A Wasserboxer Adventure.

By Chris Bellamy & Richard Holzl

In the beginning, the watercooled flat four T3 Vanagon seemed a comfortable continuation of the all successful Comb the vehicle that changed the face of practical transport world-wide. A huge following resulted and many other manufacturers joined the people mover revolution. Those of us that moved up Mom the air-cooled to the water-cooled Vanagon fell in love all over again with Volkswagen's all improved Bus. Did I say all improved? After coming to appreciate more space, more power, more room and better handling, some strange things began to happen. Corroded cylinder head studs and cutting out power after a few hours of operation in expressway conditions. Many things were thought to have caused these problems they appeared at random and struck the population of Vanagons sporadically. Coolant type (tap or distilled water) and running too lean under load were blamed and Volkswagen provided an impedance transformer at the usual price to correct the disturbed signal horn the air flow meter to the computer. With that fixed, there was still a need to address the lean out under load and to quicken the response from the full throttle switch for emergencies. Given that the engine accepted Type 1 rockers, some Gene Berg 1.4:1 ratio rockers were fitted to increase air volume. A dyno nun was then made with and without rockers. This produced a much bigger increase than expected, but the air flow meter overreacted and a too rich condition resulted. Thanks to Mark at Yagoona Automotive, a probe into the computer allowed a custom chip to be produced in order to correct the mixture throughout the rev range. Numerous dyno nuns were made to identify the sweet and sour spots resulting from ups and downs in the flow rate of the inlet manifolding and possibly the exhaust. Merely increasing the richness across the board wasn't going to be efficient. The final results were well beyond expectation 49 per cent increase at the wheels with, as the following text shows, an increase in economy. Combined with the correct coolant in the correct ratio mixed with distilled or purified water, the Vanagon engine has a chance for re nine lives Richard Holzl

Just back from a summer of cycling around Deutschland, in spring 1997 I chanced across a low mileage white T3 Transporter Campervan for sale here in Canberra. Instantly memories of long summer evenings in camping grounds sitting with Wasserboxer Campervan owners sharing a glass or two of dry white wine etc came racing back and I soon found myself the proud owner of an Aussie Wasserboxer campervan.

Mine is a white 1992 T3 Transporter with a rear mounted 2.1 litre fuel injected part water part air-cooled motor. It started life as an ordinary van, so it has no leather seats, carpets or mod cons in the flight deck, like a 'Carat'. As such it travelled around Oz with its first owners and after 3 years they had it converted into a campervan in Sydney, poptop, fridge, stove, queen size bed. They then sold it, and after languishing in a garage or two in the hands of two other disinterested owners, I became the fourth owner.

For me driving a forward control van for the first time was a great adventure, let alone having to juggle with decisions like which microwave oven to put in where along with tweaking engines and suspensions. A pre purchase inspection by Quedub concluded that it was in top shape apart from showing early signs of the dreaded Wasserboxer head gasket problem which I had fixed before any damage had occurred. An auto electrician then checked out some of the odd wiring that other owners had introduced to avoid getting any nasty shocks when I plugged it in at the first caravan park, as well as giving the headlights a boost too so it can driven after dark. A unique challenge with the T3 is the gear stick. It comes nicely shaped for left-hand drive, with first gear well placed for the average right hander driver sitting on the left side of the van. By getting Vic at Quedub to change its shape and Mike (Shimo) at Hellbug to fit a Gene Berg quick shift, I no longer graze my knuckles on the radio controls on quick changes into second, while lubricating all the linkages has meant that I can now actually find first at traffic lights.

After fitting a long range water tank, I discovered that climbing hills with the water tank full, the roof covered with kayaks and passengers and their gear on board, that everything slowed to a crawl while petrol consumption with such loads shot up. As for the rude signs from the other drivers....

Having fitted an Australian reusable ' Finer ' filter and the motor tuned as best it could be, I eventually lashed out and had Richard and Boris at Vintage VeeDub fit their Wasserboxer engine mod. This involves fitting a new computer chip more attuned to Aussie driving conditions and Gene Berg rockers along with pushrods. The difference was amazing. The watercooled heads definitely run cooler. I know because the aircon condenser, which sits, crammed in front of the radiator between the double headlights, now works much better, such that both the motor and the driver run much cooler. I have also found rolling along the Hume; the van was no longer being run over by B-Doubles and that it can keep up with Commodores. Fuel economy is much improved. Running on premium unleaded it has since done 31 mpg on the flat on the open road while around town it now gets 22 mpg on either kind of unleaded fuel. On the flat it now starts in second gear as well.

In the bush it is a Hilton on wheels while on the open road, one gets used to happily rolling along with an endless supply of cold drinks coming forth from those sitting back in business class, next to the fridge. Around town it is different, thus the lack of power steering means that parking it at Woolies is no fun. So I have recently acquired a low mileage 1970 Beetle from the Riverina as a town car. It is simplicity itself by comparison with no computers or microwaves to worry about. It will be another motoring adventure I am sure.

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