(My second post--my first one yesterday seems to have not made it to the 
list. Someone please let me know if I'm double-posting somehow...)

Boy, I haven't written in a looong time.

But things still keep happening with my bus ('87 Westy).

My heads blew at 143,444 miles (well, one sprayed, the other was only 
seeping).

$2K for:
     new heads from VW including valves, and gaskets
     new water pipe from rear to front
     new piston rings (but old cylinders and pistons were still in good 
shape)
     new clutch slave cylinder (that was gone too, unrelated)
     (and labor)

I've been waiting for the heads to go, so I wasn't too upset. My wife 
however, was a different story...  >8-O

It's been 5K on the new heads, van seems great. Went down to Florida over 
Christmas, ran great at 68 mph all the way (I did give it 2K of milder 
speeds to help seat the valves). Gets a shade under 20 mpg.

Seems to run a little bit hotter with the new heads (or else it's just 
the dino oil). I've changed it once already, but I'm going back to 
synthetic (probably Mobil 1 again) at the 150K mark (6.5K miles from the 
head install).

Rolling down the road,
Dave

PS--I put new speakers in the front doors, which stick out 1/4 inch from 
the panels. I'm afraid to bend and break the window cranks, so I just 
loosened them a little and turn them carefully to avoid scraping the new 
speakers. Anybody have a better suggestion? Or should I warm the cranks 
up and try to bend them just a little bit?