I thought I'd post an update on this - recap: my coolant light came on while
charging uphill under load. Coolant down by half in the pressure reservoir.
The next day found coolant pooled around the upper rear left head torque
nut. Figured maybe I'd done a bad, bad thing. I'd also found some black
silicone-like buildup under the pressure cap.

Well, my local Vanagon mechanic Mike Tevis (everyone should have one, and
mine's on this email list) came out to take a look. He found that the air
conditioning bracket was loose, and one of the supports for the pump had
come down into the coolant hose that enters the head just above the rear
torque nut. It chewed a pretty nice bit into the hose, and under load
coolant had no problem coming out there, hence the alarm.

He also checked out the silicone-like stuff which was also found on the
thermostat and in the rad bleeder. We think maybe some gasket sealant wasn't
quite dry when the coolant was put in, and so that stuff came loose and went
to the high places in the system. A coolant flush will hopefully take care
of that.

So, good news, I'm back on the road, no leaking head gasket, no cracked
head, and I probably worry too much but from my air-cooled days I've come to
feel like the little failures are always trying to turn into huge failures -
well, as this one could if not stopped in time.

Thanks for the input everybody. I guess I need a better headlight when I'm
looking up my engine's kilt.

Cheers,
Peter

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Peter DiFalco
> Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 4:31 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Coolant bottle harbinger - opinions?
>
> Leak seems to be pooled most obviously below the rear upper torque nut
> on the left (driver side) head. This seems to be an original head
> (120k mi) unlike the other side. I believe I may have cracked the
> head, if list archives research proves reliable. I will continue to do
> the pressure bottle and see how it goes and post updates to this
> thread if only to serve as a warning to others: if you can't make time
> for little repairs, you may need to make time for big ones.
>
> Cheers,
> Peter
>
>