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Wed Jan 15, 2003 12:32 pm

i remember when the samba in it's infancy was solely about busses...but anyways. i need help and i am having a hard time finding the info i need(want). i was under the impression that the wasserboxer engine was installed in the 1979 model. all i am finding it in is vanagons(nothing wrong with vanagons just not the exact body i want) my exact wants are an auto with a wasserboxer and air. if anyone wants the REAL reasons i will post but the reason is pretty lame to specify for 1 year of vehicle. so any of you guys who want to set me straight, please do. if it was 1980 on sorry to waste your time but if anyone has heard of them how was that setup? thanks! i look forward to hearing from you. mm

Wed Jan 15, 2003 1:30 pm

none of the bay window busses (68-79) came with a watercooled engine (in the states at least) I believe partway through 1983 was the first watercooled gasoline engine in the Vanagons. I know Mexico kept producing baywindows and those eventually did get a watercooled engine....

Wed Jan 15, 2003 6:02 pm

Bay Windows we not produced with anything but air cooled engines. From 68 to 71 it was the upright engine, from 72 to 79 it was the Type IV engine. The early Vanagons were produced with Type IV aircooled engines. If you are intent upon having a Vanagon water engine in your Bay I'm sure you could do it but they were never made like that.

Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:19 am

It is possible, I remember someone put a Subaru into an early bay, and posted pictures of the project on here last year. Jeremy

Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:23 am

Here's the link to the project pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/danzin

Thu Jan 16, 2003 10:20 am

A bus with auto, air, and water would certainly be a tough order to fill, but anything is possible with enough time and money. There is a guy who attends Busses Nowhere Near the Arch near St. Louis that put an Audi 5 cylinder in his bay window Westfalia, but he did all the work himself. It looked clean and he was pleased. He looked an AC system I had for sale at the event and said he plans on adding AC also. If you can do the work yourself then it could be a labor of love that makes you happy, but if you have to pay to have it done you would have to have a ton of unused cash laying around. And I do mean a ton.

Thu Jan 16, 2003 4:04 pm

Sorry, but you want a Vanagon, even if you think you don't "my exact wants are an auto with a wasserboxer and air" the only way you are going to get those things is to get a Vanagon!

Thu Jan 16, 2003 5:43 pm

Even the watercooled engine wasn't put in the Vanagon until '82 or '83 right? I'm not up on my Vanagon knowledge. I just go until the end of the bays.
You can have an automatic with a baywindow. I have a 74 Westy automatic.

Thu Jan 16, 2003 6:15 pm

hey, thanks for all your help. i trusted my wife, whom at one point in her life had a bus and loved 'her'. that was way b4 she met me and it pains her usually to talk of it now the loss of the bus and all, but she gave me the wrong info. here's why i asked. a few weeks back i got a KARBAR. it is a dash mounted soda dispenser(or coffee,tea,anything) that uses the vacuum from the intake manifold.the ad showed a cooler and a bunch of hoses and containers. it probably was never used but attempted to have been installed but was too hard as the instructions are very spartan. when i received it, the box was rotten and all the parts needed degreasing, whatever. i was happy to put a little elbow grease into it. cleaned up this kit and read the instructions....it has a 2 heat transfer units(to make the drinks hot or cold) one hooks onto the waterpump of an engine and the other goes on the condensor of an a/c unit. well, there goes my dreams of running this on a dune buggy. so, my wife says, i she thinks the 79 was the 1st year with water cooled,a/c had been available since 68,and autos around equally i guess.all semantics. so i got excited and started searching the useless search. found some subaru and vanagon installs last night, but i am on a budget to stay less than 2 grand not the 7 grand everyone wants. i would love a westie, but the wife is in the dislike category now. i know of a hightop i may be able to get for free and get running in an hour or so.....i think i may be able to hook the "water" heat transfer unit to the heater channel. if i could find an aftermarket a/c unit..that solves the condensor problem. i saw 2 for less than 200 bucks last night. the auto thing is for the wife's benefit only.she would be embarrasssed to bein a hightop anyways. but hey free is free and running in a day or less? cut the top off and make it a full rag?! thanks again for answering my lame assed question. i will have more someday.

Sun Jan 19, 2003 2:35 am

I think the concensus here is that you can't take the hightop off of a hightop very easily. Jeremy