Date:         Wed, 31 Dec 2003 18:11:00 -0800
Reply-To:     Ben S <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben S <phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM>
Subject:      help needed diagnosing blown head gasket
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

so the holidays were going well, i had just found a nice cheap apt in
south lake tahoe and had gone down to the bay area to pick up a load of
stuff and do some routine maintenance on the van.  i changed the oil and
replaced a broken throttle spring and made a late departure for the
mountain.

around 1am, i was driving up 50 with my gf following in her car.  the
van was running strong.  when suddenly, my oil pressure light and buzzer
came on.  i killed the engine immediately and coasted to a stop.  i got
out and checked the dipstick, it looked dry.  i got on my back in a nice
snowy puddle and looked around.  there appeared to be a few drops of
fresh looking oil hanging from various parts of the engine.  i checked
the drain plug and filter, thinking i must have installed them
incorrectly, but there didn't seem to be any fresh oil around either and
the filter felt tight.  i had 3 more quarts of oil, which i put in and
continued to drive since i was stopped in a bad spot.  at first, the
engine felt a little weak, but once i got up to 3rd gear it felt normal.
 after about 7 miles, the oil pressure warning came on again.  this
time, i got my gf to drive me up to town where i called for a tow.  i
got to my place around 3am and crashed.

this afternoon, i went to take a better look.  at this point i was still
thinking that my problem was some kind of oil leak, so first i checked
the oil level.  it was overfilled.  this leads me to beleive that
perhaps i made an erronous reading the night before.  it was dark and
snowing; i was on a steep hill on a blind curve blocking half a lane and
was quite anxious and hurried.  so i started the engine cautiously.  it
started easily and idled smoothly.  the oil pressure light stayed off.
 and huge clouds of white smoke billowed from the exhaust.

now i've heard enough stories to know this usually means coolant getting
burned due to a blown head gasket.  so i checked the coolant.  the
previous day when i had changed the oil, the coolant was halfway between
the min and max line, now it was just below the min line (in the
recovery tank).  i pulled the pressure cap off the expansion tank and
looked at that coolant--no sign of oil.  i drained all the oil and saw
no sign of coolant.

so all in all, it sounds a lot like a cleanly blown head gasket that is
letting me burn coolant without any coolant-oil mixing.  the one thing
that is confusing me is why my oil pressure light came on twice.

i'd like to drive down off the mountain to a warmer altitude where i
have a friend who could help me out and a more pleasant environment to
work in, but i'm afraid of doing more damage to my engine if the oil
pressure really is dropping  or if coolant gets into the oil.  i've
heard stories of people driving vanagons with blown head gaskets for
hundreds of miles, continuously adding coolant, but i never heard them
say anything about oil pressure issues, just white smoke and
dissapearing coolant.

do these symptoms sound consistant with a blown head gasket?  would it
be safe to drive a couple hundred miles to santa rosa to fix there or
should i try to get it fixed up here in the mountains?  any ideas why
the oil light came on?  could this be anything besides a blown head
gasket?  if i was burning oil, would the smoke still be white?  are
there any other tests that i can run without a compression tester?
 anyone in the south lake tahoe area want to help me fix this?  i've got
no problem paying for help, i just hate going to a mechanic because then
i don't get to be involved and learn anything.

thanks in advance for any advice!

Ben.