Date:         Wed, 04 Jun 1997 10:54:39 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Mark A. Rokus" <marokus@voyager.net>
Subject:      Waterboxer head repair

Janet J. Fredericks wrote:
> 
> I live on Cape Cod and my heads are trashed and
> would like to replace them.  Any good, used heads
> for a 1987 2.1L Vanagon GL?  Thanks 8(

*** KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME,  NOBODY WILL BELIEVE YOU ANYWAY ***

If I hadn't done this myself I would be suspicious.  Everybody seems to
have this problem and I can't believe I'm the only person to try this!

Maybe this will spark some discussion. 

Short story:
	When I bought my first Waterboxer it had 109k on it and had the common
HEAD SEAL WEEP.  Having worked on more "normal" VW's than a sane man
should admit to, I thought " how bad could it be?" After quering my
normal list of references when I get in over my head, I came up blank,
"...nobody does those...too expensive... never tried... etc".  
	After I started to breath again after asking the price of replacement
heads, I started to ponder.... Milling the heads to get arid of the
.030" pits wasn't going to work unless I wanted to always run racing
fuels.   Hmmmm..  water cooled heads can only get so hot.  After calls
to different epoxy manufactures, "J.B. weld" techincal people told me
that their product should withstand 500 degrees.  It was the highest
that I could find so I purchased some and went to work.

	First, I masked of the combustion chamber with tape to minimize damage
during the next step.
	Next, I sandblasted the water seal area enough to remove any corrosion
in the pits there.
	After the area was back to aluminium, I cleaned it very well with
solvent.
	I applied the J.B. Weld (epoxy) to all of the areas that needed
building up and let it completely cure.
	I rough down the epoxy by hand with a file until I was starting to get
close to the original surface. After I was close, I used sandpaper on a
flat surface (a piece of glass will do if you are careful) to get a
consistant height on the epoxy with the original aluminum surface.  
	The valve work should be probably be done before this so as not to mess
it up with rough handling, but I did mine after and just made sure I was
careful. 
	Assembly of the motor was with the sealants that came with the gasket
set ($200.00.... GASP!!!) and I just made sure I used plenty so as to
form a good seal.

The motor has now 89,000 more miles on it and it still is holding fine.

P.S.  Just to test my work, a month after the motor was together, an
un-named person accidentally over-revved the motor and I got the chance
to tear it back down to replace 4 slightly bent exhaust valves.  Because
of the cost of the gasket set I reused the same ones and they are still
doing the job.

Interesting side note:  When I rebuilt it @ 109k, the crank measured
EXACTLY the stock size.  Nitrided journals????  Impressed me!

Hope this gives some of you longing for the old days some encouragement
as to the ability to still be creative in your repairs... No I haven't
resorted to any bailing wire yet!!!

Good luck

Mark
'84 GL
'81 Westy
'82 Diesel Rabbit
'73 Ghia 
Those are the ones I'll admit to...