Hello Vanagoners!

I need some help.  I believe that I have a leaky head gasket but I want to
get a confirmation about what I think is happening.  Here is what's
happening:

Around town and 1/2 hour drives the van runs great.  Heater works and it
never drips a drop of coolant.  The Van runs right at or slightly below the
red warning light.

Yesterday I drove almost 400 miles in one day.  (To much driving)  Traveling
at about 70 to 80 mph the entire time.  With two stops inbetween everything
seemed fine.  (Now that I recall at one stop there was a faint smell of
antifreeze but I couldn't find anything coming off my van.)  When I pulled
off the freeway right by my house, and slowed the van down, the light
started flashing and the needle pegged.  I pulled over and the expansion
tank was low on water.  The reserve tank was full and the water had all
dumped out somewere on my trip.

So I release the air in the expansion tank and then topped off the empty.
I'm bleeding the system right now.

To me all this sounds like air is getting into the system some how.  Here
are the specs on my van.

-84 Vanagon
-2.1 L rebuilt engine with 25,000 mi
-all new coolant system.  (think everything that the water touches,
everything)
-running low temp thermostat and radiator fan switch

Well, As you can expect I'm a little frustrated but that's life with a
vanagon.  I'm going to have the expansion tank cap pressure tested (even
though it's new) and if it's ok I'm going to talk to the shop that built the
engine.

Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.  Do you guys think that this
is a head leak problem?  If so what are the best fixes?  If not what else
could it be?

Loyal Vanagon Lover!  (If I hadn't spent so much money on it I would sell
it)

Thanks,
Blake  (I have a neet website)"plug" "plug"  :)

-------------------------
Blake Heinlein
blakeheinlein@hotmail.com
http://members.accessbee.com/heinlein/  (Has vanagon stuff)
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