Per Lindgren writes,

"I have a water heater mounted in the waterpipe that exits just above the
#2 exhaust port, it heats the water in the engine, to about 20-30C. This
makes the engine start easier, and pollutes less than a cold engine."

With such a water heater, does the heated coolant circulate through the
entire system, even though Vanagons have such long horizontal runs from the
engine to the radiator and back again?

I ask this because it has been my understanding that heating elements that
connect to the heater/radiator hoses need to be mounted in such a way that
their place of connection has at least a 30 degree slant, so as to
encourage the circulation of the heated coolant.

BTW, my 86 Syncro has an oil pan heater which seems pretty effective, even
at temps of -20 F.  Redundancy, however, may be a useful concept when
starting an engine at such ridiculous temperatures.

Budd Premack
86 Syncro, 73 Super
Minneapolis, MN (Land of Sky-Blue Waters)