Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 16:23:06 -0700
Reply-To: Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
Subject: Re: Sigh. Leaking head gasket = winter project
In-Reply-To: <41704ED5.40003@adelphia.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Charlies Foreign Car??? Are those guys still in business?
Way back, when I was just a pup, I turned wrenches at Harvey's Automotive in
Leucadia (now called La Costa Auto Repair) and Charlies was our main
competition for the coastal north county VW business.
Many an angry customer came to our shop with horror stories of how Charlies
had screwed them. I even had a few bad experiences with them when I called
about the history of a new customer's car. Figured they would've gone under
by now.
Too funny, it's a small world...
Cheers,
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Rocket J Squirrel
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 3:28 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Sigh. Leaking head gasket = winter project
I am a /little/ ticked off. Before my lovely wife and I agreed to buy
this '84 1.9L Westy I paid the FLAPS (Charlies Foreign Car, Encinitas,
CA) to give the car the once-over to look for problems, esp. the
infamous leaking head gasket syndrome. No problem found, they said.
Well, 1,000 miles later and I got blue (or green, no sense starting THAT
debate again) drips under the right hand head. Despite the fact that I
could not get the right hand bottom cover off the engine (E. Zeno is
right: a good quality box wrench can be squoozed onto the right hand
front lower exhaust flange bolt head, where my cheap-o Made In Honduras
one will not) I could peer through the openings sufficiently to see that
the rubber gasket is all goopy with blue (or green) coolant.
Darn that FLAPS. Yes, I should-a looked myself. Why didn't I? Because I
am new to auto mechanics, my total experience to date comes only from
pulling and rebuilding the engine on the Wonderbus. NO experience with
waterboxers. So -- live and, as they say, learn.
Looks like Mellow Yellow has presented me with a winter project. I was
planning to cover it until next camping season, starting it once a week
or so to keep the juices flowing. Looks like I'll be pulling the engine,
also. I hope the damage is not so bad that I can't use the exciting and
famous JB Weld fix!
Jeepers there are a lot of hoses!
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westphalia: "Mellow Yellow (The Electrical Banana)"
KG6RCR