Build thread - 2.0 air-cooled auto to 1.9 water-cooled manual

[Vanagon Nut]

[leecat]

I'm glad you mentioned 'bastard' cluster, because at first glance I was like, "That is NOT what my cluster looks like at ALL!"

Scrubbing and repairing my Westfalia cabinetry for the swap while I wait for parts - does NO ONE outside a select group on Samba maintain or care about their Westy? Bent latches, missing screws, filthy inside and out, cooking burns on the drain tray, random stupid huge stickers plastered crookedly here and there (going to be high all night from all the gun-wash I used getting the residue off), mystery sticky goo dripped all over...it's like a group of angry apes used it for a decade. =,=

[leecat]

Radiator installed - WHY Volkswagen would decide to include EVERY OTHER component for water-cooling into the air-cooled chassis yet leave out the upper rad mount is totally beyond me.

If I had to to it again, I would have drilled out the spot welds and used the mount from the parts donor - pain in the butt to get an ad-hoc mount just right for placement.

Word to the wise - using a narrower lower grille cutout on the left side doesn't work - the plug for the radiator switch does not clear the body - it needs the cutout in order to protrude past the body line. Spent the evening widening that cutout. Live and learn!

Also ran the dual battery wiring. Tomorrow, Thor willing, the fuel tank will be going in - then it's just engine and transmission, axles and wiring!! Hope to be driving it off the hoist by the end of the week.

[Abscate]

[Vanagon Nut]

A thought. With some mods, an air cooled heat exchange box with fan can accept a heater core. i.e. could be used for a "budget" air to water cooled swap. Obviously, the control cables, levers, can be used as well.

Neil.
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[leecat]

You know, a backup alarm would be a great idea - not only is it extra safety, but you'd NEVER leave your backup lights on by mistake if on a switch!

I had no idea that the early box would take a heater core - I would have tried that had I known. As it is I yanked out the heater cables that ran all the way back to the air box valves on the engine.

AND just finished re-sealing and installing the fuel tank, and updating the fuel filler neck to the plastic style - tank went in like a glove, siliconing the rubber fuel tank seals makes it really easy to install everything.

Easy, that is, EXCEPT those damn expansion tanks. They call them expansion tanks because they grow 1mm per year from new, so by the time you take them out 30 years later, you'll never get them back in. I would rather rebuild a Vanagon transmission blindfolded and with only a pair of scissors for a tool than install those bloody expansion tanks.

Anyway, didn't take pics because everyone knows what a Vanagon fuel tank looks like - like an evil dirty medusa. Had to pound one fuel tank strap flat with the anvil and sledgehammer - PO must have thought he owned a Syncro. Thankfully minimal denting on the tank itself.

Engine and transmission tomorrow, Odin willing.

[danfromsyr]

not all Air cooled front boxes will accept a heater core. the base models with out a dash (defog) fan are different and will not accept a heater core.

I use WD40 to install the tank grommets. it's slippery and evaporates so it won't impede the rubber seals ability to seal

fwiw I don't run expansion tanks on my van, but I do have a small 'vent' hole drilled in by the cap.. do smell a small whiff of gas on occasion on hot days as the fuel and air expands some.. but not all that noticeable normally really.
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[Vanagon Nut]

[leecat]

Those cables could totally be left in place - but it just makes an already busy undercarriage even more messy. I still have some strange control cable in place just to the front of the fuel tank, dead center of the chassis - it ends in a tiny eyelet and the cable runs to the front and up into the dash firewall - meant to track it down while the dash was out and forgot. Now it's just a mystery orphan under there. Maybe it's the fuel tank jettison cable - if you're flying down the highway and your van is on fire, you can eject the remaining fuel before you careen into the ditch and crash. Thunderbirds are Go!

[Vanagon Nut]

Looking again at my pic below....

Does your air cooled body have the manual shift linkage bushing bracket above the fuel tank? If so, hopefully you bent that out of the way or removed it. Otherwise it will be in the way of the WBX forward shift rod.

The mystery cable is probably for the vent part that feeds hot air from engine to vent at step to cab area.

View looking up, vent part disconnected from body. IIRC, I was able to get at the air cooled shift rod bushing bracket through that vent hole on body when I changed to the WBX shift linkage.

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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[leecat]

AH, you solved two mysteries for me - I assume the manual shift bracket is the piece arrowed in green. That was already smacked up about 70° on my chassis, and I couldn't figure out why. It looked like the shifter rod should run through it, but when I pored over the factory WBX shifter diagrams I could not find it anywhere - so I smacked it the rest of the way up out of the way. I wonder if VW just whacked it out of the way on all the air-cooled autos, as it wasn't required? Sounds like VW - don't install a front upper rad support bracket on the air-cooled, BUT go ahead and weld in a manual shifter linkage on the autos, then smack it with a mallet. :/

You must be correct on the cable - that rod (circled in red) was connected to the mystery cable eyelet - I had so much stuff out by then that I wasn't sure where the other end hooked to. Now I use the little rod to hang small parts on while painting them - VW recycling!

[Vanagon Nut]

A slightly better image of bushing bracket on my '81. (ignore coolant pipe position; I got them wrong left for right):

https://sites.google.com/site/tubaneil2/gastankcrossoverpipe

As you say, it appears the bracket was welded to the body. If the air cooled automatic was a special order item, it was likely more efficient to install that bracket on all applicable year buses then reposition it for buses with the auto.

The diesel (early only? i.e. during air cooled years?) had two styles of radiator. Looking now, it appears each has its' own type of upper mount scheme. i.e. it appears one doesn't use the WBX type upper support:

USA '82 diesel. Rad appears to have a nipple at each end to fit the WBX type upper mount:

https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/usa/vanagon/va/1982-4/1/121-16031/

USA '82 CS diesel. Even the rad lower brackets look different than WBX type:

https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/usa/vanagon/va/1982-4/1/121-16030/

Neil.
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[danfromsyr]

iirc I used zip ties to keep the upper radiator from moving about.. never swapped over the bracket.. been fine for over a decade and tens of thousands of miles.
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[leecat]

I should have just used zip ties too, in retrospect - spent a lot of hours over-building the upper rad support. :/ Had that damn thing in and out 20 times getting it just right.

Very interesting on the different rads - I have never run across a 'non-pin' style, but then I haven't gotten my hands on an original early diesel. Not that I wouldn't love one to play with. Looks like even the rad shroud is radically different.

Terrible, terrible weather here today - winds gusting to 50 mph, which is driving the icy cold rain sideways. No engine/trans install, sadly.

[leecat]

Just a short update on this thread with a FUN tidbit - on the water-cooled vans, the rear motor mount mounting holes are drilled exactly 2 inches rearward of the holes on the air-cooled vans (OR perhaps it's an automatic vs. manual difference...). For a moment I thought my engine and transmission had grown 2 inches sitting out of the van!

A new hole needs to be drilled at the white line, and of course correspondingly two inches back from the second mounting hole:

Aaaaaand...after re-drilling the motor mount holes...a waterboxer in an air-cooled! So fun! Lots of hooking up to do now.

[charleslabri]

Yeah, the 091 tranny is 2” off the 091/1. When installing my engine convert i ended up making spacers on the rear.

Curious, maybe a derail, but why switch to the plastic filler neck over the larger metal one? Is there some sort of benefit to a small filler neck?
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An example of my labor in action:
https://www.instagram.com/wileythewesty/

My Build Thread:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=730525&highlight=

[leecat]

In my case the metal filler neck was pretty rusty and gross - rather than clean it all up and paint it, it was just easier to swap in the good newer plastic style that I had sitting right here - no functional reason!

[Vanagon Nut]

You're making quick progress!

A quick note.

It looks like that 1.9 has the later style throttle switch.

The connector for aux. air reg and that later style switch are identical. Easy to mix those up.

Neil.

[leecat]

Ah - thanks Neil! I'll watch for that for sure. Should be onto wiring this afternoon - this morning installed the clutch hydraulics, shifter linkage, engine tin, oil filler tube and return fuel line hanger - just running new fuel lines now. Zero complications so far - the indents for the fuel hanger are already in the body, they just need drilled out.

Slathering the copper anti-seize compound on every possible thread - makes it SO much easier to service down the road.

[kaeferman]

Great build thread. I just found this. You are an ambitious sole for sure!! I m So sorry to see your previous van lost to fire and I wanted to offer a couple ideas.

First is consider investing in a BlazeCut system. If you get other people to go in on a group purchase you can get the price down. A group we know does this each year where I m at. They work well and install in minutes.

Second, VAnCafe’s fuel line kit comes with those blue Swedish clamps, torque them well and recheck periodically for seepage on startups if the vehicle has been sitting. I turn on fuel pump, and sniff engine compartment with lid off or the corner vents if I m in a hurry. Spontaneous fuel leaks have happened even with these clamps and all new rubber. Gremlins…?

Third, You can reroute the fuel lines to mount the fuel pressure regulator to the rear firewall or better, to one of the bolts holding the clutch slave cyl. using its stock metal tab bent. The idea is to get three more fuel line connections away from the distributor, the main ignition source.
Good luck with the rest of the build. Enjoy
B
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83 Westfalia wbx “Idaho”
84 Tintop “Vanamos”
formerly
71 Squareback sold
70 Westfalia lost to fire by new owner
71 Super Beetle rolled/scrapped