Date:         Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:39:40 -0400
Reply-To:     Ed Duntz <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ed Duntz <eduntz@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Head gasket, cracked head, or more?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

This is so depressing I almost couldn't bring myself to post it. I'm also posting in all three forums I routinely use to get the widest possible range of ideas. Apologies if you read it somewhere else.

I posted earlier in the week about finally getting my water pump in the 1.9. As the pump was on its way out, making noise, I made the mistake of continuing to drive it too long, and it may have seized up in its last few miles. As I later learned, the temperature gauge is not a good indicator of engine overheating if the water pump is seizing, as the coolant is not circulating, and the gauge is measuring the temp of the coolant at the t-stat housing, which could be considerably cooler than the hottest part of the engine. 

Anyway, regardless of my suspicions, the only way to see if there was any damage was to replace the water pump, get it running, and see how it went. As I posted in my other thread, a terrific guy I'd never met before spent an entire day helping get the water pump installed, with more than a few troubles. Now I see how it's running and it's not good.

I had installed a few bottles of the Subaru cooling system conditioner as a preventative measure "just in case" there was a slight head gasket issue or other slight leak. When I added coolant and started it up, I got a lot of foaming in the tank. I thought maybe it was the conditioner, but as I added more coolant, it didn't change, and I'm sure I didn't put too much in. I got it up to operation temp. I had lots of bubbles in the coolant tank, and when I opened the rad bleeder screw, it wasn't just air bubbles, it was like foam. 

I was also getting smoke out of the tailpipe- seemed like water and coolant, not oil burning. I also got quite a lot of droplets of water shooting right out of the tailpipe as it was running. 

When I first started it up, I could hear a little bit of hissing- I can't quite tell if it's from one of the flanges where the coolant crossover attaches, or the head gasket. 

Another symptom is that the oil pressure warning light took about 15 seconds to go out. I was hesitant to let the engine run, but I thought maybe I'd spilled coolant on the sender and it was grounding it. But I don't think so- it's pretty much out of the way, right? Each time I start it up, it takes ten to 15 seconds for the OP light to go out- had been normal before all this.

One last thing to mention is that before replacing the pump, I had been getting coolant backing up into the unpressurized tank, I was hoping it was the pressure cap, but it doesn't seem so now. '

Because I seem to be getting exhaust pressure in the coolant, and coolant in the exhaust pipe, I'm thinking at the least the internal head gasket o-rings, and worse a crack in the head. I'm also worried about the OP light.

I've got a few options- none of which I feel 100% confident doing myself, but would with a good helper. I realize some more testing is necessary to confirm the diagnosis, but if it is just the head gaskets, replacing them is one option. I also have another pretty complete 1.9 engine taken out of my previous Vanagon two years ago. It was getting up there in miles, probably around 180,000, but it might be easier for me to exchange engines rather than work on the one in there. The spare engine isn't perfect, but if the van hadn't been wrecked, I would have kept it going as is for several more years. I can't afford much right now in the way of putting money into it. 

Thoughts on this issue?

I'm going to go camping this weekend and try not to get too depressed over this. I'm using my "back-up" Vanagon, a 7-passenger from which I've removed the middle row seat and made a make-shift bed in. Since it doesn't have a z-bed, I fold the seat down, put a Westfalia and Wolfsburg mattress stacked in the back, then a mattress topper to bridge a gap, then a futon mattress on top of the whole thing, with two chests of poastic drawers under the last foot and a half to support the mattress. Hokey, time-consuming, but cheap and comfortable. 

Thanks for any advice,
Ed