Club 80-90 Forums

Dear All!

I got my camper a few months ago. One of the head gaskets had to be replaced at the time, and the work was done by Bulli Barn (though I live in Wales, I bought the van in Essex through a relation). I've been happy with 'Honoria' so far. Anyway, over the months, I've had to replace about a pint of coolant every month or so, and I've been looking for leaks to no avail. But today I actually found water dripping from beneath the water jacket seal from that side of the engine that didn't have its gasket replaced. I've looked closely and can see a pink residue around the rubber, water jacket seal. It looks like it has oozed out, and if it wasn't pink I'd describe it as clear cut corrosion. So, do I have a head gasket leak, or just a water jacket leak, or do the same go hand in hand? Also, I've got to make two cross country trips across the UK in close succession, as of next week (Wales/Devil's Bridge to Colchester, then a couple of weeks later, ditto to Norwich), so will K-Seal be a useful short term solution?

Sal (and Honoria)

Hi Sal,

sounds like you have a water jacket seal leak, this is the rubber seal that goes between the water jacket and the cylinder head. It is a coomon failure on water cooled VW boxer engines (WBX's) after about 80000+ miles or when they get old!

If one had gone on one side I would normally have replaced the other side as well as they will be of similar age and likely to fail together as you have found

There isn't a traditional "head gasket" on a WBX as they are a wet liner engine so when people say they have a head gasket failure or they've replaced the head gasket they normally mean the water jacket seal.

Unfortunately it is highly unlikely K-seal and the like will seal this, and often the rad seal products can cause more problems than they solve as some of the coolant pipes on the WBX are of a very small bore and can clog with little encouragement.

If you want to understand more about water jacket seal replacement you could wiki, search or read this thread as a starter, https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=87097

Some have tried external sealants with some success but you would need to trawl through search to find the threads unless someone else can remember where they are.

I'm afraid I think you are looking at getting the water jacket seal replaced, couldn't really recommend any temporary fix's, you could take a chance on your long trips but keep a very close eye on the temperature gauge.

Perhaps if you are going to Colchester you could get Bulli Barn to do the failed gasket as you bought it from them presumably they would do it as goodwill or at a reduced price?

HTH

MM

mm289 wrote:Hi Sal,

sounds like you have a water jacket seal leak, this is the rubber seal that goes between the water jacket and the cylinder head. It is a coomon failure on water cooled VW boxer engines (WBX's) after about 80000+ miles or when they get old!

If one had gone on one side I would normally have replaced the other side as well as they will be of similar age and likely to fail together as you have found

There isn't a traditional "head gasket" on a WBX as they are a wet liner engine so when people say they have a head gasket failure or they've replaced the head gasket they normally mean the water jacket seal.

Unfortunately it is highly unlikely K-seal and the like will seal this, and often the rad seal products can cause more problems than they solve as some of the coolant pipes on the WBX are of a very small bore and can clog with little encouragement.

If you want to understand more about water jacket seal replacement you could wiki, search or read this thread as a starter, https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=87097

Some have tried external sealants with some success but you would need to trawl through search to find the threads unless someone else can remember where they are.

I'm afraid I think you are looking at getting the water jacket seal replaced, couldn't really recommend any temporary fix's, you could take a chance on your long trips but keep a very close eye on the temperature gauge.

Perhaps if you are going to Colchester you could get Bulli Barn to do the failed gasket as you bought it from them presumably they would do it as goodwill or at a reduced price?

HTH

MM

I must admit that I never appreciated that my engine was a WBX (=water boxer?). Iike you I have a Trident Autosleeper, 1991, but 2.1 litre.

If I lived in Colchester I would go back to Bulli barn, but number 1, they usually have a waiting list, and number 2, how would I get back to my Welsh fastness?

Oh woh is me...!!

sal