I drive an 88 GL. I second Don Deitke's post all the way.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Thomas, Geoffrey wrote:

>I dropped my '88 Westy in for some work today.
>I had noticed a slight coolant loss and gulped when I added about 300 mls of
>coolant to top up the tank.  This in about
>5000 miles.
>I asked for an analysis of the coolant for combustion gases and I also asked
>for a compression test.
>Now this company has done work for me before and already had 2 other
>Vanagons in the shop.
>The service manager stated that there was no way that exhaust gases could
>leak into the coolant "in this engine".  OK, I thought, I do not think that
>is true, so I asked him to locate the source of the leak.
>He called back later and advised that the compression was around 85 per
>cylinder.
>This is an engine with 233,000 on it, with a good rebuild at 160,000.
>Starts first time, runs cool and quiet and uses no oil at all.
>I checked the archives and noted readings of 140+ as good.
>He also advised that there was slight evidence of coolant residue around the
>bottoms of the heads, but that a pressure test indicated no leaks.
>I am wondering if (a) my mechanic is as good as he might be, and (b) the
>compression readings he got were bogus?
>Geoff Thomas
>
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