Recently our Vanagon, named Bertha, has developed an extra-ordinarily low
power problem.  On the way home from a longish trip, about 700 miles, we
were unable to go faster than about 35-40 mph when going up hills.  i
noticed that there appears to be a small amount of oil and/or coolant
leaking from the heads, indicating that the seals need to be replaced.  i
also think that the seal between the two halves of the engine block needs to
be replaced.  i was wondering if anyone might have any insight into whether
the low power indicates that the blown seals have already done too much
damage to the engine to make it worth repairing?  Could the low power be
indicitive of any other problems...we did also notice that she started to
idle very, very high when sitting in traffic, but after shutting the engine
down and coming back a few hours later, that problem is gone.

Thanks for the input,
Josh Lee
jlee9@emerald.tufts.edu

'84 Vanagon (Bertha)