Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 12:54:36 -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: Oil in Coolant
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yes...
my first thought was to head gaskets/heads.
'oil cooler seal' won't do it ...but failed internally oil cooler will..
either the engine one, or if auto trans ..the one for the auto trans.
either can be bypassed as a test btw ....undo and plug the coolant hoses
going to them.
then no coolant can get into the oil through the heat exchanger/oil cooler.
I am a little surprised that apparently that is not readily apparent to some
vanagon owners....
you don't need that function to be able to run ....or to run it that way as
a test.
a million VW opposed four engines have been overheated of course..
5 million probably, lol......both air-cooled and wbxr.
it does stress out the head studs/nuts/head sealing for sure when that
happens.
just consider your choices..
Run it as is..... ..not a very good choice at all.
Do testing on oil coolers.....not that hard to do, might gain some.
Remove heads, even one at a time engine-in-van ....check out and repair all
that.
Rebuild the engine ...hoping to avoid that.
so that looks to me like #'s 2 and 3 are what to do next.
I have a particular affinity for Taos ..been there countless times.
I just love it like crazy around there.
hey ...the shop I am in will have to end eventually ..find me a
not-too-small cozy easily heated inexpensive shop down there .....etc.
The Land of Enchantment, indeed.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Finn Runyon" <finnrunyon@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 9:23 AM
Subject: Oil in Coolant
> So several kind people have suggested that the oil in the coolant which I
> am told from the previous owner was the result of the coolant junction
> behind the right rear wheel blowing apart, and that the engine overheated,
> might be as simple as the oil cooler and or seal failure. I would love to
> think it was this simple, but fear for the worst. Obviously if it
> severely
> overheated it would not run. It starts right up, seems to have normal
> power, but because of my fear that something more serious is wrong, I have
> not run it much beyond getting it on a trailer to tow it to my home. It
> idles a bit rough until it warms up. Would warped or damaged heads cause
> the oil/coolant issue?
>
> Thanks!
> Finn
> 87 and 89 Westys
