1985 Vanagon Westfalia, 0-60 In 11 Minutes

[0to60in11minutes]

Soon after that, less than 500 miles in fact this happened.

While cruising on 89 in vermont disaster struck. A bang followed by smoke and a loss of power resulted in me flipping battery and fuel cutoffs, then coasting to the off ramp which happened to be right there. While walking to the back of the van where white smoke/steam was now pouring out of, I saw coolant dripping to the ground. Hmmm maybe I just blew a coolant line or something. I peaked throught the wheel well into the engine bay and my stomache dropped, FLAMES F***. I yelled for my girlfriend and her brother to start unloading the van as I grabbed both my fire extinguishers and proceeded to empty the first extinguisher through the license plate flap. That extinguished most of the fire, so I then opened the engine cover and used the second extinguisher on the smoldering remains of my engine bay. The damage was extensive and for the first time I would have to call a tow truck. Luckily the damage was confined to the engine bay and some minor burns on my hands, but the van was saved. ALWAYS CARRY FIRE EXTINGUISHERS!

First time on a tow truck

This was a huge setback for me both mentally and financially. With this being my daily driver I was now forced to borrow a work truck while I figured out how to fix things. I thought originally that the fire had started due to a bad alternator harness but that changed once I started taking things apart.

The damage

I took the alternator off and boom. Well thats how this started.....

A chunk of rod/block went through the metal fuel lines that run under the intake manifold.

Shit this wasn't going to be as easy a fix as I had thought.

 

[kcsaysngo]

Back in 2013 I got struck by van fever. I scoured ebay, the samba, and craigslist looking for vehicles in my price range that weren't total rust buckets. I found a 86 full camper in southern maine, loaded up my work truck with a trailer and headed out to pick it up. Once arriving I noticed that the photos were much older than they were advertised as. Rusted through seams and wheel wells, no exhaust were just a few of the stand out items I noticed. I declined and sadly headed home with an empty trailer. Later that night a new ad popped up on craigslist and I quickly emailed the seller. Making plans to drive the forty-five minutes to look at it the following day. The husband and wife greeted me gleefully in the driveway as I backed my trailer up to the van. Negotiations then took place, I countered his $2,500 offer with $1,200 seeing what wiggle room I had. His wife quickly elbowed him in the ribs and whispered something in his ear, followed by him reaching his hand out and saying "you've got a deal". Awesome I wasn't expecting that to be so easy. So I loaded it up and brought here home. Here she is in the driveway before winching her onto my trailer.

The day after

One of many modifications the previous owner made

All natural filter element

Scrubbing the grime away

A couple weeks later after I got a new tent and started figuring out where each bolt goes in the 5 gallon bucket of hardware the previous owner gave me.

The previous owner was an "electrical engineer" He made many modifications in the dash which needed correcting.

Got that sorted and then continued the dash mayhem

Those square plastic connectors are the bane of electrical woes. He used them in all sorts of weird locations. Years later I am still finding them, recently the horn decided to start making a squeek instead of a honk. I found two of these connectors under the van in the horn wiring.

After I fixed that stuff, it was time to get her registered and on the road.

love what you've done with the westfalia! i love when i see these rigs on the road! classic!

 

[0to60in11minutes]

Block was an anchor and the wiring harness was cooked. I started looking around craigslist for parts subarus, one that the engine was good on and I could take the wiring harness and ecu out of. My conversion bits would fit on any ej22-25 subaru.
I found a forester near me and emailed the guy. The car ended up being less than a mile from my house so I met him the following morning and picked this forester up for $300

I drove that around for a bit and then decided to start dismantling things. It never ran all that great but the wiring harness was what i was really after. So in the dead of winter during a particular cold spell of 0 degree temps and high winds I braved the outdoors and began pulling parts off the subaru. The harness was a bitch requiring the whole dash to be removed. I then stripped the motor and found out why it was running rough. The cogged idler for the timing belt came apart in my hands. So I now had tons of spare motor parts. I called up a junk yard and they came and got the shell, giving me $150 in the process sweet. I also sold some other parts of the forester and kept the brand new head unit. All in all I ended up making $125, not bad.

Wiring mayhem.

Since money was tight I downloaded some wiring diagrams jumping head first into weeding out and cutting of almost 90% of the harness. Fun times, especially since my year forester was an inbetween year with no real diagrams so wires that should be one color were completely different.

Part of the piston that went kaboom!

I found a newer forester motor with low miles and went to grab it. Pulled it out in the snow with the owner and headed home. I now had a power plant and a wiring harness, with the newer motor I would have to use the older intake manifold.
Most of the time while i was working on the van weather was cold, below 20 F, windy as hell and snowy.

I lifted the new motor into place after swapping on my shortened oil pan. Luckily the van is so high that i can slide the motor out after lowering it and removing the intake manifold without even jacking the vehicle up.

Swapping intake manifolds.

Once everything was in place, I went to start the van and got nothing. I had forgotten that the cam and crankshaft sprockets had different notches for the timing sensors. DOH so I swapped those out and then turned the key. Giddiness overwhelmed me and I kept the new status of running to myself. The following day I told Kate I would meet her for lunch and to her surprise I rolled up in the van! She put up with multiple vehicles hogging our tiny driveway for most of the winter while I sorted through the different setbacks. Not to mention wiring harness bits taking up our entire kitchen floor....

Back underway again!

 

[0to60in11minutes]

So now that things were somewhat back to normal it was time to start camping and modifying things again.

Someone was happy to have the van back.

Then this happened.

After a few years of driving past a tin top van stuffed in the corner of a mechanics shop lot. I finally went over and poked around. When talking to the mechanic I came to find out the owner of the van had left it there for numerous years and had heard nothing communication wise from him for quite some time. With the mechanics permission I took a look at the registration and then made some phone calls which were all dead ends. This eventually ended with me showing up at the owners house, ringing the door bell and talking to him about his van. He was the original owner of this 127k mile syncro given to him by the owner of a local vw dealer back in 87 in compensation for flying him around. We agreed on a price and I became a syncro owner. The seams are really rough and so is the bottom of the slider door track and jack points are crumbling. The interior as with any vanagon that sits is a mouse party. The motor is a running Boston Bob rebuild is amazing, if this motor had been in my westy a subaru swap may never have happened. This van had been meticulously cared for and the mechanic whose shop it had sat at had done almost all of the work on it over the years. The owner also gave me a box full of old receipts and even a notepad with every gas fill up accounted for as well as a shit load of spare parts he had accumulated. I never would have thought the perfect syncro donor was waiting for me on my way to work.

 

[0to60in11minutes]

Besides an alignment issue these grabbers have held up well under most of the conditions I have presented them.

 

[0to60in11minutes]

For my birthday Kate picked up a set of LT mirrors. Wow why hadn't I gotten a set of these sooner!!!!

Next up was a TruckFridge TF49 so that we could go from cooling our drinks like this.

To in this

I also added a renogy solar panel to update the Aux Battery system a bit

 

[0to60in11minutes]

We also made it up to the Grain Surfboards SurfreEvolution again.

There are generally a handful of other well equipped vehicles there as well.

The foliage this year in the Northeast was spectacular. I can't remember a year where the colors were as vibrant/ stayed around for as long as they did. We took advantage of this with multiple trips into woods that looked like they were on fire.

The latest set of modification I have made was a diesel Espar D2 heater. I tossed a fuel tank in the unoccupied spare tire carrier clam shell underneath the front. Sliding the heater into an unused cabinet space. I love this little thing, it kicks the heat. One thing worth mentioning is the fuel pump orientation. When they say make sure it is at the right angle they mean it! It wont work otherwise.

 

[0to60in11minutes]

love what you've done with the westfalia! i love when i see these rigs on the road! classic!

Thank you!!!

 

[Noel Leon Gauthier]

We also made it up to the Grain Surfboards SurfreEvolution again.

Looking sharp man, well done.

 

[0to60in11minutes]

Looking sharp man, well done.

Thank you! I ordered up some more led strip lights and that curved cover you have to toss above my kitchen. I need more light in there!

I had some free time and scrap steel pieces taking up room in the corner of the shop. Put my cheap little welder to work and fabbed up a rear hatch ladder. Still need to finish this up.

Here are some shots of the espar install. I am waiting for the muffler, but as of now you can't hear the exhaust from inside the van. I just want to make it less obvious that it is running. The switch plate will have new switch rocker covers shortly, this currently controls the heater, the voltage display for the house battery and rear interior lighting.

And another shot of the syncro!

 

[Noel Leon Gauthier]

Thank you! I ordered up some more led strip lights and that curved cover you have to toss above my kitchen. I need more light in there!

Nice!
I ran them through the closet and along the back of the headbanger- both have proved super useful:

Control panel for lights looks dope. [emoji108]

 

[0to60in11minutes]

Two weeks ago my dipstick wasn't fully seated resulting in a wonderful spray of oil on everything. Self rustproofing van.

Then last week I noticed the temp gauge climbing... Checking the oil revealed a chocolate milk substance and the expansion tank was empty.
I made it less than a year before having to pull this motor. Luckily it was only head gaskets this time.

Replacement took me about a day and a half. It wasn't too bad, just something I wasn't ready to do, luckily I could do it in a heated garage and not outside like last winters motor swap...

 

[Ej Martin]

Digging this man - I had an 81 wagon that was the same color. It caught fire in PA and burned to the ground on the highway - fire went out several times and came back. Good job keeping it alive!

 

[Vyscera]

Superb work. I wish I had your motivation.

 

[0to60in11minutes]

So in January the headgaskets went in the ej25 powerplant. Easy fix, pull motor and send heads to get machined, down for a few days back on the road.

Then disaster, motor started knocking loudly, spun bearings. Add this shortblock to the growing pile of used motors I have now accumulated. Offer stands to anyone who needs a boat anchor.

I am sending my shortened pan back to the manufacturer to have a look over. There is a chance the oil pickup could be the root of some of these issues.

In other news I have another ej25 in there chugging away.

 

[ASNOBODY]

This thread and build is a rollercoaster of emotions haha…

First page had me like:

Second page:

Then finally:

Great job dude! Loving all the hard work and dedication…and surfing and snowboarding!

 

[0to60in11minutes]

Thanks! I am interested in what the manufacturer says about the oil pick up.

 

[Flipper]

Very cool and very impressive, we have a Chevy high top van I customized,self sustaining, travel and camp all the time

Sent from my iPad using OB Talk

 

[Rusty burbin]

I drove a 1970 westy for years, my grandma is a pretty cool lady, she drove us all over the south west in that old thing before I bought from her for 500$ when I was a sophomore in high school. I drove it into my mid 20's before I got into something else. I loved it and I miss it! And like you I went through several motors and yeah that wind will blow right in the cabin won't it!?

Beach trips and mountain trips every summer and winter for years.

I drove a 65 split window Kombi for several years after I married my sweet heart. Sadly it has gone away too.

You have inspired me, and conjured up some old nostalgic feelings. I think I'm gonna have to see if I can find another old buss around here.

Thanks for the awesome thread! Totally worth the read.

Here's a couple pics of my 65.

I have pics of my 70 westy but there in my old box of photos from high school times. (No camera phones back then)

Keep up the fight! [emoji1]

Rustyburbin (OB#4084) from SoCal 5 kids, wife, dog and a 1970 K20 Suburban

 

[0to60in11minutes]

I drove a 1970 westy for years, my grandma is a pretty cool lady, she drove us all over the south west in that old thing before I bought from her for 500$ when I was a sophomore in high school. I drove it into my mid 20's before I got into something else. I loved it and I miss it! And like you I went through several motors and yeah that wind will blow right in the cabin won't it!?

Beach trips and mountain trips every summer and winter for years.

I drove a 65 split window Kombi for several years after I married my sweet heart. Sadly it has gone away too.

You have inspired me, and conjured up some old nostalgic feelings. I think I'm gonna have to see if I can find another old buss around here.

Thanks for the awesome thread! Totally worth the read.

Here's a couple pics of my 65.

I have pics of my 70 westy but there in my old box of photos from high school times. (No camera phones back then)

Keep up the fight! [emoji1]

Rustyburbin (OB#4084) from SoCal 5 kids, wife, dog and a 1970 K20 Suburban

Thanks! Dig up those old photos and post them up! You should have no problem finding a rust free one in socal. I bet the kids would love it!