Never again be stuck on the side of the road with a cracked plastic coolant expansion tank!

VW's in the 1980's and 90's relied heavily on plastics in their cooling systems. Now, thirty years after the last Vanagon rolled off the production line, those plastic parts are the Achilles heel of your powertrain. The Van Cafe Aluminum Coolant Expansion Tank is a TIG-welded, pressure-tested upgrade for your time bomb plastic tank. Remember, when your plastic tank goes, you're walking - get your aluminum coolant reservoir today!

Aluminum Coolant Expansion Tank Features:

• Replaces the aging plastic exansion tank in your Van
• No good quality plastic expansion tanks are available new
• All aluminum, TIG-welded for perfect seal
• Each tank pressure tested for quality
• Complete with correct inlets/outlets for your engine
• Quality Stant Lev-r 16# pressure cap included
• FREE SHIPPING to most addresses!

Fitment Notes:

• The 2.1L and 1.9L versions of our tank are a direct fit into your stock coolant bracket. 
• The Subaru conversion tank can mount in the stock location or, if using our reverse coolant manifold to reduce vulnerable coolant hoses in the engine bay, on the passenger side of the firewall with our heavy duty stainless steel mounting bracket.  (Add the bracket above.)

• This reservoir also fits all diesel models from 01/85 from Vin number F060001 on. It is possible to use this reservoir for diesel models 1980 thru 12/84. The easiest way to determine which reservoir you have is to look at the hoses flanges. If the flanges are the same size then you have the early tank. If the upper flange is larger than the bottom, then you have a later tank. To use this tank on the earlier diesel, you will need the diesel 4-way hose and it will match the upper flange on this tank.

• The 1.9L version will also fit all diesel models from 01/85 from Vin number F060001 thru 91. It is possible to use this reservoir for diesel models 1980 thru 12/84. The easiest way to determine which reservoir you have is to look at the hose's flanges. If the flanges are the same size, you have the early tank. If the upper flange is larger than the bottom, you have a later tank. To use this tank on the earlier diesel, you will need the diesel 4-way hose, it will match the upper flange on this tank. The early reservoir mounts differently than the late and you will need this bracket to install it: reverse coolant bottle bracket

Wiring Modification: There are two wires going to the stock coolant level sensor plug: a positive (usually green) and a ground (usually brown). We supply new terminals with the tank. Carefully strip the ends of the stock wires and crimp or solder the spade connector to the positive terminal and the ring connector to the ground wire. The positive wire will run to the level sensor contact, and the ground wire ring terminal will attach to the tank bracket with a mounting screw. Fill and bleed the cooling system as per the Bentley manual.

Need a new pressurized cap? or perhaps a new coolant level sensor?

Ready to upgrade other failure points in your cooling system?  Click here!