Date:         Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:07:08 -0800
Reply-To:     Don Kane <dkane@MAIL.ARC.NASA.GOV>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Don Kane <dkane@MAIL.ARC.NASA.GOV>
Subject:      Re: "Extraordinarily bad engines"
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To:  <01bd5adb$f885d520$13e9ffd0@pat>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

on my '87, new gaskets at 195k miles, heads were pitted but I used the jb
weld method to fill them in, and they've been fine since then, 210k miles
on it now.

my '85 was purchased at 80k miles with a gasket problem, in fact the head
was off the van. The owner reported that he first encountered a leak at 45k
miles, and put new gaskets and new heads on at that time.

my 84 was purchased with a blown engine, paperwork shows that it got a new
engine at 125k due to overheating.

I know the 84 was seriously abused by the po, a spacecase who paid no
attention to the temp gauge.  on the '85 I don't know how it was treated or
why it had a problem. The '87 was well maintained by the po, even though he
didn't have vw coolant in it. When i took the heads off, it was hard to
believe the gaskets sealed anything, they were just shredded, but that was
with 195k miles and one application of barsleak at 180k.

        I have thought about engine swaps and sent for the info from kennedy
engineering, but have decided I'll stick with the wasserboxer. I don't care
about more power, and I'm comfortable working on them. Iv'e done the heads
on 4 engines now, and I can pull the engine and put in new gaskets and/or
heads in 2 weekends easily, even 1 weekend if I don't have much else to do,
and the cost is $140 for gaskets, or $600 if I need to replace the heads,
which hasn't happened yet. Fixing pitted but otherwise servicable heads is
simple, and the price is just the cost of the jb weld. I always clean the
heads up and remove the valves and lap them, which takes a little more
time, but is well worth the effort.
        If you don't or can't work work on your van yourself, I agree that the
cost of repair can be too high, but i really enjoy working on them, and
once you have acquired the necessary tools and experience, they're not
difficult to work on. When i have bottom end problems, i'll probably buy a
rebuilt, but who knows. If I have the time I may try rebuilding the bottom
end. Piston are cylinder kits are available and reasonably priced as well.

Don Kane
'87 GL
'85 GL
'84 Westy
'85 GL parts van
'67 9 passenger standard