Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all I have a 1900 waterboxer t25 (pre 1985 style) basically it's head gasket blew a couple of years ago and filled the entire 17L of coolant with oil, this resulted in a new engine. Fast forward to present day and the oil in the coolant system has now taken his toll on ALL of my rubber hoses, one blew on the way back from holiday then when I got it home and replaced the blown bit I ran it up and another went bang in a different part of the system

I would like to change my coolant pipes to silicone as I hear these are pretty damn good, the front to back metal pipes I'm gonna replace for stainless steel and I'm getting a new radiator and flushing the engine.

I'm struggling like hell to find the pipes I need :/ I have geared of people buying silicone pipes and reducers and creating there own kit, if anyone can help me with how they did this and cost I would be very grateful or if anyone has any ideas or experience with a solid plan to change all my pipes I am happy to go for it

Thanks in advance for the help the faster the better as its my daily runner

Brickwerks sell everything you need - though not sure how many of the pipes will be available in silicon. Genuine VW stock is as good as it needs to be.

The other way is to do each one in turn, that way you can calculate what you need. I've begun doing it that way.

Before you go replacing all your hoses it may be worth checking that your not leaking gas into the coolant system.

You have the same symptoms i had. Mine was due to cylinder sealing ring failure.

All the best

You might want to look at changing to a late setup which may be more readily available. The original hoses on my vans which are both 1990 are still in excellent condition. Folk such NWVW may be able to supply a complete 'set' from a breaker.

syncroandy wrote:You might want to look at changing to a late setup which may be more readily available. The original hoses on my vans which are both 1990 are still in excellent condition. Folk such NWVW may be able to supply a complete 'set' from a breaker.

I agree with that - well worth the bother, especially as you can't get early expansion tanks & they do fail quite readily being so old.

puddin wrote:Before you go replacing all your hoses it may be worth checking that your not leaking gas into the coolant system.

You have the same symptoms i had. Mine was due to cylinder sealing ring failure.

All the best

second that, it is well worth having a sniff test done before replacing the cooling system and still having a problem

How much is involved in changing the coolant system (my expansion tank has failed) and how much is it looking at costing?

Pretty straightforward really & all explained here: (scroll to bottom) https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 4#p7899584" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The only part you may find tricky to find is a late bottle retaining bracket. The rest is just a case of fitting a 'H' pipe connector & changing a few hoses. http://www.justkampers.com/025-121-438- ... -1992.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

weimarbus wrote:

puddin wrote:Before you go replacing all your hoses it may be worth checking that your not leaking gas into the coolant system.
You have the same symptoms i had. Mine was due to cylinder sealing ring failure.
All the best

second that, it is well worth having a sniff test done before replacing the cooling system and still having a problem

When I had one hose blow after another, it turned out to be a combination of a faulty "Dalek" cap not releasing excess pressure, plus one of the thin rubber hoses that goes from the back of the left hand cylinder jacket had a blockage.

So, get a sniff test done and make sure you check all the thinner hoses for blockages by running fresh water through them.

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