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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
Comments: To: Dave Arthur <dave.arthur@NSCC.CA>
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 > >


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