Date:         Sat, 23 Feb 2002 15:25:37 -0500
Reply-To:     Barry Mercer <bjmercer@SYMPATICO.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Barry Mercer <bjmercer@SYMPATICO.CA>
Subject:      Pepper those heads
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              x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"

Hello all.   Its still winter where I live and Moo, the Westy,  is still
hibernating in  my ,very first in my life, garage.

Moo's heads leak a little in cold weather.  I have yet to see huge pools
of coolant , thank goodness, but she does leak!

When the weather heats up, and the van is used more frequently, nary a
stain !  The heads seem to, as they say in boat building Newfoundland,
plim up!

But here's the purpose of this note.  Two weeks ago my neighbours
celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss.   I encountered a fellow westy
owner at a celebratory skuff, who had a  similar problem with his
camper.  Mine is an '88 his a little older.

Now this fellah is a retired truck driver - and he swears that this
story is true.

He said to cure his heads from leaking, he took a quantity of pepper
corns, the whole corns you'd find in a grinder, and tossed those into
his coolant tank.  The corns traveled through the system, lodged in the
areas where the heads leaked, and like the boy with his finger in the
dam, his leaks stopped.

He says they have been leak free for years.

I laughed and laughed.

But listees, is this a possibility?  Could this work ?   Can we toss
those tubes of JB weld and trade them in for a spice ?

So there ya go.  Something to mull over.

By the by, sadly, a scant two weeks after that 60th anniversary party,
the husband passed away.  A little piece of history with him.  He was
with the Canadian Army on Jun beach on the 6th of June.

Ya just never know eh ?

Regards.

Barry Mercer
Sudbury
Ontario

Moo - 88 westy 160k Km. ( or there abouts )