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Date:         Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:31:32 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         James Cook <jcook@netcom.com>
Subject:      85 Vanagon:Replace Engine After Burn?

Second Attempted Post

Ouch...

Melted fuel lines, burned cylinders, warped and cracked heads! ==============================================================

I'm hoping for some general advice regarding my 1985 Vanagon with 160,000 miles on her.

While driving back over the mountain pass at Grapvine north of Los Angeles last week, the water pump and belt appear to have gone, causing an severe overheating problem. Due to traffic and road construction conditions, I didn't pull over for more than five minutes until I reached bottom. Oxygen light and battery light came on. Heat went off in van. Temp guage slammed to the top. By the time I got out, smoke and steam was billowing out of the rear like a house fire.

When I opened it up, it looked mostly like pluming steam, though I smelled burning stuff similar to rubber. It took about five minutes just to be able to see the engine through the clouds.

Van was towed to a Bakersfield VW dealership. They have dismantled it, and just reported their advice that it needs a new engine. They feel rebuilding isn't worthwhile because the cylinder heads are blued from the heat, has a crcked head and a warped head. The fuel lines apparently melted at some point, so there are a variety of parts it would need. They quote something like $2,800 for the engine plus mix. stuff bringing it up to about $4,000. Also, brake master cylinder seems to be going. So I'm looking at something like $5,000 to bring this 11 year old, 160,000 mile vehicle back into its condition before this event.

Question is, is it worth it? I'm wondering how much more expense I might expect to see go out if the engine and water pump are replaced? Surely $5,000 is less than a new or newish second hand one. But then I hate to throw good money after bad. And I wonder how bad it might be according to others with vans of this vintage and condition?

All advice quite welcome, including approaches to solving this particular problem, engine sources/options, etc.

Thanks very much in advance.

James Cook San Francisco Bay Area California


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