Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 19:27:21 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Please advise: great trip but engine melt down
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The cooling system low pressure warning buzzer is a great idea.
( Re nit watching the gauges in a vanagon while driving.............. in
aircraft you do a 'regular scan' ..........in cars it goes like this :
Look as far down the road as you can,
look all around right in front and to the front sides of you,
look in the rear view and see what's there,
look at the speedometer,
then check gauges for fuel and coolant, and for warning lights.
repeat.
You just keep doing that as a regular scan of your situation outside, and
your instruments warning lights. Over and over and over.
For a really bad Overheat with blown head gaskets.........
bit of a toss up ...........
you can do the heads - I suggest valve job too, plus gaskets, then put
those on, put it all together, and fire it up, and see whatja got.
You might find knocking or smoking, though I don't think a waterboxer would
be too prone in that direction, generally.
or ..........you can go through the engine completely,
or you can buy a rebuilt long black. The last one, assuming a quality
rebuild, is probably the most gain 'for sure' ........the most expensive of
course, but it should handle it for sure.
Or good used engine of course ...........assuming you can find a pretty good
one.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Arnott" <jr.arnott@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2008 7:02 PM
Subject: Fwd: Please advise: great trip but engine melt down
> Received in the Administrator's account (probably because I've been
> camping with WetWesties @ Leavenworth and didn't approve his
> subscription request until about 2 minutes ago.):
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Calwolfie@aol.com
>> Date: October 3, 2008 6:39:50 PM PDT
>> To: vanagon-request@gerry.vanagon.com
>> Subject: Please advise: great trip but engine melt down
>>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> We live in So. Calif. The summer before last, my wife got accepted
>> to a 2 week seminar at Columbia University. So, she flew ahead and
>> I later loaded the kids into our 87' westy and drove 4 straight
>> days to meet her at the end of the seminar. It was a brutal drive
>> east as I was the only driver/navigator/cook, etc. We did have
>> Harry Potter on CD to help keep the mental peace. It was a true
>> relief to find my wife after 4000 mile of driving. We had a great
>> time exploring NYC. We even ran into the Dalai Lama at the foot of
>> the Statute of Liberty. He is short in person and wears chiffon
>> colored new balance running shoes. After a couple of days in NYC,
>> we meandered down through D.C., Amish country, Shenandoah Valley,
>> then west to relatives in MO. The trip was great until we were
>> passing Gallup, NM. Apparently, the water pump failed, leaking all
>> the coolant. The WP shaft/bearings were blown out. My wife was
>> driving and didn't notice anything until the oil pressure warning
>> buzzer came on. I guess when you are used to driving a Honda, you
>> get use to not looking at gages. We pulled over to the side of the
>> highway with steam blowing out so heavy that for a minute I thought
>> the engine was on fire. We had the van towed into town. There are
>> no VW shops in Gallup! This is truck country. I was able to order
>> a WP and get it the next AM. I installed it in the hope we would be
>> able to drive home. By noon I had it in, poured in some water, no
>> joy. Leaked at both heads. Rented the last U-haul flat trailer
>> and truck in town and towed the van 600 miles back to home. Not
>> the best thing to happen on a vacation but at least it happened on
>> the tail end and we had AAA plus insurance that covered the cost of
>> getting the van home. So now, the question, what must I do with
>> the engine? Replace the head seals or full re-build? It had 124K
>> miles. Would extreme heat damage the rings, bearings, case, rods?
>> If I re-build, is there any special items to inspect due to the
>> heat? Any ideas for avoiding this in future? A coolant low
>> pressure warning buzzer? I've been putting off dealing with this
>> but we miss having the van for camping. I'll have to say, the kids
>> will never forget that trip ;) I did check the van out for the
>> trip and every morning. But I didn't see it coming. Thanks for
>> advice, Kevin in Riverside
>>
>>
>>
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