Oil in the coolant is often caused by a bad oil cooler.  Head bolt failure
or the cylinders leaking at the base will cause water to get into the oil.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: David Most <most@UCLA.EDU>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, January 18, 1999 12:36 PM
Subject: need help, oil in coolant (bit long)

>Before you all tell me I've got a serious problem on my hands, let me share
>the good news.  This problem is not with my gool ol' '87 non-GL camper for
>which a few of you last week said that I need a new throw out bearing.
>Rather, I just purchased an '87 GL camper on Saturday morning in Portland,
>OR and drove it to Los Angeles (1000 miles) arriving here last night.  With
>some strange case of vanagonitis, I saw an ad on the internet Friday
>afternoon, flew up Saturday morning with a one way ticket, and was on my
>south by 1pm (after "fixing" a driver's side power window that had been
>stuck in the down position since last summer).  I'll present the details,
>but the bottom line is that I see 1/4" to 1/3" layer of oil on top of the
>coolant in the refill tank behind the license plate.
>
>Before you feel sorry for me, I got a good enough deal on the new vanagon
>such that even if I had to replace the engine, it would be worth it.  The
>body isn't pefect, but there's no rust and the blue plastic is still on the
>drain surface over the stove.  The appliances were NEVER used.
>
>Anyway, here are the important details for the current problem.  There are
>160,000 miles on the original engine.  The PO told me that it has been
>"sitting" for the last 2 years (I don't if this means that she didn't use
it
>much or at all, and I suspect that something close to the latter could be
>true).  She did say that she had the head gasket job done at about 140K,
and
>as I look, there are no external coolant leaks at the head gasket (or
>anywhere else for that matter).  The valve covers are HEAVILY coated with
>black oil deposits, and the right side leaves a spot of oil on the ground
>3"-4" wide after being parked for a while.  Before I drove away from
>Portland, she told me that she had just added some oil, and the dipstick
>read above full.  It didn't look too bad though.  I did NOT see any oil in
>the coolant when I left.  In addition, the coolant level in the expansion
>tank was lower than I'm used to, but it was in the normal zone (on my other
>'87, it usually stays full).  The coolant level in the refill tank was
normal.
>
>During the drive down, the engine performed flawlessly.  It ran like a top
>for all 1000 miles and purred better than my other '87.  I was driving for
>long stretches at about 65 mph.  However, here's when I first noticed the
>problem.  At about 750 miles, I saw the coolant light flashing.  I pulled
>over, saw no leaks, noticed that the coolant level was just low enough in
>the expansion tank to cause the coolant level warning light to flash AND a
>small layer of oil on top of the coolant in the refill tank.
>
>I decided to add water to the coolant expansion tank, and I filled it to
>just above the upper hose.  The refill tank was at the max level, so I
>didn't add any to that tank.  I then drove the next 250 miles without any
>more flashing lights or any other problems (but I did drive a bit more
>slowly keeping it between 55 and 60).  The temp. gauge stayed in the middle
>as before, and when I checked the coolant levels this morning, the
expansion
>tank was at the same level as when filled 250 miles earlier, and refill
tank
>was full with the layer of oil as described at the beginning of this
e-mail.
>The oil does not appear to have changed color at all, but I'm not sure if
>that's relevant.
>
>So, my question is what's going on here?  I know that this can't be
>diagnosed for sure without seeing it, but the list wisdom always seems to
>figure things out nonetheless.  Is it possible that some seals dried up
from
>lack of use?  Is this something that has a chance of being repaired with
>anything significantly short of an engine rebuild/new engine?  It ran SO
>perfectly down here, that it's hard to believe anything's wrong, but I know
>better.  Had it not been for the warning light, I wouldn't have noticed the
>oil until the next time I checked the coolant.
>
>I have a funny feeling that the answer to my question may be shorter than
my
>description.  In any case, thanks for listening and for any advice.  I
could
>sure use some.
>
>David
>
>temporarily with 2 vanagons and no parking spaces
>'87 non-GL camper 140k
>'87 GL camper 160k