Neil,

I just went through this with mine- compression was good on 3- one bad- blowing gases into coolant.

I retorqued the heads to no avail and wish I'd just torn down the engine long before. The gases in the coolant may have caused a lot more corrosion on my heads... if you know gases are leaking, it would be far better to tear it down now!!! Just my opinion.

I've since found a good used engine and will be rebuilding my old one- old heads look terrible and I'll be replacing with possibly new.

My main problem was that a small crack developed between a cooling passage and the mating surface of the head- tiny crack - almost a casting defect.

I drove it far too long thinking I was loosing coolant and having to bleed the system of extra air. It turns out the excessive pressure created leaks in the system and I was just bleeding gases out of the radiator....lesson learned.

YMMV

Dave
85 GL "Baby Bus" with a cheeky little used 1.9er

> On May 4, 2017, at 8:30 PM, Neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>> On 5/4/17, Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> As a last resort, I will check the head nuts to see if any are
>> obviously loose  ....
> 
> 
> I should add that as per previous posts I've made about this engine,
> after driven a while, the engine will blow compression gases into the
> coolant. The main reason for taking a compression test is to establish
> a base line though even if some loose head nuts are loose, tightening
> them may not change the compression results. i.e. the cooling system
> gets over pressurized after I drive the van for quite a few miles.
> 
> Neil.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Neil n
> 
> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
> 
> 1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
> 
> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
> 
> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>