I just had a similar problem with my 85' - I will try my best to explian it (please bear with me I'm not a gear head - yet). I found that I had a coolant leak. Of course the leak didn't make itself apparent unless the engine was running and someone was giving it a little gas. What was happening was once the engine and exhaust got warmed up the coolant was leaking down onto the hot parts and creating the infamous blue/white smoke you are talking about. It actually looked sort of neat coming out of the side vents. I repaired the leak and haven't had any smoke problems since. I was fearing the worst - or close to it anyway. You may not have the same problem but it's worth looking into I suppose.

Thanks - Jeff

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of Andrew Fox Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 5:01 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: white smoke/power loss?????

Before I start repacing parts at a whim or paying someone $60 an hour to work on this I would love to hear any advice on what to check or how to go about solving this problem:

After warm up my 86 Westy intermittently blows lots of whitish/bluish smoke out the tailpipe and simultaneously experiences significat power loss. Head gaskets were replaced 1 yr ago and it does not appear to be loosing coolant or mixing coolnat into the oil. The amount of smoke is amazing. It is kind of amusing when people are tailgaiting and they get smoked real bad then they back way off. The power loss is not sharp like you would experience with loss of spark but rather a general loss of power (about a 50% reduction) but it still stays running.

Thanks very much for any ideas!

Andrew Fox 86 Westy Ft. Collins, CO