Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

Sorry to hear of your troubles. If yours is like mine, there are only two belts- Timing and Aux. The small belt runs the water pump and the alternator. If that breaks the van must be stopped within seconds (what time it takes to pull over and stop), or you are guaranteed to at the very least ruin yo...

I have had mine out a couple of times, and never had much of a problem with it. You can't see it very well, and have to work by feel to hook the wire back up.

Sorry to hear of your ordeal. I go thru that "why don't I just have a car, like normal people?" every time something takes it down, and I'm back to riding city transit and bumming rides from friends 'till I get it fixed. And when I have occasion to try driving it on a fast highway I questi...

Yes, the history on the engine is good, has about 120K and was from a non-camper van. Doesn't seem to smoke blue or burn much oil- so I'll leave those factory bearings in place.
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and best guesses here- it helps a lot!

Sage

I suspect it is bad too, and will plan on rings. I can do that with the block remaining in the vanagon? Are main and big-end bearings usually done at the same time as rings, and how do you tell if those need changing? The last engine I re-ringed was an old BMW 2002 in the '80s. I am out of practice....

Thank you Andrew- that is the most encyclopedic listing of head gasket problems I have ever seen. I hope that you have not experienced all of them personally :) . My oil leak is dripping from the bottom of the block at the timing belt end of the engine, looks like it is coming from a weak main seal ...

Just to add a little more, it starts better after sitting for a week then sitting for a day. I suspect that engine oil is leaking into cyls. ?
Time for a teardown- I just want to know what to look for.
Thanks

Howdy, very nice forum. Recently (on my stock n/a vanagon) I experienced a sudden noticeable drop in power, loss of oil pressure, drip drip drip of oil when running, and hard starting issues. It cranks over for a while creating a light grey mist out of the exhaust that smells like engine oil. Can al...