Vanagoners,

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my post. I got 12
responses in all, and I thought I would summarize the results.

To recap my problem, I was driving the 91 Vanagon at about 40 mph, it was
fully warmed up (needle over the led). Suddenly, I lost all power and there
was a HUGE white cloud behind me, and the coolant level led started
flashing. I immediately pulled over and shut it down. Opened engine hatch
and noticed oil had sprayed all over and was rapidly puddling on the
ground. Coolant tank was half empty. I had it towed to the local vanagon
experts.

There seemed to be a concensus that one of three things happened. Four
people suggested the oil cooler had failed, 6 suggested a failed head
gasket, and 6 suggested a cracked head. One person also suggested a cracked
block. Thus far, the oil cooler has been ruled out...it was pulled and
pressurized and it held pressure. For what its worth, mechanic thinks its a
cracked block or some other type of internal catastrophic failure.

Thanks again for all the replies and good thoughts.

Patrick

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Patrick L. Larsen
Water Sciences Laboratory-University of Nebraska
School of Natural Resource Sciences
http://www.ianr.unl.edu/waterscience/wsl.html
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