Ken;
My wife overheated our 85 so bad the rubber head gaskets melted and were
sagging out. I rebuilt the engine and found no reason for the failure(in
the engine). The bearings,rings, pistons and cylinders looked like new. I
did not think to cut open the filter.I probably would have been fine if I
just slapped on new head gaskets. The van had about 90k miles.
After installing the engine and began filling coolant did i find the
possible culprit, the "H" shaped plastic piece near the reservoir was
cracked. This is a high priority preventative maintenance replacement
piece in my book.Like the coolant distribution manifold on the >86 vans.
Drive Safely & Good Luck
Ken Lewis<Kernersville,NC>86crewcab(Bessie);85 GL(Elvis)

On Sun, 23 Aug 1998 15:52:09 EDT KENWILFY@AOL.COM writes:
>I have a '85 Vanagon that I am in the process of putting new heads on.
The PO ran the van when it was hot and the engine got so hot that it
dropped a valve seat on number 1 cylinder.  I cut the oil filter open to
see if there was an indication of bearing damage.  The filter had a very
small amount of metal chips (like maybe one or two chips every five folds
in the filter material).
>What I need to know is if this is normal that there should be a small
amount of metal in the oil filter or should there be no metal in the oil
filter and the bearings of the motor have been hurt?
>I would appreciate any advice.
>TIA.
>Ken Wilford
>John 3:16
>

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