DH cooling circuit

[Robsey]

Hi all,

This will be an embarrassingly simple question for some members.

A bit of history...
I have been given the burdon of restoring a rusty old van.
It was a 1983 right hand drive imported to Grimsby in England.
It was fitted with a 1.9 waterboxer with the Solex Carb.
DF carb set up.
I am located east of Manchester, UK.

Back in Winter 1990 No3 exhaust valve seat blew out.
As the father-in-law had already replaced the engine once he gave up in frustration.

A year or two after he passed away, I was asked to restore the van in his memory.

Getting to the point...

I plan to fit a 2.1 Digijet engine from a 1987 van.

(Ironicly I bought the engine from a chap who was moving to the US in 2012.)

I am planning to use the existing early (1983) cooling system.
So the simple question is.
Is the coolant port blanked-off next to cylinder 3 on the DH set up?
(Left front cylinder).

Or should I just ask how the DH was plumbed in.?

The UK didn't have Digijet on the early cooling system.
Not until the DJ was introduced in 86 or 87...

I have trawled many websites including the Samba, and my usual forum Club8090 in the UK, but I have not found any definitive pictures.

I have also read the Bentley, but it doesn't say very much.
It does not show an opening on the cylinder head next to No3.

Any assistance is gratefully received.
Thanks all

[brickster]

This site has diagrams of all of the various international configurations. Hope it might be helpful:
https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/rdw/

[Robsey]

Thanks for that -

yes I had seen that web page a few times.

I can see a tube from the port next to No3 to the carb manifold coolant inlet stub.

But there is nothing for the injection set up.

[brickster]

I have the early cooling setup (1984) in stock form, so LMK if you'd like me to investigate and share a photo of where a 'blanked-off' coolant port might be.

In this basic diagram, there are no coolant hoses located on cylinder 3.
https://www.vanagain.com/product/coolant-hose-kit-for-1-9l-vanagon-with-plastic-coolant-pipes

If you can swing it, I'd try and install a 2.1 cooling system instead. It's simpler, easier to maintain and you can source more parts.

[Robsey]

Thanks again,
That helps a lot.

I am 95% there with all the coolant pipes in the van.
The only pipe from the DF that I did not have was the steel 'cross engine pipe'.
I junked it by accident.

I have had an elbow made up for the left end of it.
25mm (1") dia elbow with a 8mm (5/16") spout for the bleed valve.

I was tempted to run a hose from No3 cylinder outlet to the oil warmer, then a return pipe from the other end of the warmer back to the cross engine pipe.
Then for the right end of the cross-engine pipe, a silicone hose elbow tapering from 25mm (1") diameter down to a 16mm (5/8") diameter to meet the heat exchanger hose.

I was covering all bases as there are never any pictures around No3 due to the amount of other gubbins (pipes and stuff) at the transmission end of the engine.