Date: Sat, 3 Jul 1999 11:17:17 -0700
Reply-To: Steven Johnson <sjohnso@JPS.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Steven Johnson <sjohnso@JPS.NET>
Subject: Head Gasket Leak Time....
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi All,
Well, after 130,828K miles it's finally happened. The dreaded head gasket
leak
has reared it's ugly, ahem, head. At the beginning of this week, I noticed
that
the coolant recovery tank was dropping at a quicker than normal rate than I
had
noticed before. I had to get some distilled water as I didn't have any
readily
available to me on Monday morning. So I drove over to Lucky's market and
grabbed
a gallon along with a quart size measuring bottle and added the needed coolant
right there in the parking lot. I new that I had to track down this
problem, but
that it would have to wait till the weekend of the 4th. So this morning I
went
out to the garage and emptied out the rear of the van so that could have a
look
see at the engine compartment and hoped that I would find a minor, easily
fixable
sight. Nothing doing. So I slide under and have a look at the passenger
head.
Whoa! Nothing like being obvious as hell. You can see the coolant oozed all
over the bottom section of head. Well, that just sets it right there. I
made
the appropriate obsenities to fit the occasion. I knew that fortune cookie
that
said, "Your luck is about to change" was not a good omen. Well, at least I
haven't
lost my job... (knock on wood). Some of you know that I just got back from a
trip around the U.S. (6,275 miles) and I'm mighty proud and happy that my
van did
that for me with no major hassle. So I'm not unhappy with the van for
deciding to
start leaking the heads at home. (THANK OH MIGHTY VANAGON GODS!)
I know from past experience that I'm not good about keeping my head when
auto disaster strikes so I went back into the house to calm down and think
about
what I gotta do (and to take time to write up this post.) First, I need to
dig up
the paperwork someone sent me on how to do the gasket fix right. I'll also
dig
through past saved posts about it. Maybe find some web sites that show ya
how to
do it right too. I'll have to locate a machine shop to check the heads out
and have
the mating surfaces ceramic coated. Always liked that idea a bit better
than the JB
Weld trick.
Anyway, I know that I have to take the engine out. And it will be the
engine only
as the logistics of my garage are such that I cannot jack the van up in the
garage
as the ceiling is too low. And I do intend to keep the work in the garage
as the
heat in the valley has been way too high lately except for this weekend.
Yeah,
I hear some of you out there saying I could have this done in a weekend or
less.
Well that may be so if all I were doing was just the head gaskets. Well hold
on there mister fixer-upper-faster-than-a-dealer-mechanics 20 point
inspection.
I intend to do a few other maintenance things while the engines out and I
don't
want to be in such a hurry that it becomes a rush job that I'll have to fix a
short time later. And I AIN'T paying nobody else to do it for me. No way!
I know I'm going to replace the clutch as I tend to unintentionally abuse
mine.
Yes, I did take mine down Lombard Street in S.F. Probably, no definately
will
change the T.O. bearing. Probably a good time to replace all of the
coolant and
fuel hoses... (Cha-Ching! Oh-no!) Somebody's going to make some bread
outta this....
Probably change the water pump, the thermostat. So which were the better
clamps to
use?? Yikes! This is gettin' expensive.
Did I mention - NO WAY I'm paying someone else to do this?
I'm sure I'll find other things to replace as I go along (Cha-Ching!). But if
any of you have other suggestions, please let me know... Also, any of you in
the Sacramento area want to see part or all of this process, you are welcome
to come by and see a crazy man at work...
I don't know if I'll have the engine out this weekend or not. I want to think
about and write down the strategy before I do anything. It won't hurt it to
drive it another week this way (will it?). I just want to do it all right.
Thanks for reading my drivel...
Steven Johnson
Sacramento, CA
sjohnso@jps.net
