Date:         Thu, 06 Apr 95 22:32:43 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Wasserboxer Heads..

On Thu, 6 Apr 95 19:23:02 CDT Harry Yates said:
>Hi everyone.  With all the recent talk about these heads leaking,
>etc, does anybody know if this was for all years?  A friend of mine
>who had this happen to him on his '88 was told that after a
>production date of October, 1988 the problem was fixed.  Is this
>true?  Or is ANY watercooled Vanagon a possible target right through
>to 1991 models?

as i understand it, ALL water-cooled engines in the 1983-1991 vanagons
(flat-four, gasoline) are subject to the head gasket leaks IF the head bolts
were not torqued correctly (a recall on some years, i think) and/or the
"correct" coolant is not used (or the old coolant is not replaced).

i thought that i had seen a tech bulletin about changing part numbers on
the head gasket, but i just looked at a 1986-1991 fiche and a 1980-1985
fiche and the part number is the same. HOWEVER, a curiosity arises: in the
1986-1991 fiche, the gasket is listed and notes that a sealant should also
be used. this sealant is also specified in the Head Gasket Replacement
Procedure in the tech bulletins and elsewhere.

ok. so what's funny about that? well, the 1980-1985 fiche does NOT have the
sealant noted. it's not even listed. ??? why would the 2.1 liter engine need
the head gasket sealant, but the 1.9 liter engine would not??

that's all the  "facts" that i can find in print. what seems to me to be a
key factor in all these head gasket leaks is the choice of coolant and the
age of the coolant: old coolant (according to books and coolant people)
gets weak and cannot fight corrosion. and the older it is, the weaker it is.

joel