I agree with Steven. When the oil cooler goes bad, it allows oil to enter
the cooling system. A new cooler and O-ring cost me  about $150 the last
time I needed to buy one.

Also, you should stop running the Van. The oil/water emulsion that you are
churning up in the cooling system does a poor job of cooling the engine. Be
sure to flush it several times with water and radiator cleaner before adding
that expensive antifreeze!

TomC
tcarrington@relitech.com
http://volksweb.relitech.com
http://checkerweb.relitech.com
85 VW Vanagon Crew Cab
82 VW Westy Diesel=>Gas Conversion
81 Checker A-11 (Taxi)
65 VW Notchback

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Cavanaugh [mailto:paul@PHONYEXPRESS.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 5:06 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Massive oil leak into cooling system!

1990 Vanagon Automatic Seeks Help!

I've got a terrible oil leak going into the cooling system somewhere
inside the engine. As in somewhere between a pint and a quart of oil
per mile!

The oil is coming out my cooling system overflow tank and onto the
ground (and, of course, the oil level is going down as this happens).

I've got over 190,000 on this engine, with new heads & gaskets back
at 88,000 miles.

Any suggestions for a possible cause & fix would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Paul

Pictures of my VWs:

http://www.phonyexpress.com/images/VWs.jpg

--
'90 Vanagon (190k)
'84 Vanagon (218k)
'78 Microbus (175k)