Good morning folks, I'll try to keep a long story short here. Brought my 88 GL to a local audi/vw place for some front end work, having heard good things about them from a sychro owner, and asked them to do a compression/leakdown test as well for good measure. Today, they come back with a pretty heavy laundry list, the most troubling being leaky head gaskets both sides. Now, I'd known of a leak since the cold snap this winter and had been keeping an eye on it- probably topping off the refill tank every ten days or so. No overheating, boiling over, or coolant in the exhaust, I had yet to trace the coolant loss to a specific source, though by smell I know the rear heater core is bad. Now, by his estimation, there's no point in doing a compression test on a 2.1 with leaky heads: if the heads leak coolant, your numbers will be shot anyway. True or false? Not to make it more complicated but here's more info if you'd like: -had a compression/ leakdown test back in August, reasonable values with some weakness on Cyl. #1, probably rings. -approximately 140k on original engine, heads re-sealed at 80k by PO -the mechanic says, though a independent VW/Audi place, he "doesn't do work on these engines". This in itself is confusing, compounded by his offer to sell me a later model/lower mileage Vanagon. I truly wish he hadn't said that, it makes me doubt everything he's said. So, once again, I turn to the list. TIA -Matt Sutton 88 GL NYC |
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