Date:         Mon, 9 Nov 1998 11:50:14 -0500
Reply-To:     Mark Gajewski <mgajewski@MANVILLERUBBER.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Gajewski <mgajewski@MANVILLERUBBER.COM>
Subject:      passed up an '86
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I went to look at an '86 Westy on Sunday.  Actually I think it was a
weekender with pop top (and bed up there) but frige/sink/stove looked
like aftermarket add ons, not westy originals.  Stove and fridge were
behind passenger seat (so seat couldn't rotate, although is has the
rotating feature) Sink was behind driver's seat and blocked the rear
sliding window. Has anyone ever seen/heard of this?
Anyway, it was in quite nice shape, but left cylinder bank has white
"scale" all along the bottom edge of the water jacket right along the
edge of the valve cover.  Also, inside engine compartment there was a
coating of the white "scale" all over the front left side of the
compartment, almost looked like it got sprayed there.  Anyway, owner
told me he was losing coolant for a while but couldn't tell from where
and just kept topping up the level (every few thousand miles he said).
Then he put stop leak in and no more losing coolant.  He got it pressure
tested by a mechanic who told him he had a very small leak probably in a
hose somewhere.

Anyway, he was asking $8000 and I told him I was passing unless he could
go way down figuring I would be in for an immediate Head job.  He
refused my offer and told me he paid $9000 10k ago and that he believed
the van is in great shape (136K, good shape I'd say).  He said Blue book
is $9000 which sounds high to me.

My question:  did I do the right thing?  Does this sound like bad head
gaskets/pitted heads or at least the early onset of?  What do you think
a weekender outfitted to an aftermarket camper set up should fetch
(136K, body decent w/some dents one bondo patch over rear wheel)?
What's a reasonable deduction for heads on a motor with this mileage (I
figured $2K)?  I'm hoping a nicer specimen comes along in my area (NE)

Mark