Well, my son's '87 was losing about a pint of coolant every 500 miles, but I could not find a leak. Today I found it, and it's the right side water jacket seal. I pressurized the system to 15 psi and it drips one drip every five minutes or so.
This van is going to get a Subaru engine, but not right now, so what are my cheap fix options?
1. Barr's Stop Leak (just kidding, but I'm tempted) 2. Just drive it and keep topping it up. It's not a daily driver, summer only on a few trips, maybe 2000 miles a year. The difficulty with this is as the system cools down air is drawn in though the leak, and that limits the amount of coolant that can be pulled back in from the overflow bottle, so there is a bubble in the expansion tank. This requires the hatch be opened to top it off. Not a big deal, just a pain when the van is packed. 3. Replace the seal on this side only, providing the head is serviceable, which I doubt it is since it's likely corroded. I've heard of folks using JB Weld and sanding the head smooth, but I can't see that this is a viable option. 4. Replace the head with a new Go Westy AMC head. 5. Replace both heads with new GW AMC heads, and when he does the Subaru I buy this engine and put it in my '85. It's a strong runner with good compression, and only has 145k on it.
When my previous '84 was fixed under partial VW warranty they replaced both heads even though only one was leaking, and I got another 200k miles out of that engine with no leaks.
Thanks!
Stuart |
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