After work this evening I crawled under my '80 Vanagon with some Foamy
Engine Brite and a hose and cleaned off all of the oil that was
smeared on the bottom of the engine and the exhaust system.  I then
started it up and waited for the drip to begin.

It didn't take long.  Soon, I was able to clearly see a steady
dripping from something that I was only able to identify at that time
as "the silver box-like thing that's kind of above the oil filter."

I turned off the engin and went to the manuals (Muir and Bentley)  I
looked through the pictures in Bentley until I found one that seemed
to indicate that "the silver box-like thing" was an oil cooler.

I looked under oil leaks in the index in Muir and found mention of the
oil cooler being a common source of oil leaks.

So, to all of you experience mechanics out there, does this sound
right.  Is this my oil cooler that seems to be leaking.

If so, I get the impression that the only solution is replacing it.
$99.95 from Bus Depot--which I guess could be a lot worse.

My question is this---What to I need to do to replace it.  Bently
doesn't really say (typical), and Muir says that I'll have to remove
the engine.  However, I get the impression that Muir could really be
talking about breadloaf buses and not really vanagons.  To me that
fact that I can see almost the whole oil cooler by squatting and
looking through the wheel well suggests that removal might be possible
from the bottom without having to take out the whole darn engine.
Could the be true?

thanks,
mac

P.S.  I was planning on ordering the Haynes manual tommorrow AM--does
anyone know if this will shed a little more light on the oil cooler
thing?

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