Date:         Mon, 30 Mar 1998 18:35:45 -0800
Reply-To:     "Steven X. Schwenk" <sxs@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Steven X. Schwenk" <sxs@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Subject:      J.B. Weld Head Repair
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

With all of the talk about head gasket failure, I have a coup[le of
questions for those of you who have used JB Weld to fill in pitting on
the gasket surface of the heads:

How well has this worked for you.

Any indication the JB weld damages the gasket (due to uneven surface,
etc.).

How thick do you put it on and how do you get the sealing surface
perfectly flat and uniform?

It seems that with JB weld and a cheap gasket kit, you can do a
preventative fix on the heads for under $200 in parts...not a bad
option.  Tim Smith has shared his success stories with me regarding his
repairs to two sets of heads with 40,000 + miles and still holdinmg
fine, I believe.  I thought others would be interested plus I would like
to hear if anyone has had a bad experience with the repair.

Steve

Bill Collins wrote:

> The PO of my van replaced the head gaskets (for the first time) at
> about
> 120k miles and filled the pits in the heads with JB Weld.  At around
> 150k, he was catching the coolant in a cat litter pan and pouring it
> back
> in!  Then, one of the gaskets let loose (probably due to damage from
> the
> JB weld) and it lost most of its coolant.  When I got it, it didn't
> leak
> at all cold, but when it warmed up, wham, instant cloud of steam!  I
> replaced the heads with rebuilt ones from AVP and have driven it about
>
> 15k since, without a drip.
>
> As a comparison, my Isuzu has had two cracked heads in 130k miles.
> I'd
> take the waterboxer over the isuzu any day.
>
> Bill