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Date:         Sat, 15 Apr 95 13:54:51 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Head Gaskets

On Sat, 15 Apr 95 07:43:40 CDT Terry Tan said: > Pitting on the lips of the cylinder heads. It could not be the coolant > since most coolants today are already designed for aluminium heads. > Anyway not to take any chances always use the VW "autobahn" which > cost 3 times the regular coolant. Its a lot of vw crab but who knows. > I think its the sealant that VW uses that caused the corrosion. Most of > these stuff contains some kind of acetic acid which may attack the > aluminium. I just replaced the gaskets and have substituted the silicone

as regards all this aluminum-non-phosphate-coolant theme, from what i've found out: - REPLACE THE COOLANT regularly. every two years or sooner. every year would be better, but two years is ok. why? cause the coolant "wears out" ... the corrosion inhibitors in the coolant grow weaker over time, and will eventually NOT be able to prevent corrosion. once corrosion begins, if the coolant contains phosphates, the corrosion is accelerated. - USE PHOSPHATE-FREE coolant if you can afford it. it's not just vanagons and it's not just vw. mercedes, bmw, saab, and volvo also specify phosphate- free. so does toyota. a fellow i know who drives about 50,000 miles a year lost a toyota truck because he used Prestone ... which (in that many miles) dissolved his gaskets and the head leaked. he now changes the coolant every 10,000 miles.

why vw seems to say that the coolant is a "never-replace" item, i don't know ... it makes no sense to me. all water-cooled cars that i've ever known have needed to have the coolant replaced periodically. even tractors and trucks.

the problem with vanagons seems to be that once any corrosion ever starts, it gets out of hand very quickly. but then, so did that toyota truck! joel


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