Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 00:39:47 -0700
Reply-To: Nicholas Wilson <nwilson@MCN.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Nicholas Wilson <nwilson@MCN.ORG>
Subject: Re: Oil Leaks
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Craig Standley wrote that his '81 Vanagon has a bad oil leak from an
undetermined source near the oil cooler.
My '82 Westy had a moderately bad oil leak from one of the oil gallery
plugs in the case right behind where the oil filter bracket mounts. This
was a new AVP longblock, and they, or some shop before them, had welded
over the plugs to prevent leaks. However the weld did not quite bond at one
edge, and that's were the oil leak came from.
The cure was to put the rear of the van on drive-up ramps, then drop the
engine partly for better access, then pull the fan out of the housing. Once
that's done you have access to the innermost mounting nut for the oil
cooler and the nuts for the oil filter brackets. In my case I was able to
get at and mash/peen the weld enough to stop the leak, and AVP paid for my
time on warranty.
Craig, if you try this you may be able to find the leak. If it's the oil
cooler you can remove and replace it with the fan pulled. I don't think you
can pull the fan housing off without a lot more dissassembly of the engine
tin and mounting hardware than you want to get into. For one thing, your
exhaust system hangs off brackets bolted to the fan housing. Anyway it
isn't necessary to pull the fan housing to change the cooler. Your leak
could be the cooler itself, the cooler-to-crankcase rubber seals, the oil
filter to bracket seal, the oil filter bracket to crankcase gasket, the oil
pressure switch sending unit, the oil galley plugs I mentioned, and
probably much, much more, as they say in the ads.
I doubt the Bentley manual is out of print. I got a new one from AVP in May
when I bought my longblock.
*********original message*************
>Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 23:12:27 -0700
>From: Craig Standley <cstand@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
>Subject: Oil Leaks
>After changing the oil in my '81, I decided to take a good look with the
oil filter removed. It has a pretty bad oil leak, and I thought all this
time it was the pushrod tubes. It isn't, they're fine. It is leaking
pretty badly somewhere near the oil cooler, it's all covered. The rear of
teh engine is a mess, the front is dry. The valve covers are oozing a
bit, but even accounting for the spray from the cooling fan I doubt they
can be the sole source of all the oil.
>So, is an oil cooler leak an in-vehicle repair? Has anyone done this
lately? I had the fan shroud off my Bus one time, but the Vanagon has
MUCH less room back there. Will the shroud come off? I put in an order
for the Bently, but I understand it is out of print? Or maybe they were
just out and fed me that line.
>Thanks,
>Craig
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