.......................Your synchro has combustion gases escaping into the cooling system. The flashing red light means that those gases are displacing coolant in the system's primary reservoir. If you're getting only cold air from the front heater blower, there's so much coolant displaced that the front heater core has an air lock. If your coolant is getting pushed into the overflow reservoir, the end is near. Time for a teardown with replacement of cylinder seals (rubber O-rings), head gasket rings, outer head to water jacket gaskets and if you're too late to prevent pitting where the cylinders mate with the heads.........reground cylinder seats on the heads. A Bentley manual for vanagons is essential.
I have a Bentley for it... The van just hasn't been somewhere where I could work on it... It needs a new engine... I knew that when I bought it... which is why I got it dirt cheap. It still runs... I just don't drive it.
Didn't think about the gases causing that light to come on...
Do these engines mount up the same way a buy engine does? I've never had to remove a watercooled engine before... I would like to just buy a new engine... this one is pretty rusty and pitted on the outside froom being a northern car.
..................Waterboxers are pretty sturdy except for the head leakage problem. Do you have good oil pressure, good cylinder compression and no bearing rattle at idle or knocking sounds while driving? If so, you'd be better off fixing the engine's head leakage problem.
....................They use the same four bolt pattern matching the tranny as a type1. The rear cross member can be detached from the chassis with two bolts on each side. I just unbolt the the intakes from the heads, the plenum from the case and then suspend the entire FI assembly up out of the way with a coat hanger. After that, detaching some wire connections and coolant hoses allows you to drop the entire thing out the bottom with a floor jack. The tranny has to be supported somehow so that it doesn't drop down too far after the engine is pulled off of it. Draining the coolant is a messy job. If the coolant has been contaminated with exhaust gases, you need to flush the entire system with water after re-installation and then partially drain it so that you can add enough 'Autobahn' coolant (dealer item at $20 per gallon!) to get approximately a 50/50 mix. Rebuilt, warranteed longblocks run about $2K after shipping & incidentals like gaskets & hookup hoses that are usually bad. If you repair the head leakage with new gaskets & seals, there's no need to remove the engine but you would still have to go through the messy hassle with the cooling system. Don't be fooled by rust & pitting, that doesn't tell you anything about the internals.
I have never used the autobahn coolant in my VW's.... and i had a friend that took her 96 golf to a shop and they put dexcool in it... the VW dealer tested it and said it was the right stuff... so i dunno what to think about paying $20/gallon for that stuff...
..............Whew!.........That is really bad. Those intake runners, plenum chamber, coolant crossover pipe and no doubt the coolant pipe that runs underneath the left from the water pump to the thermostat housing should all be replaced because none of them are going to last much longer if they're not already leaking.
......................There is no test for the low conductivity additives in Autobahn that are intended to prevent the galvanic electrolysis that causes waterboxers to leak where the steel cylinders contact the aluminum heads. At least, not at a dealer.
It's not leaking! This van has been all over the country... The only history I know of the van is that my friend purchased it from someone that lived in Maine, he drove it all around including to Arkansas where it is still currently registered, and it now sits in my yard in Florida. Most of that rust is from it's live in Maine I am sure. Where do I get these parts to replace them? Are they just normal Vanagon parts?
Hey, I didn't think there was either.... I've never heard of one... but the dealer told her what was in there was the right stuff! I still have never used the VW coolant... and I get it for about $14/gallon I think... I think all that is in the Vanagon right now is water... maybe I better change it before it freezes eh? ;-)
.....................They're OEM only parts that can be salvaged used. New ones are pricy at a dealer but also available (I think) from outfits like
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etc. They might not be leaking just yet but I can promise you that sooner or later...........they will......
....................Water is bad. It won't freeze hard enough to do much damage in central Florida but the corrosive damage from tap water is doing bad things, even as we speak.
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