Recon engine or new head gasket

[Pollysuze]

Hey guys! I recently bought my van, and the head gasket is leaking coolant. A mechanic has told me to replace it but I've spoken to a VW garage who specialise in the old campers and he's told me it isn't worth it and to just put in a reconned engine.

He said if the coolant is leaking out the head gasket, 9/10 there is corrosion to the pins and a replacement engine is necessary. At first this seemed quite an extreme fix as i havent had an old vehicle for about 13 years but from what i can see, it seems like a pretty logical fix.

Would you guys agree?? He said he can get an engine for around £2.2k ish, but I'm welcome to find one myself so if anyone has any recommendations that would be fab!

This is my first T25 - it's a 1990 water-cooled 1.9 petrol engine. I'm still getting to grips with the joys of an old vehicle haha! Haven't been able to properly drive her anywhere as obviously I need to get the gasket sorted first!

Thanks!

[Mocki]

See the problem is no one seems to want to do the work anymore .....  water jacket seals leaking don’t really mean a new engine , especially with the later engine you "should" have in yours ( as long as someone hasn’t swapped it for a older one which are more prone to braking studs ) 
the gasket kits are about £100 a side , but you obviously need someone’s labour onto that , prob about ten hours , so maybe another £600 - £800 on top , and if the studs don’t snap , you saved a grand , if they snap , you maybe lost £200 plus half the labour cost( no point paying for it to be put back in if it didn’t work) 
true it’s gamble , but it’s pretty good odds, if you can trust your "specialist" knows what they are doing ......

which is why many end up buying a complete engine , which still costs you 8 hours labour to swap out plus the price of the engine ..... I would, and have taken the gamble , albeit many years ago when costs were a lot more realistic , but only you can make that choice . 

whichever way you go , and no doubt there will be some along very soon to say put a Japcrap or dirty diesel in , it’s going to cost for the spanner work at £60 plus pounds a hour 

[ajsimmo]

What your VW specialist really told you is that he doesn't want to do it, probably because it's more difficult than fitting an engine, and you're paying anyway so he'd prefer the quick easy payday.

It takes some knowledge and expertise to replace the water jacket seal (as it's more accurately called, as it's not really a head gasket like a normal engine), particularly if done without removing the engine, and as said, it's a bit of a gamble. Having said that, I've had many successes this way, and only once broke a corroded head stud (which I managed to remove and replace). So I certainly wouldn't recommend dashing out to buy a cheap engine just yet, but find someone who knows waterboxers and can do what's needed. In the right hands it should be doable with a bill in the hundreds, not thousands.

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