I'm inclined to agree to both points to some extent... believe me, J.B. is
an old friend of mine, but I still don't get the point of going thru this.
When I bought my Vgon ($300), it was down and declared dead precisely
because of this kind of 'repair'. Some Bud Light mechanic had attempted to
'fix' the efforts of yet another ....um, fellow that had basically encased
the head in red RTV.
It took me longer to get that damn RTV cleaned off than it did to do the
rest of the job. Changing out one of these so-called head gaskets really
isn't that big of a deal... seems like it would take less time and effort
overall than this approach.
Having said that, I get the sense from Roger's posts that there's something
else going on here for him than just 'getting the job done'. I just hope
he's taking lots of pictures. : )

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bange" <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: How easy is it to remove the intake runnersw ith the engine
installed ?

>
> I have good access  all around.After 1 hour has passed the jb or quick
> steel
> will cover this up for support and so it wont come out. I willuse 80 grit
> to shine the space onthe head and water jacket where the RTV will mate.
>

It sounds like utter lunacy, and I'm sure the temptation is to call
foolishness on such a plan, but it's sure hard to argue with 34K miles and 2
years! I held a 280Z together with little more than red permatex and epoxy
putty everywhere from exhaust manifold to T-stat housing for over 50K miles,
so I'm certainly not one to pass judgement.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"