My fathers 81 Vanagon mit 2.0 l air-cooled engine has 135,000 miles on it
and still runs good...and believe me when I say that she hasn't been
pampered either.  The only 2 things he ever had to replace was a fuel pump
at 100k and a clutch at 105k.
Karl Batzler
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Gajewski <mgajewski@MANVILLERUBBER.COM>
To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM <vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: GEX Rebuilt Engines

>It does sound like GEX is cutting corners...but if my memory serves from my
old
>'72 westy isn't 60K about all you can expect from the aluminum aircooled
motors
>hauling around a big bus?  I'm not too up on the vanagon air-cooleds, were
they
>longer lived than the older bay windows?
>mark
>
>Ken Korn wrote:
>
>> My 82 Westy had a 2.0 aircooled GEX rebuilt engine, installed about 60k
miles
>> earlier by a previous owner. I have all of the records from PO's on this
>> vehicle going back to 1983. The engine still had the GEX paint and
stickers
>> on the crankcase.
>>
>> This engine was a piece of junk to put it mildly. If GEX still builds
them
>> this way, I'd recommend staying far away from GEX engines
>>
>> The Vanagon (and more so the Westy) puts a tremendous strain on the
engine. A
>> shortcut rebuilt engine just won't last. I guess GEX just wanted to put
out a
>> cheap product.
>>
>> Ken Korn
>> 82 Westy
>> Austin, TX
>