So with the new head and 2 new pistons/cyls we are doing fine so far. About
900 miles since the repair in Amsterdam, crossing Germany into Poland. We
visited the Auschwitz site yesterday. Today we cross south into Czech and
hopefully meet up with another Vanagon owner who lives there just inside
the border.

So why did our head and cylinder crack in the first place? When it was just
the head crack I assumed it was from coolant freezing during the winter it
was stored. But the split in the cylinder wall doesn't seem like it could
have been from that. The freezing pressure would have been on the outside
of the cylinder wall, compressing the cylinder rather than trying to split
it open. In any case it was with fresh 50/50 mix before the van left the
USA. We put about 10,000 miles on the van in the 3 months before storing
it. No known issues at that time.

I have big travel plans for the next 2 months so with any luck my van
engine work is all behind me. I hope to install a new poptop canvas in the
next week or two. Last year we suffered in a lot of heat and the single
window canvas made it worse. The screen is in tatters and bugs meant we had
to leave the flap mostly closed. I should have put in a new canvas at home
but ran out of time last year before shipping the van

Mark.