If that price is for both heads go for it- you must do both - the other one
is not far behind.

I knew a guy  in Canada who ran his WBX for a couple years with leaking head
gaskets . He went thru gallons of anti-freeze, Autobahn at that.

You should have seen it- both heads had a half-inch of bluish-brown build up
-it looked very bad.

But it was all external. if your leak is external you can drive a long time
like that.

But it's not recommended.

Once it gets to that point, and you need to drive it like he did, then it
doesn't matter anymore what color your coolant is.

They leak no matter what coolant you use, but by all means use the right
stuff after the work is done.

Robert

1982 Westfalia

>
>  Listees:
>
>Well, when I went to pick the Vanagon up from the mechanic, he put the
>Vanagon back up on the lift to show me the leaking head gasket on the
>passenger side.  It looks like fluid has been weeping out for at least a
>little while, but the amount is very slight.  The van's running strong and
>is not going through coolant too much. (I topped off from min to max mark
>in expansion tank the other day, and haven't had to do that for months.)
>So, for my 2.1L Waterboxer, I have 2 questions, keeping in mind that
>although I could probably change the head gasket myself, I will probably
>not be doing so based on lack of time and space to work.  Therefore:
>
>1)What happens if I continue to drive with the leaking gasket? (I imagine
>it could progressively get worse, or theoretically it could get so bad that
>I'm blowing coolant out of the exhaust pipe or water and oil mix... ) But
>can I ruin/pit the head any more than it may already be by continuing to
>drive it?
>
>2) The mechanic said that the job would be roughly $750.00, including
>machine work (if needed) Does this sound right?
>
>TIA.
>
>
>Mark Garcia
>Alhambra, CA
>1987 Vanagon Westfalia (for going slow)
>2000 Passat 1.8T 5SPD(for going fast)
>1981 Vespa P200E (for just going!)
>
>_______________________________________________
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Robert
1982 Westfalia 1987 Wolfsburg

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