> Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 22:00:38 -0500
> From: VWmiked@aol.com
> To: vanagon@lenti
> Subject: 83.5 push rod tubes

> While putting my exhaust mannifolds back on my 83 waterboxer and
> general cleaning, poking around I noticed my push rod tubes are
> not all the same: two on the left and one an the right are made
> out of a thinner looking metal and are jointed in the middle ( as
> opposed to the solid tubes with the coil/spings at the ends).  I

That's a safe assumption.  The originals are the thin (steel)
tubes with compressed crimping at both ends.  The replacements
are two-piece with springs.

> am hoping this means that someone has put new ones in.  If this
> is true, did they have to take the heads off?  (meaning that the
> head gasket has been replaced somewhere in the 107,000 miles  my
> van's got?)

No, the heads probably did *not* come off.  That's why the
two-piece spring type were installed.  To install them, the valve
cover, rocker arm assembly and push rods need to be removed--not
the heads themselves.  At that point the old tubes can be
crushed/pulled out with vice grips and the new spring-loaded
tubes installed.

I replaced three tubes on an '84 this summer.  Tubes were about
$40US apiece (kit of tubes, seals & spring) compared to $6US for
the basic original-type tube.  VW wants about $500 for a
gasket/seal set, though after-market may have them cheaper now.

> I am most curious, mostly thinking (HOPING) that the heads are
> not somthing I am going to have to tackle any time soon, although
> there is a very slow leak from the right head gasket.

Most original seals got to about 40-50K miles before leakage.  My
interpretation is that engines that got there fast were replaced
with seals which would fail again in about 40-50k miles.  Later
(I think) VW came up with a seal that lasted longer or solved the
problem.  I could be wrong on this.  My '84 has 97k on it with no
leaking heads.  Leaking PIPES, now that's another story. :(

-Jim Bryant