Club 80-90 Forums

At the end of last week I was told that the water pouring out of my engine was due to having a cracked water jacket gasket. This does not sound good to me. What is a water jacket gasket, and how much trouble am I actually in this time ? I know that it was caused by overheating, but what is likely to have caused this? Before it happened I did a five hour journey which had some oil burning smells, well, more then normal. The water tank was past it's max limit too. As this works on the principal of steam and expansion, would being over filled cause this problem. I still made it to the festival I was going to. Okay, it was 15 hours lAter then planned and in a car, but got there none the less.

How hard is this going to be to fix and what will need to be done?

Wat age is the van and do you think the engine is original or ever been changed at some point??? we will presume a 1.9 or 2.1 waterboxer (WBX)

If its been overheated then its likely other parts are a bit fried too.. not good.. if its an original pre 85 engine, then really forget trying to do anything with it, a rebiult exchange engine from someone like Elite is the best option..

Unless you are really lucky, your local garage wont be familier enough with these engines and it will cost as much as a rebuilt engine for them to half fix it...

The water jacket seal is a rubber one that goes around the water jacket and seals to the head.. not to be confused with a "head gasket" as it isnt...

Need to look in a haynes manual to see how your engine is built as they are quite unique compared to a "normal" engine...

might be a head stud let go....
try turning the head nuts on the leak side.. if you've busted one it'll turn easy.
if it's busted the engine is toast.
if not you might get away with replacing the rubber seal.... easy job, but..
If you snap a stud doing that...


....use the dud engine to get a recon off elite

My van is an F reg so I suppose it will be 89 ? Although the engine has been subject to repairs of various sizes and scales it is still the original stock engine. It's had work done on the top end about three years ago. Luckily there is proper v dub specialist at the end of my road who knows the van far better then I will. Also believe it to be 1.9l. Should I just bite the bullet and go straight for a new engine or trust my man to do his magic again and cause another resurrection. All the work this man has ever done on the van as always been 100% and never had to be revisited.

Inderlad wrote:My van is an F reg so I suppose it will be 89 ? Although the engine has been subject to repairs of various sizes and scales it is still the original stock engine. It's had work done on the top end about three years ago. Luckily there is proper v dub specialist at the end of my road who knows the van far better then I will. Also believe it to be 1.9l. Should I just bite the bullet and go straight for a new engine or trust my man to do his magic again and cause another resurrection. All the work this man has ever done on the van as always been 100% and never had to be revisited.

let the man try and fix it.. get a quote.
Over £500 and you could have a nice 2.1 off e-bay

If you replace the engine...fit the 2.1 using your existing carburettor.

£1000 gets you one with a guarantee off elite

Who is this elite you both mention?

http://www.elitevw.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Make your own mind up then do a search in here (technical) or 'members chat' for comment

or there's brickyard for more comment

Inderlad wrote:My van is an F reg so I suppose it will be 89 ? Although the engine has been subject to repairs of various sizes and scales it is still the original stock engine. It's had work done on the top end about three years ago. Luckily there is proper v dub specialist at the end of my road who knows the van far better then I will. Also believe it to be 1.9l. Should I just bite the bullet and go straight for a new engine or trust my man to do his magic again and cause another resurrection. All the work this man has ever done on the van as always been 100% and never had to be revisited.

Might be an idea to speak with them then and see what they can do..... I've never had any dealings with Elite, as I am building my own engines several have dealt with them on here though.. but do some research...