This is cheap and easy to fix.

You've blown a freeze plug, which are made into most blocks as a
"pressure valve" to guard against cracking the block if the coolant
freezes.

Drain the coolant. Drill a hole in the freeze plug (I'd replace all of
them) large enough to get a large screwdriver in it and pry it out.

Clean the rim of the hole, Maybe with a dremel tool with a wire brush
that will get into where the new part will seat.

Get new freeze plugs.

Put permatex in the seat in the block and drop in a part, convex side
out *IMPORTANT*.

With a ball peen hammer, make a substantial dent to expand the plug in
the hole.

Wait til next day for the permatex to harden. Start up and watch for
signs that your head might be bad or you might have some other cooling
system damage. Freeze plugs sometimes fail on their own, but yours
could have failed because of heat from some other problem.

Jim

On May 25, 2004, at 5:08 AM, Markus W. Wittmann wrote:

> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  While driving my 82 diesel
> vanagon, antifreeze started pouring out of the crankcase.  The leak is
> coming from one of the three sealed ports (Row of three circular
> depressions on drivers side of  crankcase).  My guess is that they are
> some kind of vents used when casting the engine.  I've not encountered
> this before, and hoping someone has tackled this problem in the past.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Markus
>