On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 3:51 PM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> > "Rubber Headgaskets"?   What were they thinking when they built that?
> >
>
> I t Even the base model Vanagon is heavily instrumented
> compared to (say) an 82 Oldsmobile with nothing but a TEMP idiot light that
> really ought to read THAR SHE BLOWS. A coolant level sensor is essentially
> UNHEARD OF for  domestic cars of that vintage, but VW engineers clearly
> felt
> it was necessary for catching problems BEFORE they cripple the vehicle.

  You ever try to ruin Detroit Iron?  It takes some serious abuse to make
one of those go belly up.....  I bet about 50% of all the Dodge and Valiant
slant six motors ever built are still running somewhere...I had some friends
in Jackson Hole who had one on an open trailer with a huge sawblade on the
end of the crank....no radiator....They used it to freehand cut 1/4-round
log cabin chinking....Ran it like that for years...hour or two at a time,
till it got red hot..then they would let it cool down and crank it back up
again...

   Unlike the Vanagon engine that I read about all the time....going
"Ker....Blooey!" cause the blinking light didn't come on and the temp went
high enough to snap a couple of the cylinder seals....   Porsche gave that
crap up right quick with their 993 half and half motor...air cooled with the
same style water pumper head as the vangon.....They went back to the board
and came out with the 996 motor with real head gaskets and water
passages...

>

>
>
> >  Does anyone know why they never brought the South African inline motor
> to
> > world wide production for the vanagon?
>
>
> I believe the SA inline powered Transporter was developed BECAUSE there was
> no longer world-wide production of the Transporter and the wasserboxer was
> NLA. VWSA probably looked at the T4 and said "Nah... I think we'll just
> update the T3" and gave it a new engine, bigger side windows, and a new
> dashboard.
>
> --
> John Bange
>