Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:45:05 -0800
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: Folllow-up on head gasket question
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hi,
I recently took a waterboxer engine apart that someone had put a significant
amount of bars leak in, to get the van, which was leaking badly, a few
hundred miles to my shop. It 'worked' - it got them here, but , when I got
the heads off there was about a half inch of 'bars leak mud' in laying
around the cylinders. So I sure wouldn't put that much in.
It is a good product, but .......it's almost the only stop leak I will
ever use, but it's best for very small leaks. For 'real leaks' it's more of
an emergency keep-you-moving thing, and it works well for that, but it's not
really very good for the cooling system in general to use two bottles, say.
'Back in the day' it was common for the oil turn to milky from coolant in it
with a blown head gasket. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore somehow.
I see many headgasket situations on vanagons , like a dozen a year - the oil
is almost never milky.
If you can, remove the push rod covers on the underside of your engine. You
usually have to mess with often rusted/stuck exhaust nuts or bolts to get
the covers off, but they you can very nicely see the rubber outer gasket on
the underside of the head and see how soft and mushy they get, and often see
coolant leaking there. It really is a joke gasket system, and those rubber
outer gaskets get soft and mushy, they pinch and split if they gap there is
too small, and they just deteriorate.
I wish they came in Viton or whatever or silicone - yeah ! Those would
last I bet. ( silicone hose is 'the material' for high temp turbo air, and
cooling system applications. It costs 4 times more than regular rubber, but
it's 'the way' for very-challenged hose installations. ) I consider the
normal life of the stock black rubber outer gaskets to be about 8 years.
Some people get 15 years out of them sometimes though.
But see if you can get those push rod covers off, then you can get a good
look at the bottom of the head, where it usually leaks if it's the rubber
head gasket leaking.
btw.....there are other head gasket failure modes ( besides external
leaking ) - mainly two :
One, coolant just disappears, usually getting burned in the combustion
chamber and going out the tail pipe. White smoke or a sweet smell is the
sign.
two - exhaust gases get into the cooling system. The exhaust displaces the
coolant in the engine fairly easily- when this is happening it looks like
'it unbleeds itself' and also ......."hot engine, stone cold radiator", and
it's not the thermostat.
Hey, it's a fun rewarding job to do the repair !
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "C. Chris Snyder" <ccsvanagon@WMCONNECT.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 10:19 PM
Subject: Folllow-up on head gasket question
I was wondering if the leak from one or both head gaskets on my 1987 is
where my water leak is that in my experience their is water in the oil which
to my necked eye I do not have the milky oil looking stuff. does this in
anyway rule out it coming from the gasket? It seems to be leaking straight
down almost from the center of the engine from the top.
If I put Bars anti leak in with it being a lot bigger cooling system then
most cars, should I use 2 bottles or what?
Thank again for your wisdom.
Chris
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