Here in the northeast, we have been experiencing some cold weather. Sunday night the temperature dipped below 0 F (-18 C) with some awful wind gusts. When our 90GL was started Monday morning, an oil leak (gush) had developed but was not detected. The engine's lifeblood steadily poured out as the van was allowed to warm up and then driven away. Unfortunately the oil light and buzzer did not convince the driver to shut the engine off. The van made it back to our driveway, but the engine was a goner...siezed! Probably what happened was a failure of the gasket at the oil cooler (2.1L). This gasket experiences a lot of heat in normal use and the extreme cold can cause it to crack. I will know after the autopsy. An improved version of this gasket is available. A friend with a Passat experienced the same failure on the same day He made the mistake of leaving the engine running while he went into a store for a few minutes. When he went back out to his car, there was a puddle of oil under his car and some terrible noise coming from it. Luckily his engine did not sieze. I had been planning to replace the head gaskets in the Spring. I will probably replace the engine with a used one. This time, I will do the heads before installing the engine. I will also replace the oil cooler gasket. This is Vanagony!
Paul Kirsch 90GL (Exxon Valdez) |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.