Unless you cracked a head, the main problem is that the head stuffs failed to hold preload and they loosened under load allowing the inner gasket to fail. Were the nuts replaced when the gaskets were done? This is risky but you may be able to effect a repair by tightening the heads. I would try to tighten each nut a quarter turn. Assuming a proper and consistent tourqing when the heads were done, this may be successfull. The risk is that if the studs are failing due to over stretching or corrosion, one my snap during or after this so you may have that to deal with. If it works for another year or tow, you will be ready for an engine anyway.

Dennis

----- Original Message -----
From: Kurt Camealy
Date: Friday, February 9, 2007 6:35 am
Subject: Head leak again.... What next?
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> I have a 2.1 that was rebuilt top and bottom at 150K and now it
> seems to be
> leaking through the inner head gasket again. I have 215K now
> and the engine
> runs great but my coolant level will rise significantly during
> driving and
> has a slow steady stream of small bubbles in it. I remember
> this happening
> last time before a catastrophic head blowout. (engine had a
> roaring boil
> coming of the coolant bottle and never started again after
> cooling off) Is
> roughly 70K average for a head problem on a rebuild?
>
> My real questing is what next. I am still not ready to part
> with my
> Vanagon, but I don't have a ton of money to spend on it right
> now. If I
> continue to drive it will I ruin the top of the Cylinders
> requiring more
> than a top end rebuild? If I do just a top end will I most
> likely need new
> heads instead of just gaskets? Should I try to re-torque the
> current heads
> or will I most likely just crack them?
>
> Thank you for everyone's insight,
>
> Kurt
> 87 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg
>