Date:         Fri, 22 Oct 1999 08:32:39 -0700
Reply-To:     "T.P. Stephens" <doktortim@ROCKISLAND.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "T.P. Stephens" <doktortim@ROCKISLAND.COM>
Subject:      Re: Calling Doktor Tim!  Question regarding the D.M. and Head
              Gaskets              (Friday)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>To: CARY CHIANG <chiang1@USA.NET>
>From: "T.P. Stephens" <doktortim@rockisland.com>
>Subject: Re: Calling Doktor Tim!  Question regarding the D.M. and Head
Gaskets              (Friday)
>In-Reply-To: <19991022094604.5616.qmail@nwcst286.netaddress.usa.net>
>
>At 03:46 AM 10/22/99 MDT, you wrote:
>>Dear Doktor Tim:
>>   Having read your recent posts about the D.M. regarding brake
components and
>>oil filters, I was wondering what the vaunted Teutonic engineers were
thinking
>>when they designed our beloved waterboxer cylinder heads and gaskets?  Is it
>>considered the D.M. to replace these items as "routine scheduled
maintenance",
>>or what?
>>
>
>Yes, the Wasserboxer is a unique attempt to offer more HP and cleaner running
>that the consumers and social conscience was calling for. Speculation on what
>they were thinking. "Well, the market wants more power and a better heater
>with this rear engine design, but they don't want to pay the price of a 911
>system. What to do??? Let's make up a prototype standard proven
>air cooled with water jackets and test it and see what happens in the lab.
>Several iterations of modification and testing later, not too bad. Go get
>the next Vanagon chassis off the line and install this sucker for some road
>testing.  Works good, more HP, clean running, heater ist gut. Sell it."
>
>Can anyone give us some data from Germany? Is their rate of resealing, head
>replacement, stud replacement, as high as ours. Of about a dozen I have been
>servicing over the last 10 years, I have done one reseal job and one heads
>replacement. That's a very small data base with a rate of failure that is
>very poor as far as I'm concerned. One had been dealer serviced with the
>half a**ed coolant replacement procedure and the other got less maintenance
>than that before I saw them.
>
>A part of the problem is inherent in the design. Most of the problem lies
>with the compromise to fully drain the system rather than pinch off the
>lines, drain the motor, and replace half the coolant. If you replace only
>half your oil at change time, what happens to the wear curve??????
>
>Part of the problem is people believe, "They couldn't say it if it wasn't
>true." 5 year/100,000 miles in blazing orange on the anti-freeze can is
>a crock if you expect to keep the vehicle more than 5 years.
>
>It is essential to enhance the book procedure in this case to improve
results.
>It takes me 2 hours to do a throuough job. If I start with a new motor and
>radiator, service it yearly or every 10k miles and use the specified fluid,
>I have enhanced the book procedure to the level necessary to get the desired
>improvement in RESULTS, ie, no leaks until something else shows it's self as
>the weakest link and fails, like a burnt valve at 200,000 miles. Very few
people think that $200 every year or 10k miles is reasonable. They should
not own a Wasserboxer.
>
>But it won't work if you start with a contaminated system, hence the need
>to start with a new case and new head studs and new radiator and new pipes
>and new hoses and then a maintenance procedure designed to prevent
contamination
>from EVER getting started.
>
>The market set the design criteria, not the engineers. We were screaming for
>more power, more heat and less pollution. The engineers did their best with
>a very unique retrofitted design.
>
>That's the nutshell answer.
>
>The value I receive from participating on this list can only work to my
advantage
>if I get FEEDBACK, actual empirative evidence of experiance from a larger
database.
>I consider this a Decartian endeavor. My requests for feedback have
nothing to do
>with arogance as some have suggested. Those who wish to attack me for
expressing
>my opinions need to read the Constitution. If I don't get feedback to my
posts,
>I'll just read the posts and not respond. I'll get much less value that
way, but
>I can read 30 posts for every responce like this I create. Have you
noticed that
>I take the time to go back through every submittal to get the lions's
share of
>misspellings and punctuation errors out?? Takes more time to do it that
way but
>it enhances communication. Same philosopy, more effort in, better results
out.
>
>Thank you for the feedback, sincerely.
>
>
Doktor Tim
Maintenance Repair and Restoration of European Vehicles
San Juan Island, WA