How many of us, except for those who are able to do all the work on their vans themselves, don't have a $20k (or more) van?  Wife and I now call ours the $1M van.  Even those who do the work themselves, if they put in one of the engines sold by rebuilders, end up with a figure something like you mentioned.  Take a look at Larry's RoadHaus van payout, and that was 10 years ago and doesn't include maintenance since.  mcneely

---- Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote: 
> As I have said in the past the most important part of purchasing a used
> vehicle is to find out why it is/was for sale. For some reason the
> past/current owner no longer wants it!
> 
> Since you only had this a few months you now know one reason. I doubt this
> "just" happened. Depending on what you paid and how you go about the
> conversion and then all the other stuff to follow you too may soon have that
> $20K Camper.
> 
> Dennis 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Stuart MacMillan
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 10:52 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Low compression, more test results
> 
> Well, for those who have been following by email thread about making the
> mistake of checking compression on my 140k mile original engine
> (90-150-100-130) I’ve done some more tests.
> 
>  
> 
> 1.       Valves were zero lash or 1 turn in, no valve noise, timing dead on
> 
> 2.       Manifold vacuum is 12” Hg with ±1” tick (should be steady 17-21)
> 
> 3.       No detectable vacuum leaks (propane test), all vacuum hoses new.
> 
> 4.       22% leak down on #1, could hear leakage all three places, but
> exhaust and intake were louder than the dipstick, with the exhaust being the
> worst.  (Should have used the decibel meter on my iPhone, but I didn’t want
> to get it greasy ;-) ).  Didn’t bother testing the others after this result.
> 
> 5.       Does not burn oil (in 1000 miles at least)  Plugs that came in it
> were clean.
> 
> 6.       PO installed reman AFM recently
> 
> 7.       Idles smooth (as any of them anyway), runs well, no coolant leaks,
> but has poor acceleration and poor gas mileage (~15 mpg highway). 
> 
>  
> 
> Looks like it’s got some leaking valves. No surprise this rig is worn out, I
> assumed it was, but I could drive it home at least.  I hope I can get a few
> thousand more miles out of it so I can save some dough for a conversion!
> 
>  
> 
> Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but never for long.  I waited until after my
> planned summer trips to check the engine condition, so I was blissfully
> ignorant on purpose.  I’m still planning a couple of fall trips nearby
> though.  What the hell, I’ve got AAA premier.
> 
>  
> 
> Stuart
> 
> ’85 Westy, purchased in May

--
David McNeely