[Vwdiesel] overheat - blowing hot air out the overflow hose

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/15/2008 8:39:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
william at taygan.com writes:

> I pulled the little overflow hose, and it's blowing hot steam, no
> coolant at all.
> 
> I'm assuming it's in need of a head gasket..  Hopefully that's all.
> 

  You MIGHT not have a blown gasket.  I've recently had the 
same thing happen on the pu.  Turned out where the water pump 
housing connects to the block, both of those bolts had backed out.  
That's where the coolant was going but it only blew out on the 
road apparently because I never had so much as a drop under it.
  Got steam and all that a couple times.  It has Raceware so I 
put a little more to the head bolts just before finding the problem.
  I seem to still have a little bit of gasket leak, small, short bursts 
of air occasionally, through the small hose, but nothing major at all.  
I think the gasket's probably weak from the heating but it'll make 
it through winter. 
  You could have something similar where a bit more on the head 
bolts might help.  Might not but it won't hurt to try.  If the gasket's 
gone then you're looking at a head gasket and probably a light 
resurface of the head.  A bit more torque to the bolts and driving 
it a little might help reduce any warpage too.  :-)  
  The head's almost always warped a bit when a head gasket's 
blown and/or it's been overheated.  Since you only get .002" it 
doesn't take much.  :-(
    Loren


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