Dennis, What you say makes perfect sense, in fact last night I carefully dug the green O ring out of the top of each sleeve, they were very hard and came out in little chunks. The (perhaps) misleading thing is there is a video at Ben's Place showing him installing the black O rings on sleeves that are already on the pistons and on the engine, but the engine is out of the van and on a stand and turned sideways. My best guess, without asking him, is that he forgot to put them on and had already removed the old ones. Because, from what I saw last night, there is NO WAY one could slide the sleeve out far enough to remove the old O ring (which will no doubt will be as brittle as the green ones) A couple of people have told me they don't change the the black O ring and haven't had a problem, but I'm sure it is a roll of the dice not to do it. Now, the sleeve on #1 is firmly stuck and won't budge, #2 stuck to the head and was pulled away about 3/4 of inch before I was able to separate it. I wouldn't be so concerned if both sleeves were stuck like # 1 is. I had not planned to get as involved in this, pulling the sleeves, etc, and perhaps even pulling the engine-but I've had many projects over the years (especially on VW's) that ended up being a lot more involved than I originally planned on! I have limited time to work on it each week, and hoped to have it done by time Everybus rolls around in April. Jeff Stewart ----- Original Message -----
> The cylinder base o-ring is at least as old as the head gasket that
> failed causing you to go there in the first place. If no sign of ever
> been overheated and you feel lucky leave them in place. Otherwise,
> pull the pistons so you can also check the rings, The pistons should
> really be placed back into the cylinders from the top which means you
> need to address the carbon ring. If you don't replace the rings have
> the oil tested after about 1,000 miles to make sure no antifreeze is
> getting by.
> Dennis
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
> Behalf Of J Stewart
> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 10:05 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Changing the Black O Ring On a Cylnder Sleeve...
> I'm guessing impossible without pulling the sleeve all the off the
> piston. I tried it on my spare engine, on #2 (#1 sleeve is already
> off) and by the time I pulled the sleeve out far enough the lowest
> ring had popped out. I tried this before doing on my engine that is
> still in the van with the right head off. I've heard differing
> opinions about the need to replace that O ring. Thoughts? Personal
> experiences? I'd love to hear them! Thanks!!
> Jeff Stewart