If you look at the vanagon engine, the side that is up; almost in the
middle of the head the head gasket will stick out with the notches
showing - they are visible all the time - no need to disassemble first.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Matt Ratto
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 7:29 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: diesel head gasket - which one?

Hi all,

after some more attempts to diagnose the problems with the diesel in my
82
westy, I'm pretty sure I'm suffering from a blown head gasket. The
coolant
bubbles (a lot) when the engine gets hot, so much so that I can't bleed
the
system. Also I noticed a trace amount of oil in the coolant and
continuous
white smoke at idle. I thought the smoke was oil from worn rings, but
after
taking a trip through the archives I'm thinking it might be water. The
final
factor is that I have very low compression on 2 & 3 but not on 1 & 4.
It's
all kind of moot because I really want to put a new motor in the thing.
Still, until that happens, it would be nice to have a running vehicle.

So the question is: how can I tell in advance (without removing the
gasket
and looking at the notches or measuring the pistons,) which head gasket
I
need? I don't really have a place to leave half-dismembered vehicles,
while
I wait for the head gasket to arrive from busdepot or another shop.

any help would be greatly appreciated,

Matt