Marty,
I think it is an age/heat thing. The air cooled are older so the hoses
have had longer to dry out and become brittle. The air cooled heads run
hotter than water cooled heads so hoses near the heads have more reason to
dry out and become brittle.

/f     not to imply that the earlier van variety are a bunch of hot-heads
or that the wasserboxer crowd know how to stay cool.    :-)

Larry
'86 Syncro Westfalia (the object of your desire)

Marty Wallace wrote:

> It's always been my impression that engine fires have primarily been a
> problem with air cooled VW buses/vans/Vanagons.
>
> Is the problem equally prevalent in later water-cooled models?