Blown head gasket or something else?

[my_vw_sucks]

Well, I noticed a bunch of coolant on the ground at the back of the van this morning. I had just returned from Tahoe to the Bay Area and figured something had given up on the drive home. Coolant looked to be leaking from the overflow tank. I figured it was cracked. I opened the coolant cap behind the license plate door and clean coolant just dumped out. It was full to the brim. I opened the cap on the expansion tank and it too was full to the brim. Almost appeared to be pressurized with coolant pouring out the top.

My first thought was maybe blown head-gasket pressurizing the cooling system. But coolant is very, very clean. Checked the oil and that too is clean. No signs of milkshake. There was no drivability issues while driving. Power seemed fine and temps were normal.

The motor is a Gowesty 2.3L that the PO installed about 50k miles ago. While I’ve owned and worked on VWs all my life I haven’t had a WBX in about 30 years. So I’m unsure how a blown head gasket or other problem like this would present itself. Any recommendations on how I should go about diagnosing this or ideas on what it might be? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[my_vw_sucks]

I’m starting with a head gasket leak tester to see if there is combustion gasses in the coolant. I don’t have high hopes. We’ll see tomorrow when Amazon shows up.

[E1]

Did it get hot?

If not and you have a stock expansion tank (the large one) with a blue cap, change the cap. They routinely fail, recommend the Blau or Meyle brands and no others.

Don’t freak just yet, this has happened to us several times, and it’s never been a head gasket. It takes some time for coolant to cool enough to produce a vacuum that reclaims coolant.

If the expansion tanks stays full when cool, after overfilling the overflow, either you now have air in the system that precludes vacuum draw and/or the cap isn’t opening to draw it back in, either.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[bobbyblack]

Just wondering, but any chance you checked to see if there was air in the radiator? I know this might seem to be a strange question, but if the pressure tank and the overflow tank were full, where is the air that would build up if there were an exhaust leak?

Next, what was the last coolant fill, and the procedure you used?

-bobby
_________________
'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[space]

Similar happened to my van
It ended up being the pressure tank
Replaced w an gw aluminum problem solved!
_________________
82 westy
w:
2.5 JDM Subie
Rear discs

[my_vw_sucks]

The cooling system and all engine components were at ambient temperature when I checked their levels. I opened the bleed valve and no gas hiss. Kept the valve open and brought the van up to op temp. No coolant came out of the bleed valve but the fan did cycle numerous times.

My plan is test the cooling system for gas when I get the kit tomorrow. If no gas present I'll go ahead and replace the expansion cap as suggested and take the opportunity to flush and bleed the system. I'm a bit dubious to the cap being bad but happy to be wrong, as the expansion tank is also full. I'd figure it would be empty. But maybe it just gulped air on the cap fail and backed up the system.

I've never done a bleed on the system, as the PO just had the coolant replaced a little under two years ago right before I bought it. If I get as far as replacing the cap I'll be doing some research on bleeding techniques. I did just watch a video of a guy using a PVC pipe/bong to fill the expansion tank that looked fairly straightforward. I'm open to suggestions.

[DanHoug]

[E1]

If it’s a cap bleeding off somewhere below the 14.5 psi/1 bar, the tank indeed will be full when hot — or so it was whenever ours have failed.

You may have air trapped, before or now. Try bringing to temp at idle, and run all the heaters.

Did you bleed the rad at full temp, and with the nose raised? There might be lots in there now, or somewhere else, for a variety of possible reasons.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[jlrftype7]

There are threads, and pictures, of people getting their Vanagon at a kind of steep angle to help bleed air out of the Coolant system.
And then there's the Libby Bong method as well.

Once you get actual coolant out of the Radiator Bleed hole, then worry about testing for Combustion Gas getting into your Coolant System from a possible failing Fire Ring Seal. That's our version of a failed Head Gasket as far as comparing to a more normal gasket set-up on other vehicles.
If you have a fire ring failing, you'll often lose output from the Front Heater Core as combustion air /pressure gets into the coolant system.

If you didn't seem to have pressure that relieved when you took your pressure cap off, all of this might be more normal, and cheaper, things like others have posted about. Failed Blue Cap, tank issue, system not bled of air in too many months.

So, fingers crossed and start with the simple stuff first.
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[my_vw_sucks]

Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions and community! I've ordered a Blau expansion cap. I'll go ahead and flush and bleed the system when it arrives. All of the comments really have me hopeful that it's a bad cap.

[Chootrain470]

I had a combustion leak about two years ago. The symptoms were my coolant would shoot out of the overflow tank after a drive like soda pop. I also would have a small puddle of coolant after parking for a while. Needless to say, I had low coolant issues too. I ended up needing to do a cylinder head replacement.

[my_vw_sucks]

[E1]

Chootrain, did you notice any air bubbling into your overflow once the gasket went bad?

Asking for a friend…


A failed blue cap will also jet out the overflow vent on top. I was in your exact shoes in worry, it was just a blue cap — and my first post here.

Fingers crossed bigly, odds are it’s a lesser cause like some others mentioned.

The longer and hotter the drive, the more the coolant pressure and coolant out a bad cap.

A shorter or cooler or less-stressful of a drive might cause everything from no rise to a lesser rise not quite overflowing.

Pressure-testing the system would be a good move, too.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[Chootrain470]

[E1]

Thanks for that.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[Crooked Designer]

Simple test on the blue cap. I have never done this as by the time I became aware of this video I already moved on to an aluminum expansion tank, but seems pretty simple.

Link

_________________
'85 Westy full camper, Subaru 2.5L, 5 speed SubiGears + 5speedbus shifter kit

[E1]

I filmed that, of a Bestie.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[Crooked Designer]

[E1]

Haha, Thanks, Ian’s a wonderful guy and clearly a Master of Ad Lib.

Makes us still laugh, too… the bulging eyes were not in the script.

All I did was hold my iPhone.

Certainly not an Engineering method, but has proven workable to finding our bad blue caps since. I think we shot it in early 2017.
_________________
1984 Westfailure/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s
AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." — Colin Chapman

Jonathan Weisheit, Race in Peace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dS7xiFn7I&t=500s

[my_vw_sucks]