Page 102 of Camper Products by Go Westy

104 www.gowesty.com call toll free 1.888.469.3789 local/international 805.528.7888 and was totally re-designed with the introduction of the gasoline water-cooled model in late 1983. A good example of one of these Westyfs will run between $5000 and $7500 1982-1983 Diesel powered Vanagon: VW offered the Vanagon with the VW Rabbit water-cooled diesel engine for two (thank god) short years. Now, we at GoWesty love dieselpowered vehicles donft get me wrong. I own four diesel-powered vehicles, three of them VWfs. However, what the hell was VW thinking when they put a 48hp 1600cc non-turbo diesel engine into this vehicle? It is simply amazing. We have converted six of these vehicles to the larger, stouter 1900cc turbo-diesel power plant with great success. They are strong running, and produce about 30% better fuel economy than a typical gasoline powered Vanagon. However, these vehicles have many of the shortcomings of all the older Vanagons (the shifter system for example), and the cost and trouble of converting one of these to the newer turbo diesel power plant is formidable. A nice Diesel westy with a 1.9 turbo engine will run between $15,000 and $25,000 1983-1985: The Vanagon was introduced in year model 1983 with a water-cooled gWasserboxerh or gWaterboxerh (for all of us English-speaking folk) engine in North America. These first water boxer engines were 1900cc and had gDigijeth EFI. The basic design of the Waterboxer is solid. It was the culmination of some 40 years of experience VW had with the horizontally opposed, four-cylinder engine design. The Waterboxer is basically made in the same external dimensions as a VW Type 1 engine, with the internal displacement and main bearing design of the Type 4 engine, and water (instead of air) cooled. The first waterboxer Vanagons had many problems with the cooling system. First of all, VW didnft realize until about two years into production that there was a problem with the phosphate in the coolant they were using. The wrong coolant formula caused the cylinder heads to corrode rapidly at the area where the waterjacket rubber seal (often incorrectly referred to as the ghead gasketh) and cylinder head come into contact. Most engines were leaking coolant within the first couple of years, or about 40,000 miles. This stigma has plagued the Waterboxer design ever since, even though the problem was essentially solved early on. With care given to using a non-phosphate coolant, and regular 2year flushing of the system, there is absolutely no problem whatsoever. We have seen Waterboxer Vanagons with up to 290,000 miles come into our shop completely original, the engines never having been disassembled. The rest of the problems with the cooling system were solved with the introduction of the 1986 2100cc Vanagon. You can pick up a good used 83-85 Westy for between $5000 and $10,000. 1986-1991: These are the best of the Vanagons. They are easily identified by their rectangular (instead of round) headlights. The e86 and e87fs had smaller steel bumpers, the e88-e91fs had larger fiberglass bumpers and an added ventilation duct at the rear of each of the rear side windows. Many people think that these Vanagons were better because of the increase in displacement from 1900cc to 2100cc, but in fact this was the least important change. Indeed, the two engines are essentially identical in construction and design, with the exception of a longer stroke crankshaft (74mm instead of 69mm, increasing displacement to 2110cc instead of 1915cc), and an improved #1 main bearing design. The more important changes were: Improved exhaust, ignition, fuel injection (Digifant), brakes, and (most importantly) COOLING systems. The cooling system was COMPLETELY re-worked for 1986 and stayed basically unchanged through the end of 1991 production. The new cooling system had fewer parts, and was much easier to bleed and maintain than the earlier system. Furthermore, the newer engine case with the better #1 main bearing design was also slightly bigger inside enabling the displacement to be increased even further than 2110cc. As a rule of thumb, I tell folks to stay away from Vanagons with round headlights. The price difference between a clean 1985 camper and a 1986 camper is usually small, whereas the later is a much better vehicle indeed. Nice e86-e87 Westyfs run about $12-18k, e88-e89fs run about $14-20k, and e90-e91fs run about $16-24k 1986-1991 Syncro (4WD) Vanagon: VW offered the Vanagon in a full time all wheel drive version called the Syncro. It was offered in THE GOWESTY LIBRARY

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