1986 Volkswagen Westfalia 4x4

1986 Volkswagen Westfalia 4x4 using Dana Linscott's VegOilConversions

Quite an interesting vehicle, but a difficult install! The van had previously had a 1997 Volkswagen TDI diesel engine installed to replace the stock gasoline engine. This was no small feat - the van was in and out of the shop for over a year! But after a successful conversion, the van came to Mike to be converted to SVO.

Andre with his Westfalia

Being a custom job on a custom job, it was a little troublesome. Westfalias are notoriously hard to service especially when working with their fuel and coolant systems. Air will get trapped in the many stock coolant lines unless the front of the van is jacked up to allow it to escape, and even then its quite a process to chase it up.

A shot of the engine in the rear of the van

Van problems aside, the conversion kit went in and is working nicely. The van has a custom fabricated tank underneath the front, where the stock spare tire would go (with his larger-than-stock tires, the spare no longer fit and the space was empty). Given the already extensive coolant lines, we didn't want to run more than we had to. The coolant lines were tapped in at the front to heat the tank, and at the back (near the engine) to heat the filter and final heat exchanger. SVO fuel line was run along a bundle of coolant hoses supplying heat to the radiator and heater core (both at the front), fed from the rear engine. This large bundle was insulated to supply the fuel line with extra heat.

The tank, underneath the front of the van