> Dropped off my 84 westy at the mechanic for a tune up and
> because it was sometimes difficult to start when engine was warm.
> He calls and says he left it idling in the shop for 30 minutes (to warm
> it up good before checking for hot start problem), and the head
> gaskets blew out on him.
>     All I know is it was running when I brought it in to him, now
> I'm facing at least $1100 for head gaskets
>     I'll be calling my lawyer today just to see if there is any legal
> recourse I can take against this guy.

While I can appreciate your frustration, there's no way that idling the van
for 1/2 hour should have blown the head gaskets on an otherwise good engine.
If so, the first time you got stuck in a traffic jam on a hot summer day the
same thing would have happened.  Now, if the cooling system sprung a leak,
say, and he wasn't watching closely enough to notice that the engine was
losing coolant and the temp gauge was pinned for twenty minutes, then that
is perhaps another story. But if it there was coolant there and it
overheated due to a head gasket problem, this problem definately was not
caused by idling the van for half an hour. It's not like Vanagons never blow
head gaskets and if yours did the mechanic must have done something wrong.
This is a known and common problem.  To blame the mechanic for the failure
would, I think, be more than a little unfair.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  http://www.busdepot.com
  (215) 234-VWVW