86 vw vanagon gl coolant overheating

Always to be concerned about waterboxers popping heads.

Why is it overheating?

No one has ever owned one of these long and drove it much without praying to the VW gods and offering cash...

RH

always wary... would like to be calmed, though
i'm taking it to a vw service station monday (i live in tucson, van is in phoenix and i don't have space to do much where it is now).

they're going to give it a diagnostic inspection to tell me what's up...

though, if there is no smoke, how worried should i be.

if 1 is "always concerned" like you say, and 5 is "holy crap the heads need work"?

4

If they don't now, they will.

Money pit, unless you have feelings for it...

RH

are you saying that about all 86 vanagons??

How many miles?

I'm playing the averages, and I buy 'em cheap when they pop.

Last one was $250... (they become pieces)

RH

odometer stopped working in 02 at 63k. engine sounds great and everything is tight. previous owner has replaced ac compressor and alternator and kept it very clean. i love it and am ready to spend some money getting the cooling system to work. i just don't know at which point to call it quits

Keep your eyes open, and watch the heads...

Any coolant leaks can be deadly.

A good aftermarket heat gauge in the head is a good idea.

i knew about the wasserboxer head issue, so i gave it a pretty good inspection for signs of leaks, and, like i said, even when running at a high temp there is no smoke or leak... would i be remotely correct to assume it is simply a thermostat/radiator fan/air bubble issue???

(and thanks, btw... you're very helpful)

There are a few reasons for coolant overheating some of which are

1) Clogged coolant passages and/or radiator

2) Exhaust gasses leaching into coolant

3) Complex coolant leak such as from cracked block

4) Simple Coolant leak such as from a hose

5) Water pump failure

6) Fan clutch not engaging

7) Stuck closed thermostat

Hope for 4) 5) 6) 7)
Pray it's not 1) 2) 3)

Pray no damage has occurred


Whatever you do change the oil right now to full synthetic as it has higher heat resistance to breakdown, and the old oil will likely be toast for the same reasons.

i have an 84 ans just bought it...In March 09 the PO had the overheating problem "fixed." Radiator, thermostat etc...I drove it to work today first time...needle stayed straight up for most of the time then it would go up a bit but if I coasted it came down...got to work ok...then went to go out for lunch ...got one block away and light blinks even though needly is just rising out of white area...needle though keeps coming and is heading for pegged position...all this in a blocks worth or driving...
went back to parking lot and let it sit...every time I start it, the light starts blinking within a minute and the needle starts a rainbow sweep to the right...thoughts?

when coolant is leaking does it look like oil?

my thoughts are you are very low on coolant.

it looks like green oil usually...

put coolant in the resevoir...concerned about what i thot was an oil drip leak ..perhaps this is the heads leaking?

heads is usually where the trouble starts with these vans...

can you say more? I notice one side of the vans outer body gets hot and the other not...Drivers side rear quarter gets warm after running; vent has hot air coming out...other side cool as cool...light comes on goes off...driving me nuts

I don't work on them, I have friends that do VW repair, and they refuse to work on them mostly.

they are fragile, and poorly designed. the heads crack, and they are hard to get properly machined.

the leaks are from O-rings in the heads most likely on the hot side.

common enough to be on wiki now...

The Wasserboxer featured cast iron cylinder liners inserted into a water jacket with a "rubber lip" style head gasket, a design different from most vehicles. The top of the cylinder liners is pressed into a recessed cut-out in the cylinder heads and sealed with compressible metal rings to prevent leakage.

Some Wasserboxers were plagued by water jacket gasket failures due to several design problems. The alloy used for the construction of the cylinder head weakened when overheated, thus, when reaching temperatures over 90 °C, the metal composition would shrink and crack, allowing water from the cooling system to flow into the oil.

Engine failure was also a result of poorly placed sensors, corrosion in the cooling system, and many areas subjected to leaks.

The switch to water-cooling for the boxer engines was made abruptly mid-year in 1983 because VW could no longer make the air-cooled engines meet emissions standards. (The previous generation T2, currently produced in Brazil, has been switched to water-cooled engines since December 23, 2005 in response to Brazil's emission laws; the powerplant used in the previous-generation T2 is an Audi inline four.) Water-cooled models can be distinguished by a second front grille.

wow so basically I just bought a formidable POS

My wife loves to buy older American full-sized vans and pay to keep them running; so welcome to the club of silly vans! At least older American full-sized vans are easily serviced and parts and knowledge on them is plentiful. And she does carry a lot of rocks and dirt and plants and pulls a trailer so I guess it's not all bad...but I do sympathize!