Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 08:35:21 -0700
Reply-To: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: gary hradek <hradek@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: vanagon Digest - 13 Oct 2005 (#2005-854)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Walter,
Many cars go many miles without problems. This
is not a car or a truck but a vanagon that is a bit
underpowered and if you have the camper package there
is a lot of stress placed on the engine. If you have
driven it in the mountains near the bay area in the
summer you perhaps have stressed it more than most.
I would tend to agree with you that 40k is too little
miles for the work that was done but it hard to know
what has happened to cause this event in your life.
Leaking heads is not a really big problem in these
vehicles unless they are not fixed. Continue to
drive with leaky heads will lead to head replacement
again. At this point you may get by with just a head
gasket done with the engine in the van. If this is a
camper I would spend the money but if it is just a
vanagon I would offer it up for sale on craigs list
for what you will get from CARB at the starting bid
and let the highest bidder get the van.
gary
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:32:10 -0700
From: walter bahm <wbahm@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Used Vanagon -second head gasket in 2 yrs.
Greetings,
Having followed the discussions in the background over
many years, I
have to seek your helpful advice. In the spirit of
Don Williams i too
have lived the ups and downs of our '86 Vanagon GL
with 170K+miles. Our
four little kids cannot think of anything more fun
than climbing
through the back of the van, or pulling out the rear
bench to play and sleep.
i've replaced the muffler, hammered out the rear
bumper yet again,
replaced the CV-joints (thanks BenT), replaced the
outside mirror (thanks
list), replaced the ignition switch..the reverse
switch...the fan
switch..ignition wires, etc. The thing that now has me
stumped is the head
gasket. Two and one-half years ago we had a local
shop in Berkeley
replace the head gasket and followed the mechanic's
advice and had new
intake heads and more installed. Less than 40k miles
later we again have a
head gasket leak; again the passenger side. The local
shop is not
inclined to be of much help in doing the work again,
which leaves me to
wonder:
1. is it wise to try to get the head gasket replaced
again ?
2. who in the S.F.Bay area is recommended ?
3. at $4k+ a conversion does not fit the budget, but
maybe another
engine ?; or
4. sell the van to CARB for the $650 and buy a
minivan ?
Are there any enterprising mechanics that want to take
a stab at this
problem ? My knowledge is too limited to dare tear
apart the engine
within the limited off-street paking available to me.
Your comments are appreciated.
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