That's what happened to me.  I had a 147,000 miles on the motor and new
heads and gaskets already but figured I'd rebuild it anyway.  The guys
at the shop never really said what the problem was.  I assume it was a
broken ring.  But the blue/white smoke gave me a very good reason to
have it Rebuilt.

> ----------
> From:         guymon[SMTP:guymon@SKYPOINT.COM]
> Reply To:     guymon
> Sent:         Tuesday, March 17, 1998 12:23 PM
> To:   Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
> Subject:      Head Gasket?
>
> I've been told my head gasket has blown!  It's not your normal coolant
> leaking head blow.  It fact I'm not leaking any coolant.  The van
> starts
> and runs okay untill it warms up then HUGE plumbs of blue white smoke
> come out the tailpipe.  In fact I was confused when I looked in the
> read
> mirror and just saw white.  I had to turn and look behind me because I
> thought I was seeing things.  This is not like the normal head gasket
> problem.  Has anyone ever had this happen?!  It's been about 50k since
> the last head gasket repair.
>
> 87 Syncro  156k
>
> Guy
>