I thought I'd share some of my experiences with working with watercooled engines. This is my first wasserboxer and so far it isn't too bad. I just about have the engine back together on the 85 westy I bought last year. My local garage wanted 1200 dollars to do the job. 

I went to the vanagon sight to get free ideas, bought the Bentley book, and tried to find out everything to see if I could fix it myself. Both said that you could change the seals with the engine in the car, but the vanagon site said that if the barrels come off with the head then you more or less have to take out the engine to get them back in. Sure enough both came out and were stuck to the head. I had to use a air chisel gently between them to loosen them out. Once I got them out of there I seen that there was a very small spot on one the the metal seals that the compression was leaking around. That seal came out ok, but the other seal was almost impossible to remove. 

I ended up using a very thin feeler gauge to get under it and work it loose. I cleaned up the head and went to put the barrels back on. I quickly realized why they said remove the engine to put them back on. 

It seems there is no room to get a ring compressor between the water jacket and the barrels. I bought a cheap one from Autozone and thought it might be small enough, but was wrong. I then looked up the proper procedure and it involved taking out the water pump and removing the pistons using the hole where the water pump was to remove the piston pin. That's a pain to do with the engine in the car because the water pump is really close to the sheet metal of the body. I then thought to myself, heck with that idea unless my other ideas don't work. I then looked at the tool that I spent 8 bucks on and thought, if it was only smaller. I got out the tin shears and cut that sucker down to half it's normal size and removed the crank mechanism. I now had a 2in. wide long piece of metal that I would wrap around a piston. The only problem now is how do I hold it there. 

I've got it! I'll user zip ties! It ended up taking about 30 minutes to do both barrels and they went on just fine. The only things I have left to do is filler up with oil and that red antifreeze and get the exhaust back on. I'll let you all know if it runs this  weekend.

Ron Nelson

I'm not used to adjusting the valves on a wasserboxer and I thought everything was going great until the intake on the third cylinder got tight halfway through the second turn of the screwdriver. Does this mean I have a lifter that is going bad? The rest of them on that side of the engine were all the same, but this on is different. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.      -Ron