Date:         Wed, 23 Nov 94 13:07:24 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David.Kao@Eng.Sun.COM (David Kao)
Subject:      Re: 83 westy overheating

I believe my 83 westy has got the vanagon overheating syndrome which was said
to be common among early watercooled vanagons. An indication of this syndrome
is that coolant in the cooling system got expelled out back to the reserve 
tank. The cooling system is slowly filled with air and eventually the
coolant sensor in the pressure tank detects low coolant. The temp gauge will
run to the extreme right and the LED will blink, crying bloody muder.

It was said that the problem was because of the poor quality of the head 
gaskets used on early watrecooled vanagons. My 83 westy has this problem
and also suffers from relatively low power compare to my healthy 84 vanagon.
My westy is too young, 60k miles, to suffer from this syndrome.

I am considering to fix this problem by replacing the head gaskets. I also
got an impression that these gaskets are very expensive, something like
around $1500. I looked at my Bentley book and I saw only sealing rings 
between heads and cylinders. There is another seal surrounging each heads to
seal off coolant from leaking to outside of engine. I can't see why these
sealing stuff could cost me up to $1500. 

I am also considering to tighten all head bolts to see if it can cure it.
Is this a good idea?

Did anyone have any experience fixing this syndrome? Any info is very much 
appreciated.

David K.