The inline 4 heads can twist! The unknowing remachine them to get them to
seal not realizing that the cam bearings are no longer lined up.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:24 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: My latest Acquisitions....

'possible case twisting' ..............! ! !

that's why I never touch the things.
can anyone spell " u n d e r b u i l t." ?
lol.
"I'm sorry sir ..
your cases are twisted ....and your engine isn't even good for a core to
rebuild."

this is the kind of thing I *don't want to know* about in VW's ..and why I
simply do not touch air-cooled vw's.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 7:56 PM
Subject: Re: My latest Acquisitions....

> The air cooled Vanagon engines do not require head removal to replace
> the push rod tubes. Remove the rockers and clips and the tubes will come
out.
> Just o-rings. However rarely is it the o-rings that leak and if they
> do it is a sign of the engine overheating. The usual cause of leakage
> from the cylinder area is a combination of the heads loosening and the
> cylinder barrels pounding into the case or the case twisting. The oil
> leaking can be a sign of something more sinister happening.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
> Behalf Of Jason
> Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 9:59 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: My latest Acquisitions....
>
> Ok, so I've been busy the last few months hunting down a Westy.  Now I've
> ended up with two!   We purchased them to do an east coast trip with good
> friends of ours.
>
> The first one is an 83 Westy originally from California.   We bought that
> one through Scott (thank you very much for a smooth transaction!)  Its
> a nice clean van that just needed a good buffing and waxing.
> Everything on board appears to work, including the Behr in-dash a/c!
> (Huge bonus!) The
> original plan was to share this one with good family friends.   Ben drove
> it
> from Oregon back to Ontario back in May.  He stopped over at his
> in-laws in Vancouver and replaced the heads...would have been straight
> forward except
> one stud snapped while being torqued.   (yes with a torque wrench)  Engine
> back apart out of the van, many hours later the broken stud removed!   No
> more issues, van cruised nicely the rest of the way home.   I am very
> impressed how clean the van is for being all original.  I might name
> it "White Elephant" since a rust free white Vanagon normally doesn't
> exist here
> in Southern Ontario!   This one will receive a TDI swap when it is taken
> out
> of service for the winter.
>
> The second is an 82 Westy Aircooled.  I am not a fan of the aircooled
> vans, but this one was priced right and fit the bill... I had never
> cancelled my Kijiji alert for "Westfalia" and this one came to my
> inbox.  It was about
> 4
> hrs from my house, but I just happened to be visiting up at the cottage 15
> minutes away from it.   The family selling it was leaving for a 3 year
> posting in Germany and had 2 weeks to sell it.  We started thinking
> how nice
> it would be to travel with a 2nd van with both families.   Drove it home
> yesterday!   It felt a bit underpowered but realized when I got home the
> throttle was out of adjustment.   Fixed that.  It just needs a heater box
> and the push tube seals replaced on one side before our trip.  I've
> never owned or worked on an aircooled Westy - can you pull the head
> with the motor
> still in the van?   I've done it many times on the waterboxers.   it's not
> as nice as the 83 we got from Scott, but its decent.   A good buff and wax
> will have it looking ok.  Anyone have a good used driver side heat
> exchanger?
>
> Here's a picture of the 2 vans:
>
> http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/5924097239_5cf2e474f8_z.jpg
>
> I've always had passenger vans, but these are my first Westies!   We hope
> to
> get some good use and put some miles on them this summer.    If anyone on
> the east coast (Nova Scotia) wants to meet up we'll be that way the
> first
> 2
> weeks of August.  Now we just have to argue over who gets to travel with
> a/c!   Happy travels,
>
> Jason Ewing
> 82 & 83 Westies