Date: Thu, 9 May 2013 13:44:41 -0700
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: coolant overflow fears and thoughts
In-Reply-To: <074101ce4cdb$15636f70$402a4e50$@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Replacing head gaskets and doing a basic valve job is 'Normal Service'
on waterboxer vanagons.
I advise do the head gaskets every 8 year/80,000 miles.
There is danger in leaving it like it is due to corrosion and the damage
it can cause.
If ever there was an engine with a joke head gasket system, anda
converted air-cooled design to boot ...
it's the waterboxer.
Sure sometimes people get 200K+ miles out of them without ever removing
the heads.
It's far more normal to do them like the above #'s.
it's good to take out the valves, check them. I almost always find 2.1
exhuast valves leaking a little..
on AMC heads..the original exhuast vavles are pretty junky and should be
replaced with new high quailty ones.
if anyone needs a good 1.9 wbxr head or two, I may have as many as 10 of
those.
and it's not that hard to do the heads in place with engine in the van.
lower the back of the engine down of course. And if the exhaust has
been on there for years and is rusted likeso many of them are...that
part of the job can be pretty intense.
'usually' one doesn't need to go into the bottom end of 1.9's . Just do
the head gaskets, valve job, getthe exhasut allright n' tight and
painted with high temp paint ..fix all the busted stuff everywhere..
then work on the tune of it until it's really right. I don't mean cap
and rotor either.
Many vans are running that aren't running right at all really.
have fun !
On 5/9/2013 10:31 AM, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
> Face it, it's already bad. Procrastination could leave you with nothing to
> rebuild or even use as a core to trade in. Park it or fix it, those are
> your only good choices. BTDT.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Stuart
> '85 Westy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Tom Carchrae
> Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 10:08 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: coolant overflow fears and thoughts
>
> Thanks Larry!
>
> Sadly, when I checked my van the other day after going up a somewhat serious
> hill and I saw some small amount of bubbling in the tank behind the license
> plate when it was idling - so I suspect there are combustion
> gasses coming through. :/ I'd like to do the sniffer test again. Is
> there any chance this could be coming from anything natural - eg, like
> steam/water vapour from the coolant? Engine was probably on for about
> 15 minutes in total - warm enough to get up to full operating temperature,
> but not for any length of time.
>
> I'm torn on what to do. I really don't have the time on my hands to do a
> full engine removal and disassembly ala
> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=286798 - so do I keep
> driving it gently with this knowledge and wait until it gets so bad the
> engine overheats?... I suspect it'll get worse over time and force me
> to fix it.
>
> Tom
>
