I got a bunch of part's from a junkyard engine a few months ago for the
burnt 2.1 WBX I'm restoring.

Taking the thermostat housing apart today I made an interesting discovery
why this engine overheated and blew .
In the passage way beneath the thermostat was a big gray ball of "dough"
like material. This must be Bar's leaks.

The flange where it bolts up to the head was melted and sealed with
silicone.

I knew from this that the driver's side head got pretty hot, and now I know
why. The ball of gray Bar's leak was big enough to block flow  through the
thermostat. So the engine overheated.

I found that the same head gasket had been over-torqued. and was all split
up inside. Both heads were new, so this was a poorly executed head gasket
job that ended up leaking and then bar's leak was added (or something gray)
to stop the leaking.
All it did was clog up the system and kill the engine.

So , a bad head job led to leaks which led to bar's leak and silicone.
The leaking flange was the early warning that went unrecognized. Rather than
try to figure out why the head would get hot enough to melt plastic, the
owner/mechanic justr went"ho-hum" and lathered on the silcone.

He had to have seen it was melting. Ad so his beloved or cursed Vanagon
ended up in the junkyard for which I am grateful.

So if you have leaking heads you haven't told anyone about, and you've put a
bunch a Bar's leak in, at least remove the thermostat cover and look under
the thermostat for a gray blob.

Robert

1982 Westfalia

Robert

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