Date:         Tue, 31 Mar 1998 10:52:17 -0800
Reply-To:     "Steven X. Schwenk" <sxs@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Steven X. Schwenk" <sxs@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Subject:      Re: J.B. Weld Head Repair
Comments: To: KENWILFY <KENWILFY@aol.com>, vanagon List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Ken:

I primarily use my van for traveling/exploring.  If I'm driving it,
chanes are I'm far from home...and sometimes miles up a dirt road and
hours from a tow truck...if they'll even come in.  If there's an 80%
chance that my gaskets are going to fail soon (I have 94k miles)...and
could leave me stranded if they fail catastrophically, then it makes
sense for me to do a pre-emptive repair, especially when it would cost
far, far less than would a repair job on the road...and i would have
control over when it gets done.  Not only that, piece of mind has vaule
for me.  It seems i could do the job for well under $500 (including
having the valves lapped, etc.) and in two Saturdays' worth of work.

Some questions remain, though.  (1) What is the probability that my
gaskets will fail...now that I have made it to 94k mi. with no leaks;
(2) How soon are they likely to fail; (3) Will a preemptive repair using
JB weld and new gaskets last as long as rebuilt heads?

With info from the current survey, I should be able to answer these
questions
much more accurately than I can now...

steve


KENWILFY wrote:

> I would not do this or any other thing to the heads as "preventive
> maintenance".  My motto is the old "If it aint broke don't fix it!"
> Yes I do
> other PM stuff like oil, filters, tune-ups, etc. but with the heads;
> if
> they're not leaking why rip them apart?
> They will probably leak soon enough or you could be one of the few
> that gets
> 200k miles before having problems.  When they leak then you can worry
> about
> repairing them.
> Thats my 2 cents.
> Ken Wilford
> John 3:16
> PS God forbid that you should spend time and money fixing non-leaking
> heads
> only to have the problem crop up in another 20k miles 'cause the JB
> weld ate
> your gaskets.