Guy,

The symptoms you describe are closer to what most watercooled autos do
when the head gasket blows. Wasserboxers are a special case due to the
fact that the heads sit horizontally, not vertically. This way, the
antifreeze leaks to the ground. Most any other watercooled engine has
its head(s) sit vertically, or at a 30 or 60 degree angle, so the
coolant doen't have the chance to drip like in a boxer engine.

I can only guess that your head gasket blew at the top of the head.
The oil and coolant seep into the combustion chamber and exit as
either light blue or white smoke. A large plume of smoke indicates a
cracked head in most cars; as the Wasserboxer has pistons and
cylinders roughly similar to the Type I, perhaps you have a cracked
cylinder or busted (or corroded) stud.

Cancel your vacation plans. This will be expensive. :(

Take care,
Sam

---guymon <guymon@SKYPOINT.COM> wrote:
>
> 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
>

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