Maybe so, but I never changed my coolant in 10 years and blindly
followed the advice of 2 local repair shops. Wish I knew about this
list years ago.

On Aug 23, 2008, at 11:00 AM, "Chris S" <szpejankowski@gmail.com> wrote:

> That's interesting.
>
> My first Vanagon was an '85 Westy I put 65,000 miles on and sold 4
> years later in 2004 with 189K miles and heads or engine have never
> been touched.
>
> My second Vanagon is an '84 Westy with 170K miles and the original
> heads, on of which was resealed at 60K miles, are still on the
> engine that I pulled last month.  The heads are good - it's the
> lifters that are shot.
>
> I guess I'm the lucky one?
>
> My current engine, a 2.1l WBX has had its heads resealed within the
> last two years and I hope they will last as long as my previous ones.
>
>
> Chris.
>
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 7:33 PM, Walter Houle
> <whoule@ecscontrols.com> wrote:
> Robert -
>
> Having been thru a couple of head swaps in the past, I went through my
> records to see what could be learned.
>
> The original heads lasted approx. 8 years and 100,000 miles. They
> corroded
> at the water gasket and leaked coolant. I then purchased a set of new
> heads and installed them myself. Total cost for the parts was
> $1,000. They
> lasted 3 years and 32,000 miles. Then, they failed due to a
> compression
> leak that pressurized the cooling system and caused overheating. A
> local
> mechanic told me they failed because they were of poor quality & fit
> and
> recommended a different brand. If my memory serves me right the 1st
> set of
> replacement heads were made in Spain, and the 2nd set he recommended
> were
> from Germany. So, I hired him to install the German heads. Total
> cost was
> $1,900. These heads worked fine for another 2 yrs 9 months and 22,000
> miles before they too failed with another compression leak. At this
> point,
> I decided to have a factory rebuilt engine installed. This cost
> $3,300,
> but it has gone 10 years and 50,000 miles and it is still going
> strong.
> Also, FWIW, the factory motor was found to have a leaky head when it
> was
> first fired up, a tiny pin hole sized leak near the exhaust flange. VW
> warrantied it, and it was replaced by a local dealership free of
> charge
> after about a two month wait.
>
> So, my replacement heads weren't exactly cheap, but they did buy me
> a few
> years each time. The engine swap cost more, but it did come with a
> warranty and it has proven to be very reliable. If I had known about
> this
> list 10 to 12 years ago I'm sure I would have done things differently.
> Whatever you decide, go with experience, either in the advice from the
> list or with an experienced mechanic, and only use known quality
> parts.
>
> Walter
> 85 Vanagon
>
>
>
>