Most likely a leaking valve showed up during a compression or leak down
test. Leaking intake valves are common and one can cause all sorts of
operational grief. If you are familiar with and EGR valve a bad intake can
cause the symptoms of an intake vacuum leak and a bad EGR all at once. Rough
idle, hesitation, bad mixture control etc.

On the Waterboxer there are no valve stem seals like on the inline 4
engines. There should be a seal or more like a slinger on the intake. Many
rebuilders do not know about this and with the position of the valves
usually causes no problem with oil sucking down the valve stem until the
guides are worn. Burned or damaged valves are often sign of past engine
overheating, worn guides, lots of miles, or past valve jobs not done right
or bad quality of new heads. Often when heads are rebuilt the seats and/or
valves get cut and the springs are not shimmed to match so low seat pressure
causes them to burn again.  Also the stems need to be shortened to restore
rocker geometry.

Part of the purchase decision needs to include the possibility of a simple
valve grind to full head replacement and possibly both sides. And of course
there can be the future surprises once it is open of broken studs or
piston/cylinder damage etc.

If it is running fairly well it can probably be driven this way.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jamie Fitterer
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 9:54 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Leaky Valve? 85 1.9L Waterbox

A friend is looking at purchasing a van that is in really good condition but
the mechanic reports the engine has a leaky valve seal and it would be
around 500 - 800 dollars for the fix.  I don't have much more information on
that and apologize for that, but it is what it is.

My question is, does anyone know what valve seal this may be?  What are some
repercussions of driving it to get it home?

Appreciate your time,