Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:27:03 -0400
Reply-To: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Don't cry for me Wasserboxer
In-Reply-To: <C51AB30A.307C%dave.arthur@nscc.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
When I got my 90 Carat Vanagon it had over 250k miles on it. The
original owner that sold it to me proudly proclaimed that it had never
had head gaskets replaced on the engine. When I asked how this was
possible he told me that he poured a small bottle of Bar's Leak into the
coolant bottle every year ever since the van was new. I then drove the
van another 50k miles (continuing the treatment) before I finally
couldn't take it any more and rebuilt the engine. It never did break
down on me I was just nervous about the engine having 300k miles on it
and the rod throwing problem that the 2.l1s can have after so many
miles. I have heard people discourage others from using Bar's Leak
because they say that it coats the inside of the radiator and can cause
problems that way. I am still using the original radiator in this van
and it has never had a problem shedding heat. Bar's Leak is a cheap
thing to do once a year and I think it is a good idea. The head gaskets
all start to seep after a few years. This is just normal waterboxer
nonsense that is part of the design. If you put in the Bar's Leak then
when this minor seeping starts, the Bar's Leak will stop it right away.
This keeps the seeping area from corroding and thereby accelerating the
head gasket failure due to corrosion building up at the bottom of the
head gasket area (I have seen this on every head gasket failure I have
worked on).
The other benefit is that the Bar's Leak product includes additives that
restore the corrosion inhibitor in your antifreeze. After a couple of
years this breaks down and allows the inside of your coolant system to
start to corrode. I have never seen a radiator fail because it was
full of Bar's Leak but every one I have ever replaced has been full of
rust. Every set of plastic pipes (the long ones that run under the van)
had died due to corrosion from inside the pipe (metal end rust and then
expand to break the pipe ends). The plastic pipes on my 90 had the
nicest ends I have ever seen. No rust whatsoever on them. I was going
to replace them but they were perfect on both ends so I didn't.
I have heard many speculations on the effects of Bar's Leak on a Vanagon
over the years. Here is one experiment that was on-going from day one
to about 2002 (over ten years). It proved to me that Bar's Leak is a
helpful product to use in a waterboxer to keep the coolant system in
good shape.
I know that Subaru (I think you might have heard of them) has a
"factory" fix for some of their waterboxers that looks to be essentially
a small bottle of a "Bar's Leak like substance" that you add to the
coolant system to repair leaks. Also I know that Alpha Romaeo had a
similar fix back in the 80s (a friend used to work at a local
dealership). My recommendation is to use the Bar's Leak product once a
year. When you get to 300k miles with no head gasket replacements drop
me a line.
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Dave Arthur wrote:
> I have a persistent drip between my RH cylinder head and block on my '86 2.1
> WBX. Tears of Glycol...
>
> Compression is good and no signs of head gasket failure ... Yet.
>
> I almost hate to ask, but what about a 'stop Leak' product or the like? Or
> is this sort of fix nix verboten?
>
> If the coolant gasket is leaking, is it inevitable that the cylinder seals
> will follow? Would a pre-emptive replacement of the head gaskets, coolant
> and compression stave off further problems?
>
> Advice welcome!
>
> Dave
>
>