Date:         Sun, 23 May 1999 12:06:54 -0500
Reply-To:     "Keese, Brian W" <bkeese@INDIANA.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Keese, Brian W" <bkeese@INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      Water in the exhaust
Content-Type: text/plain

Hi all,
I am new to this list and am already very impressed.
I have just bought an 84 Westfalia.  It is beautiful and I love it, but I am
concerned.  It is loosing coolant:  in 100 miles it drained the overflow
tank and part of the expansion tank.  I smelled the coolant smell when I
turned on the heater and soon found the puddle by the rear heat exchanger.
BARSleak seemed to fix that problem.  The water level stayed the same for a
couple of days, but now it has started to go down again.  I haven't had a
chance to see if the heater core is leaking again, mostly because I fear
that my real problem is more severe.  There is a lot of water in the
exhaust.  At times it comes splashing out of the tailpipe.  At first I
thought, "Oh it's just water, a natural part of the combustion process."
But I think it is too much.  I have read about the head gasket problem and
am afraid that coolant is getting into a combustion chamber around one of
the o-rings.  Any advice out there?  Or is this a definite candidate for a
head gasket and/or possible head repacement?  I really don't want to tear
the engine apart if there is some quicker or easier fix.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Brian Keese
New 84 Westy owner
bkeese@indiana.edu