Date:         Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:27:33 -0700
Reply-To:     Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Sigh. Leaking head gasket = winter project
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

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