Thanks Mike, Ken and Mark.

I was just getting ready to order the stainless version of the coolant
manifold "junction" and was considering an aluminum thermostat housing
too. I made a "temporary" repair to the existing thermostat housing
(image: http://tinyurl.com/o4a97jp ) which is holding fine, no leaks,
but that part should obviously be replaced.

The issue for me up here in Canada is down time with shipping so it's
best to nail down all the parts I'll need before opening things up.
The Vanagon runs ok as is.

This 2.1 seems to have life left in it. Having nicer upgraded parts on
it may help resale value should I sell it while it's still in good
shape.

Neil.

On 5/20/14, mark drillock <mdrillock@cox.net> wrote:

> I agree and would say that the black plastic parts near the heads are
> the larger peril. Inspect the 4 ends of the long pipes and deal with
> them as needed but REPLACE the black multiple hose junction near the
> right head and the black thermostat housing assembly on the left head.
> In addition if your engine has the black plastic single hose piece(s) on
> the right head below the alternator then get new metal ones for those.
>
> Mark
>
> Mike B wrote:
>>    I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but, there's a lot more plastic
>> parts in your cooling system than just the long pipes.
>>    I've had a coolant tower on the right front head pop a factory-glued

--
Neil n

Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca

'88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p

'81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"  http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:

http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej