Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2013 15:21:40 -0600
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Engine woes - what to do?
In-Reply-To: <1572445536.2329507.1387832970848.JavaMail.root@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
***FLAME ALERT***
Todd must be "doing it for the LULZ"
Google it.
: )
But seriously Todd, if your compression test reveals head problems AND your
engine is not burning oil between changes or leaking seriously, then just
change the heads or have yours rebuilt. If doing the work yourself, you
could get out for less than $500 and get at least another 100,000 miles out
of the car. Or, you could buy new heads and have somebody else do the work
and spend up to $2000 and get another 100,000 out of the car. Then you will
have plenty of time to look for a bargain, maybe ten years.
You will have a good chance to change lifter and water pump and the fussy
little hoses to the oil cooler that always pop, and for almost free.
The bottom ends almost never give up if treated OK.
Jim
On Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 3:09 PM, Todd Last <rubatoguy@comcast.net> wrote:
> After almost 230,00 miles my '88 Vanagon is displaying symptoms of a head
> leak - I have not yet confirmed this or done a recent compression test, but
> plan to do so. I have concluded that one of the worst things you can do to
> your van is not use it. Bad things happen when they are left sitting!
> In any case I am looking at my options, and started out thinking about
> replacing the heads, then thought if I was going to do that, I might as
> well put in new piston rings too, and well, once you do that you might as
> well go a step farther and do an engine rebuild. Of course, once you get
> there, the question becomes, stock, modified (like GoWesty) or engine
> swap. In looking at these options, it looks like a cost of $5,000 or more.
> From what I have seen, Subaru conversions can reach over $10K. Yikes!
>
> I was wondering if I could get opinions on the best course of action in
> this situation, not wanting to spend tens of thousands of dollars. Would
> list memebers give me their 2 cents worth and if possible, what the
> aproximate costs for the various solutions range from? I'm not sure if it
> makes more sence to just install new heads and hope for the best, or go
> full bore and swap the engine.
>
> What does the voice of experience say? Anyone out there have opinions on
> the GoWesty performance engines vs. a Subaru transplant?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd
> '88 Westy
>
>
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