Date:         Fri, 10 Jan 1997 02:10:53 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Tony Moore" <tony@moorelab.com>
Subject:      '86 idles rough with white smoke at start

Happy Friday!

I'm looking at an '86 Weekender GL that has these symptoms. After the van
has been sitting for a long period of time (> 10 hours), the van will idle
rough and spew white smoke from the tail pipe. After letting it idle a
couple minutes, it smooths out, the white smoke disappears, and the van
runs fine. The PO says it doesn't overheat and has been doing this for
about six months. She took it to VW dealer and they diagnosed it as leaky
head gaskets and quoted her $3000 (Yikes!). Anyway, now she's selling it
for a song. She's been driving it like this for 6 months and she says the
condition hasn't gotten worse and she keeps checking the coolant and has
only has to add very small amounts on 2-3 occasions, "a splash or so".

I haven't heard of this symptom for a head gasket leak before? Any ideas?

Also, I'll need to drive the van about 300 flat miles to get it home. Is
this ok as long as I keep checking the temp and coolant in both tanks?

BTW, this may lead to the sale of my trusty '83.5 wasserboxer weekender gl,
but that's another post...

Thanks!

tony