>On Wed, 23 Nov 1994, David Kao wrote:
>
>> I believe my 83 westy has got the vanagon overheating syndrome which was said
>> to be common among early watercooled vanagons. An indication of this syndrome
>> is that coolant in the cooling system got expelled out back to the reserve 
>> tank. The cooling system is slowly filled with air and eventually the
>> coolant sensor in the pressure tank detects low coolant. The temp gauge will
>> run to the extreme right and the LED will blink, crying bloody muder.
>

All right, I confess, as a starving student <excuses excuses> I tried every 
two cent cure for this problem. What works for the first couple of weeks is 
your average rad-seal gorp, just pour it in and say 'Sh*t that was easy'. It 
will blow away shortly, prompting you to try several other brands of 
similiar compounds, while picking up the occasional jug of anti-freeze. The 
dollars start to build ominously!! Next step is to start pricing gaskets, 
$160Cdn each, 'no I don't want a full kit for both sides' Mistake # 2 in a 
series. Hell I can rebuild it myself, where's that Popular Mechanics ad for 
gasket maker anyhow? Well, you can remove the head from the engine without 
removing the engine, says so right in Bentley. Just be prepared to remove 
damn near everything off the engine before you can get the head loose.
        Looking at a piece of crudded tattered rubber masquerading as a 
gasket I think 'this could be tricky but I' ve gone this far' Mistake # 3, 
should've bought the gasket right then. Build-a-gasket using Dow_Corning 
silicone, same stuff I used for the water pump rebuild, it's got to be OK. 
First attempt, cleaned up every thing, gooed the bits together, bolted the 
head on, and waited a day. Then I checked / retightened to head bolts. 
Mistake # 4, shouldn't have broken a good seal (maybe?) by crushing my new 
'gasket' and shreds of the old one. Fill it up and it leaks after it warms 
up and gets some pressure. Tear engine down again, and do it again, more 
cleaning, tighten to specs and wait a day. It works! Yes It Works.  For a 
week. Curses abound........... It doesn't leak as much I tell myself, only 
one jug of antifreeze per week!
        The moral of the storey is, kids. Spend the bucks on a gasket. If 
you're broke DIY in the driveway, but get a professional opinion on the 
state of the head(s) before rebuilding anything. It will cost you around 
$2-300 for those gaskets alone, other useful little rings are more $. Time 
for labour is the big factor, the $1500 is 'reasonable' for rebuilding both 
sides in a shop.

....... maybe if I use a different Silicone it would have worked. Yeah, 
that's the ticket!  I know, I'll do the other side with Perma-Tex RTV....... 
  some fatal musings from a warped head, bye for now.