There are also a few things I’d like to point out about my vanagon and the veggie oil conversion I did.

Gauge problems

The oil temp gauge and the fule level gauges are pretty much screwed up. I guess it’s because the oil temp gauge is not in a very good place (it doesn’t heat up very well wher it is located), cause the oil temp seesm to remain always around 50-60 degrees C. Which can’t be true. I think.
The fuel gauge needles just jump back and forth and I have to kinda guess the average to get a somewhat correct reading from them. Eventually one of the gauges (dirty tank) broke and it’s not working at all. Note: never use russian fuel gauges. They are crap.

Water filters are not good

The water filters that I’m using as oil filters are very messy to deal with. When the filter gets clogged, I have to unscrew the filter bottom and take out the filter element. The element, of course, is soaking oily, and the filter bottom is filled with oil. So when I remove the bottom I have to be very careful not to spill any oil. I have never managed to do it clean. Also, it’s hard to get the element fit in properly, cause I can’t see if it’ll attach to a little hole in the filter head, when I screw on the filter bottom. So all in all – it’s a messy job. So I wouldn’t recommend on using those water filters for filtering the oil. Just get some oil filters from the junkyard (they come off of turbo diesel engines). There You can just unscrew the whole filter and throw it away, screw on a new onw and You’re set. Plus – the oil filters better cause the filter attaches to a heat exchanger. You can run hot coolant through the heat exchanger and it’ll heat up the oil going through the filter.

Keep it short

Try to keep the coolant hoses as short as possible. At least the vanagon has a very weak coolant system so it’s hard for the water pump to circulate the coolant if You have a really long coolant hose that goes up and down and has a lot of corners. Mine has, and I think it’s one of the reasons my engine head was well, out of order…

So what is this blog all about? It’s about my Volkswagen Transporter T3 aka Vanagon – and it’s road to (hopeful) glory =)

So anyway, check it out, I have made a few pages with basci information about this blog and it’s superhero – the vanagon itself. Hopefully You will find something interesting and You will keep on coming back … and hopefully I’m gonna update this blog as often as a blog should be updated, that is, not too seldom, but rarely every day Anyway. Welcome and enjoy Your visit!