Date:         Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:21:48 -0600
Reply-To:     Anthony Bailey <abailey@CLAS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Anthony Bailey <abailey@CLAS.NET>
Subject:      vanagon problems update
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed"

Hello all, I finally got the good weather (45 F or so) and time to
work on the Van today. I've got it disassembled down to the point of
unhooking the trans & engine. I've just removed the torque convertor
bolts. I'm following the Haynes Manual procedure. I removed the spark
plugs to see what story they might tell. 1, 2 & 4 were extremely
black & wet, 3 however had the tan creamy oil/coolant mixture on it.
I also turned the engine over a few times with a wrench on the
alternator pulley after removing the plugs, #3 shot coolant out the
spark plug hole as it turned over.
Still trudging along, but I'm making progress, Tony


At 12:05 PM -0600 1/12/2003, Anthony Bailey wrote:
>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
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