Ken,

I own a similarly-disadvantaged '84 Westy, and I was counseled  just
last week on the subject by various generous members of the list.  Look
in the Archives at vanagon@vanagon.com  under "Compression."  I assume
that the articles are saved.

Please share with me, via e-mail, the results of your post in the event
that you receive private responses to your post. I'll try to revive my
disk-copied posts for you, but I save them as ASCII files and I may not
know how to send them to you.

The leak test was recommended to me, as well as a "if it ain't broke,
don't fix it" view, and an esoteric, learned,  treatis on imballance as
it affects a Waterboxer engine. I'm on the way to the Southern
California AAA to reserve a leak down test by the Mobile service
provided by the Club.We'll see......If the Colorado AAA offers the
service, have it performed with the oil level diminished.  (See the
recent posts on that subject, too.)

Tom Hanlon
Palm Springs, CA

Ken Abbott wrote:

> Greetings.  I'm looking buying a used '84 Westfalia, so I had a
> compression
> and leak test done.  The leak test came out at 21-39% on the various
> cylinders, and the compression was okay, but for a low of 115 on #3.
> The
> seller says his mechanic friend discounts the lousy leak test results
> because the engine was slightly overfilled with oil (1/4 of a quart or
> so)
> and he says this will make it look as though the rings are leaky when
> they
> aren't.  Anyone have any words of wisdom on this?  Thanks!
>
> Ken Abbott, principal photographer
> Public Relations
> University of Colorado at Boulder
> 303-492-3119
> abbottk@spot.colorado.edu