious way.

Anyway...  I'm looking around to see what else is to be seen and I notice
that the  inner driver's side CV boot has bright black rings on the edges of
the two  outer folds. Most of the bottom of my van is covered in dust, so
I'm
going  "huh?"; I look over at the other boot and it looks uniformly dirty,
so...  one of the hoses (the thermostat bypass hose?) is lying on the CV
boot
and  has a worn spot about the size of my fingertip. I can't push through
the
wall of the hose but I bet 50% of it's gone right there (the boot is  all
right). I have to drive to L.A. tomorrow, so I have to deal with both  of
these things in the morning. I'm trying figure out if I'm nifty enough  to
replace that hose without having to do a major bleed (I'd have to make  my
wife help me). Maybe I can pinch it off and put a splice in it, but  I'd
rather have a good new piece of hose.

However I'm damn  glad I noticed it or sure as I'm sitting here that SOB
woulda let go on  some empty stretch of the 14 tomorrow. I'm thinking the
was
zip-tied to  something else at one point and whatever it was broke and it
dropped. I  don't even think it's been a month since I last stuck my head
under  there.

The van is so casual to drive that when it's running well it's  easy to just
groove on and take it for granted despite the fact that you  know that it
(or
any 23-yr-old vehicle with 350K+ on the clock) is  something of a
maintenance
time bomb.

So crawl under your  van now and again. Even if nothing's going wrong you
can
relax in the shade  and still look like you're doing  something.

Cya,

Robert