Date:         Mon, 13 Jan 2003 17:50:52 -0600
Reply-To:     Anthony Bailey <abailey@CLAS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Anthony Bailey <abailey@CLAS.NET>
Subject:      update: Re: major problems?
In-Reply-To:  <p04330100ba475b59f94f@[192.168.0.17]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed"

Hello all, I've got an update for you on my '87 Vanagon. I drained
the nasty tan creamy (wonderful visual, huh!) oil/coolant mix out. As
some very helpful guys on the list have replied back to me about
possible causes, I removed the oil filter & oil cooler from the
engine, but left the oil cooler attached to the coolant hoses, I
figured I would then see the leak and know it was the cooler leaking
coolant into the oil.

I removed the coolant tank lid and listened to the sounds as coolant
left it and then I reinstalled the lid. No coolant drained out of the
oil cooler. However I thought I might open my the oil drain plug
again to see if any more coolant had gotten in there, sure enough
quite a bit of coolant drained out into my container.

So it looks like head gaskets or heads or engine, really no way to
tell without removing the engine and opening it up, correct?? I've
got the Haynes & Bentley manuals, so that's kinda where I stand the
moment. Not really looking forward to this, but I guess here I go....
Tony


>Hello all, I had a surprise this morning! As it was damn cold last
>night, I went out to warm up the van ('87 Vanagon), it started up,
>idled and then the coolant light started blinking at me. Hmmm that's
>odd, so I turned it off and went to check the coolant, sure enough
>its low, so I started filling it up, sure seems to be taking a lot to
>fill it. I asked my wife about the coolant light as she was driving
>it yesterday, she say's no it didn't come on.
>
>I got it filled up, went back to start it. It cranked real slow and
>then just quit cranking, it just makes a loud click, so I thought I
>must have ran my battery down. To make a long story shorter, while
>I'm charging up my battery I check the oil.... The oil is now a
>creamy tan color instead of the normal black,  and now there is a
>slight oil leak from the valve covers.
>
>So it looks like I've cracked a head or at least a gasket?? I guess I
>need to go ahead and drain the oil/coolant mixture out and replace
>with oil to see what happened? The way it looks at the moment I'm
>gonna have to replace the heads/gaskets or engine.
>Any ideas/suggestions??
>Thanks, Tony
>--
>-----
>Sent from Anthony Bailey • KC0HZP (mailto:abailey@clas.net)
>on a PowerComputing PowerBase 180 in Marble Hill, Missouri

--
-----
Sent from Anthony Bailey • KC0HZP (mailto:abailey@clas.net)
on a PowerComputing PowerBase 180 in Marble Hill, Missouri