My ’86 syncro has a Webasto BBW 46 coolant heater, but unfortunately it has been disconnected from the coolant system and does not work. Why was it disconnected? I don’t know, so here starts another syncro adventure.
The heater is quite cool, has a control unit that will start the heater up at pre-set times, it burns gasoline to heat and circulate the coolant, and also turns on the cabin heater fan, thus warming the engine and the cabin. But it seems a fairly complicated affair to troubleshoot…
One thing I did discover is that the small, lipped, sealing ring between the heat exchanger and the recirculation pump has failed, maybe that is why it was disconnected? Local marine repair shop is hung down a replacement for me.
But I have heard that the unit really needs to be used regularly, this one obviously has not been used in a while, so even if I get the seal installed there is no guarantee the heater will work.
I’ll take some pics tomorrow.
Resources:
Gary Lee has one installed in his van, and link to repair manual (but its not a vanagon specific manual, and the vanagon install does have its own “qualities”)
webasto in vanagon, in German, again…
parts manual:70966B
Dec 9, evening, slapping unlabelled pics up:
shooftie 