Just got back from a short trip to Manning Park for a 2 day camp at
Lightning Lake - fantastic weather and great time.  It is a 280 mile round
trip so not a major haul but there is a fairly long climb up Alison Pass -
1,340 metres in elevation.

The weather was great and the camping was good.  The fridge worked well and
the van drove nice loaded with 2 adults and 2 kids and all of our stuff.
No oil or coolant leaks whatsoever!  I did have a scare though when pulling
into a stop for a break yesterday late morning.  Came back to the van to
grab a towel for one of the kids and noticed a wet spot under van -
directly below the water pump - which felt wet and greasy like coolant.
Pulled all the gear out of the hatch and opened up the back to find
everything bone dry and deduced it was a car that parked before me that had
a leak.

A couple of things data wise now that I have an oil temp and oil pressure
gauge - I am getting an oil pressure at idle when fully warm 260 F at 19
psi.  And 36 psi at 4000 rpm with oil temp at 270 F - this was when
climbing the pass. I found I drove around 3600 rpm which brought the oil
temp to a shade under  260 F and running 33 to 34 psi of oil pressure.  It
was interesting to see how my driving could impact oil temperature - the
higher the rpms - the higher the temp rose - which also would drop the oil
pressure very slightly compared to the same rpm but with cooler oil
temperature.   I would be interested to know what is the oil temp range for
other 2.1 Vanagons (with stock oil cooler) - to me I was surprised a bit
that it was getting up in temp toward 280 F.

Made a point not to lug the van (thanks Dennis) and upshift sooner and run
the van a little harder up the hills than I typically do - in the 3800 to
4000 rpm range or so.  Then cool things down by driving around 3500 on the
flats and down the hills.

Got home and unpacked - watered the gardens then went to check under the
van - no oil or coolant drips and the coolant overflow tank was at the
level it was prior to the trip - oil level also holding to what the level
was before leaving.

She passed the first trip of the year.

Bruce

86 Syncro Westy