Yes,
All the original heads had that coating. Back when you get heads from the
dealer, they had that coating out of the box. If you notice, they only place
that is usually cored is the space under the gasket. The order of events is
the gasket stops sealing, the coolant seeps, the hot coolant mixing with air
and road debris causes the corrosion that will later split the heat hardened
gasket.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Elliot Kane
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 9:14 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: yellow paint on heads?

 I'm redoing the heads on my 88 GL and I've come across the remnants of what
looks like yellow spray paint on the face of the head. Is this some kind of
factory attempt at giving the aluminum a layer of protection from the
coolant? I've searched the web high and low for clues on this but to no
avail...anyone know anything about this?

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