Hi, Vanagoners -
 
Well, MY experience has been somewhere in between those tales of woe
and testimonials of ultimate reliability.  I've had my '85 GL for just 
over a year (purchased at 63k miles) and now have around 78k miles on
it.  It overheated a couple times in the dead of winter and though I know
(and then knew) better, I just put more coolant in and kept driving,
revving the engine for a spell whenever the temp gauge crept up a bit. 
That got me through until warmer weather allowed wimpy me to get out
on the ground and take a look-see underneath and determine the source
of the problem.  Guess what -- there was no visible trace of a leak
on the ground, at least; when I looked at the engine I couldn't really
tell if there was a problem there either.

So I replaced the expansion tank and cap, as that was the only place I
could see any obivious leak.  That helped a bit - no more overheating -
but the coolant level was still dropping even after most of the air
should have been purged out.  Then one day the beast decided to start
dumping its coolant on the ground:  it had burst a hose.  So I fixed
the hose (cheap), refilled and bled the system, and now it seems to
be fine again.  The coolant level has dropped slightly, but I attribute
that to air still being purged (I hope).  And I always park with the
beast's tail going uphill -- is this just superstition or is it to
some degree useful?

So to get to the point:  how does one definitively diagnose a head
gasket problem?  Without $helling out big buck$ to a VW mechanic,
that is...

-- 

Peace.

-cg :{)

---                                             ||
Christian O. Getschow (cgetschow@aerodyne.com)  ||
Aerodyne Research, Inc.         Billerica, MA   ||          What, me worry?