driving a heavy vanagon with a stock WBX and climbing mountain roads it's a
lost fight against gravity.. :-)

you can alleviate some pain by upgrading the engine to a WBX 2.2 or
bigger.. if your engine is stock 1.9 or 2.1 here what I do:

- keep the engine well tuned and clean (spark lugs, distributor, air
filter, etc etc)
- keep the cooling system in good shape (radiator, thermostat, hoses...)
- add an oil cooler ( ie. Vanistan)
- keep RPM between 3.5K and 4K no matter the speed
- open the heater and roll down the window
- pull over often to let the engine cool down