TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:37 pm

Snagged this beauty today, it only has rust on the slider doors bottom edge but other then that it needs elbow grease.

Rubber floormats are dreamy shape, it has 103k on the body.

needs new heads on the aircooled engine, it also came with a 90% complete subaru kit and a complete EJ25 with harness.

I'm waiting for my tow dolly to get returned and then i'll post some more pics....she should clean up nice.

Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:43 pm

:bay_blue: Nice van! Would love to snag your roof! More pictures? :D

Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:54 pm

Wife was taking pictures, this is a shot of me shooting the breeze with the owner (im in the hat) he was telling me about the stories of camping trips he and his family had with it in the cascades.

Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:25 pm

How come your 81 pops straight up and mine pops up in front?

Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:50 pm

Ooo soo much more to learn about.
he's looking at a ASI Riviera converted in the US., not a westfalia like yours

http://rivieraregistry.com/history.php

http://rivieraregistry.com/lit.php

Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:51 pm

Ahhh. Trackin' now. Thanks.

Tue Apr 17, 2012 8:46 pm

It's home, yay..

Oh did I mention it came with a KEP subaru kit? and an EJ25 with 34k on it, just had fresh timing belt and water pump.

all I need to get is the water plumbing sorted if I wanna go subaru in this.

The van and original motor only have 103k on it....the old motor needs a valve, im not sure If I wanna move foward with the subaru swap or get the old motor fixed and rock it as is.

ASI's aren't my first pick of the litter, but they are cool.

Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:27 am

OK, now that I have slept on it.....Im not terribly sure what im going to do with it.

moving foward with the suby swap sounds like a PITA collecting the radiator mounting stuff and heater.

I might rehab the aircooled engine (needs no 3)

Wed Apr 18, 2012 6:42 am

Umm, well depends on your level of project patience..
but it's really not that difficult to find a donor for the plastic pipes & front radiator.. the dash & heater core can be at a later time...

this is all work that the H2o guys already have to do at some point in the name of maintenance or such.. so it's not like it's really extra work..

I'd say the worse was the rad fan wiring, and that I just added a aux fuseblock to tap off of in mine.. pull the fan harness from the donor van as well.

anyways. congrats..
I drive a 1980 ASI camper converted to inline 4cyl..

Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:20 pm

I got the a/c motor on the floor and I did a leak down test, the PO states the motor had a burned valve but oddly enough 1,2 side head look like they have been removed. with doing a leak down I couldn't get the cylinders to hold pressure at any position, TDC, BDC...So I figure issue in the valve train eh? I pulled off the rocker arms and at #1 tdc I'm getting tons of hissing out of the crank case, same thing with #2.

Guess "burnt valve" means burnt rings...all the spark plugs are pretty black only #4 was dry, #4 smelled like burnt oil and all the others smelled like sour gas (as it should its been off the road since 2001)

I was hoping that I could get the a/c motor back to life but I don't think im going to bother rebuilding it....moving ahead on the suby swap.

Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:50 pm

Looks like I might be needing a tranny for the 86, I think the H6 hasn't been nice to the stock tranny :x

I might have to get rid of the great pumpkin

Tue May 01, 2012 1:27 pm

Ok well....Im about ready to make the kill here.

I've been looking at hightops here and it seems like some like them some love them, here's my thought process.

buy a hightop (timbertech) install and put the subaru swap in and if I don't like it sell it? I don't plan on cutting any corners here on this, I might do a few mods like westy swivel seats and update the upolstery.

I can recover some money from selling the aircooled motor and the ASI top but do you think i'll loose my shorts going this route? If I recall the zebra van (had an ej22) didn't go for much, I wouldn't want to loose money but break even would be nice if I decide to go that route.