I don't see how engine oil can get into the coolant unless someone poured it into the expansion tank. Why does she think that?

Coolant in the oil is more common, but that would be from a failed cylinder seal in the 1.9 without the oil cooler, like Dennis mentioned.  

Coolant is pressurized, the crankcase isn't, so the coolant flows into the crankcase on a stock 1.9, not the other way around. If someone added the 2.1 cooler, remove or replace it, since oil is under pressure there and could get into the coolant.

Might be worth sending an oil sample for analysis, they can tell you if there is coolant in it. www.blackstone-labs.com. If there is, eventually it will create an emulsion that will cause engine failure.  Death by "crankcase mayonnaise." 

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Neil N
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2016 3:40 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: User Input: Oval's Motorsport Rebuilt Engines

Thanks for that Dennis. I'm not overly familiar with 1.9 mechanicals (or
2.1) to know what may be the cause for oil contamination. She, owner, said it was a manual transmission bus. I'd hoped it was an automatic. This is an
85 westy but im assuming she doesn't have a 2.1 with digijet and am assuming the 1.9 cooking system isn't easily changed to accomodate an oil cooler.

I suspect there have been times when she's overfilled the engine with too much oil.

Neil

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

It is unusual for the 1.9 to get oil in the coolant. On the 2.1L the oil to
> water heat exchanger is the usual source. If an automatic it could be 
> ATF getting into the coolant in which case an engine replacement won’t help.
>
> Now coolant getting into the oil could be a broken head stud, cracked 
> head, or somehow a head loose enough for coolant to get under the 
> cylinders and into the crankcase.
>
> Dennis
>