Date:         Tue, 1 May 2001 08:57:34 EDT
Reply-To:     KENWILFY@aol.com
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         KENWILFY@aol.com
Subject:      Re: 89 (was 90) Wheelchair Vanagon for sale
Comments: To: tgerr85@yahoo.com
Content-Type:  multipart/alternative;

Water coming out of the tailpipe at startup on a van that has been sitting
over night is normal!!!!!   As long as the water is clear (not green or blue)
and doesn't smell sweet then it is just normal condensation in the exhaust
system coming out.  The reason it might be brown could just be rust.  For
these mechanics to say it is heads is just probably the difficulty of trying
to diagnose things over the phone.

Normally the way you can see if a van needs head work, is to let the van sit
over night and then look underneath in the morning.  If there is a drop of
coolant under the van on the ground or hanging from the little ear at the
lowest spot of the motor, then you have an external head leak (most common
type).  If you had an internal head leak or crack, this usually manifests
itself when you first start the van up.  There will be alot of very white
smoke coming out that will smell very sweet (a little white smoke is normal
as I said the torturous path of the Vanagon Exhaust system loves to harbour
condensation and this needs to evaporate).  The only other way a cracked head
can show up is by pressurizing the coolant system.  This means that when you
went to drive the van down the road the coolant probably would have blown out
of the expansion tank, so you probably don't have this problem either.

If I were you I would:
Go to the lot and look under the motor when it was stone cold.  If you don't
see anything this is a good sign.  Then start the motor and let it run while
you are talking to the sales guy.  Let it get up to operating temperature and
listen for the fan to come on.  Then drive the van around for another 15 mins
taking it on a highway where you can go 65 mph.  This should show up most
problems that you could have.  Anything else you might experience would be
intermittant and that is just one of the chances you take when buying a used
vehicle.  Hope this helps.


Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242

[text/html]