Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 20:33:02 -0700
Reply-To: Richard Dunsheath <"rdunsheath~"@AKAMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Richard Dunsheath <"rdunsheath~"@AKAMAIL.COM>
Organization: **
Subject: Leaking Heads - Boston Engine?
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Well, I just went out to check the mail, and noticed a
nice little blue river flowing from the underside of my
van (80K). It's been a week or so since I drove it last.
I am about 95% sure it is the heads... I haven't even
driven the thing 6k since I bought it (from the dealer)...
I am going to cry now.
Mark,
Welcome to the club.
That 87 maroon Vanagon you sold me last summer didn't go
6,000 miles before it started puking coolant out the
expansion tank from compression gasses getting past the
little green o-ring and displacing coolant. Couldn't
drive the van, but it never leaked a drop from the heads.
I let the van sit for months while I drove my old blue
air-cooled van until this September when I had enough time
to do the heads. I followed the write up on the Boston
Engine page but I bought the gasket kit and rebuilt AVP
heads from Ron at the deepo. As long as I was messing
with the engine. I went ahead and replaced the water pump
and thermostat, both also from the Bus Depot. Make sure
you buy a new o-ring if you buy a new thermostat. The
water pump comes this a nice new big o-ring and also a
small o-ring for the flange that bolts up to the water
pump, but the thermostat doesn't have a new o-ring in the
box. Messing with o-rings (trying to use the old one,
putting in an o-ring that wasn't the right size, and
trying to use make a gasket stuff instead of the correct
o-ring) gave me the most grief of the whole job. When I
finally got the right o-ring and buttoned the housing up,
it was no sweat. I put in the 80 C thermostat to see if I
couldn't keep the temps down a little since it gets hot
down here in Texas.
I didn't use the yellow sealant stuff from VW to seal the
nuts like you are supposed to use, but I did find out why
you are supposed to use the yellow stuff. I was told by a
kind soul from the list that the yellow stuff stays tacky
so that you can retorque the nuts later without breaking
the seal. With the stuff I used, the nuts won't leak as
long as you leave them alone, but you cannot retorque.
Another tip that I got from the same list guru, was to
make sure you thoroughly clean the surface where the thin
green o-ring fits and to use a little silicone grease on
the green o-rings to help prevent the o-ring from being
abraded when the heads are fitted over the jugs. Makes a
lot of sense to me and I wish I had known about that tip
before I sealed up the heads.
Boston Bob recommends using JB Weld to fill in and build
up the engine sealing surface, but I found that Marine
Epoxy Putty worked great and it has the added benefit of
not being runny. Since you are leaving the engine in the
van, the surface is vertical and the thought of working
with JB Weld on a vertical surface was not appealing to
me.
Have fun, it's not very hard and you learn a lot about the
engine in the process. If you do it yourself, you know
that it was done right and you will save a shit pot of
money.
I have the orange Prestone coolant, a K&N air filter, and
the Ron's tune up kit in the Van and now it runs strong.
I was a little intimidated by Boston Bob's discussion
about taking the exhaust system apart, so I started about
a week before removing the system by spraying the nuts
with Marvel Mystery Penetrating Oil. Worked great!!
When it came time to pull the exhaust system off, the nuts
came off surprisingly easy. I bought a set of brass
exhaust nuts from CB Performance and replaced all the
bolts with stainless steel nuts, washers, and bolts. For
the studs, I just used the brass nuts and plenty of
anti-seize. If I ever have to pull the exhaust system off
again, it should be easy. Bob is right, you do need to
buy the two extra exhaust gaskets. I ordered the extra
gaskets from the dealer up here, but it took them so long
to get them in that I went ahead and re-used a couple of
old gaskets that weren't in too bad of shape. They are
not leaking now anyway, and if they do leak, I have their
replacements in hand.
--
Regards,
Rich Dunsheath
***************************************
Phn (409) 823-1692
Fax (409) 845-3419
512 Avondale Ave.
Bryan, TX 77802
rdunsheath@akamail.com
