You should join the diesel Vanagon list for this project.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Diesel-Vanagon/

You need at a minimum about $100 in parts and tools to just change the
head gasket. Don't remove the manifolds or injectors, leave that stuff
on the head or you will need more parts and tools and open more cans of
worms.

It is very common for the head to be bad on these motors. You could
easily spend much more than $100 to do this repair "right". Since you
don't know the worth of the bottom end either, I would try to just
change the gasket as simply and cheaply as practical.

You can do this without the special timing tools if you line up all the
timing marks at the start, paint new marks at the 3 pulleys, and fight
the timing belt properly. Tough to do the first time. The injection pump
gear is under tension and will rotate out of position when the belt is
off. You must get it back into exact position as well as the cam and
crank gears, all in perfect time with respect to the belt. Help from the
diesel Vanagon list will be worthwhile.

Cleaning out the headbolt holes in the block very well before putting in
the new gasket is CRITICAL.

I would expect to obtain these parts:

set of 10 new headbolts  $30
headgasket     $30
tool for headbolts $20
valve cover gasket set $5
oil change  $10
coolant  $10

Headbolts and tool could be either of 2 types so you need to remove the
valve cover and look. Shop around and save a few bucks from these numbers.

Mark

Florian Speier wrote:

> I have to do a cylinder head gasket job on a friends 82 diesel westy. Does
> anyone have a better writeup than the bentley, especially, do i need these
> specific tools for the drive belt?
> The engine is currently bubbling out coolant between head and block....
> argh.  I know that on an engine with already 165k on it, this might be a
> temporary fix, but I am unsure of the costs and time involved in a
> 1.9conversion, so I guess its gonna be just fixing it for now.
>
> Any advice is greatly appreciated!
>
> thanks a lot
> flo
>