If you look at the vanagon engine, the side that is up; almost in the middle of the head the head gasket will stick out with the notches showing - they are visible all the time - no need to disassemble first. Chris
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of Matt Ratto Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 7:29 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: diesel head gasket - which one? Hi all, after some more attempts to diagnose the problems with the diesel in my 82 westy, I'm pretty sure I'm suffering from a blown head gasket. The coolant bubbles (a lot) when the engine gets hot, so much so that I can't bleed the system. Also I noticed a trace amount of oil in the coolant and continuous white smoke at idle. I thought the smoke was oil from worn rings, but after taking a trip through the archives I'm thinking it might be water. The final factor is that I have very low compression on 2 & 3 but not on 1 & 4. It's all kind of moot because I really want to put a new motor in the thing. Still, until that happens, it would be nice to have a running vehicle. So the question is: how can I tell in advance (without removing the gasket and looking at the notches or measuring the pistons,) which head gasket I need? I don't really have a place to leave half-dismembered vehicles, while I wait for the head gasket to arrive from busdepot or another shop. any help would be greatly appreciated, Matt |
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