Date:         Thu, 14 Mar 2002 08:19:49 -0500
Reply-To:     Richard Bias <rbias@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Bias <rbias@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Research done, now your opinion...
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Hello All,
  Thank you for your replies on my "Throw in the towel, or not" email.  Our
Van has been parked in the driveway since the day it happened and I haven't
looked at it yet except to see that the overflowed coolant in my overflow
tank is not the bright, snappy orange it once was but now it is a dingy,
burnt orange color.  To recap, my heads seem to have gone south again after
only about 25K miles.  I have an air gap in my reservoir tank and the
overflow is overflown...
  My wife has talked me into fixing it again (I am very happy about this
because I think if I had just dumped it, I would really have regretted it!).
  I want to be very careful with the money because we just don't have it
growing on the tree in the back yard.  Here is the pertinent information...
1985 GL, 1.9L, 161K miles, New H2O pump, thermostat, Temp II sensor about 8K
ago, like I said new gaskets with rebuilt and tested heads 25K ago.  The
heads had the crack between valves but the shop said the tested fine.  I
have got the engine running like a top and (hard to believe, doesn't use a
drop of oil in between the 3K oil changes) when I did the heads last time I
had the cylinder barrels out and they looked good, no scratches or gouges
and the honing marks were still there.  Pistons and rings looked good so I
did the job knowing the heads tested fine.  People on the list with the 1.9L
engine have talked of 240K on up miles on their engines...  Do you think it
is feasible to go with new heads on a 161K. 1.9L engine?  There, I asked...
Please let me know what you are thinking.  As always, thank you for your
time and concern.

Rich and Annemarie
1985 GL "Buba"

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