1991 Carat
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1. 07/97 Right head gasket leak at 52,000mi; Heavy pitting on left and right head surfaces, remanufactured engine installed.

2. Daily driver; 4 miles each way, 30 second warm-up at start, up to full temp only 3 of 7 days/week during winter (good application for engine heater)

3. VW coolant used first 4 years (never changed); changed with Prestone in 1995.

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Preventive procedures I plan to follow with reman. engine:

- Change coolant every year using distilled water and phosphate-free anti-freeze; haven't decided yet whether to standardize on Autobahn anti-freeze.

- Install coolant heater and circulator for pre-warm during colder seasons, this should minimize thermal shock as well as time to circulate oil.

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At 09:40 AM 3/31/98 -0500, Don Gibbons posted the following:
>Can those of us who care redo the survey on the head gaskets again?
>Please answer the following questions:
>
>1. When have the heads/gaskets caused problems?
>2. How is your vanagon driven? A) daily driver     B) Weekends   C) Seasonally stored
>3. Was VW coolant used?
>
>
>
>