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Date:         Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:07:52 -0800
Reply-To:     Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject:      Re: Leaking Head perment fix ??
Comments: To: Mike <mbucchino@CHARTER.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <0ed601c827ea$33c6b470$0a00a8c0@OWNERMIKE>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Are you saying excessive amount of sealant on the 'water retention' gaskets of waterboxer engines will keep proper torque from being allied to the gasket ????

If you are, sorry, can't buy it. Any excessive silicone sealant will just get squeezed out. It's not like old coolant sitting in the bottom of a head bolt hole on an inline upright engine, , where it can't easily escape. I've had to pay very close attention to how much that rubber water gasket is squeezed. Too little and it will leak, too much and it will get pinched and split and leak. The 'step distance' between the flat bottom of the head, and where the metal sealing rings sit, in the combustion area, determines how hard the water gasket is compressed. You must put the head on without the water gasket, with the metal rings in place and measure what the gap is that the water gasket needs to seal. . Last time I dealt with this, I measured the water gasket at 3.5 mm thick. It needs to be compressed at least half a millimeter. I've seen the gap vary across the top of the block there as badly as 3 mm on one end and maybe 6 on the other end - how ya gonna seal that !? Anyway...it's not excessive sealant keeping the head from seating down well enough on the gasket, if we are talking about the same thing here. Scott www.turbovans.com

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Mike Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:47 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Leaking Head perment fix ??

He says, "3 split head gaskets in 4 months"? Sounds like a 'mechanic' that didn't know what he was doing. ANY gasket will split (some call this 'hydraulic'ing) by applying excessive wet (un-cured) sealant, then promptly torqueing the part down tight. As fluid is non-compressible (silicone is fluid before it cures), this causes the too-large amount of sealant to need to find room to go somewhere, splitting the brand-new seal. The mechanic needs to use the exact gasket or seal, using the exact type and amount of sealant (or lack thereof) as specified in the manual. Varying from this exact procedure WILL give you problems, one way or the other........ Too many well-intentioned 'mechanics' have made this mistake; "I don't want this thing to leak again, if some is good, then more will be better". WRONG! And thinking that you can out-engineer the factory by inventing your own gasket/ sealant/ torque values, is also just plain wrong! His limited, 'worked-great-for-me' repair is really pushing things, to recommend it to others. And since when does a thicker gasket require a higher torque? I don't know what this guy's smokin', but it must be good stuff. Allowing the silicone sealant to cure first, before full and final torque is a good idea. I recommend using a correct, quality gasket and sealant kit, applied and torqued 'exactly' as directed. This will most likely result in a long-lasting, no-leak, permanent repair. I'm NOT saying that factory did this perfectly right, but I AM saying that it's your only right way to do it. It has lasted many hundreds of thousands of miles on many engines for many years, so something there must be right.............

Mike B.

----- Original Message ----- From: "TC" <trclark@SHAW.CA> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 12:10 PM Subject: Leaking Head perment fix ??

> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=264403 > > they suggested their 1/4" hi-temp silicone sheet & make some.(RED) 2-3 > tries > to get pattern correct & cut easily with exacto knife-go slow. cut 1/4" > larger than o.s. of head & no holes covered.clean gasket mating surface & > run narrow bead of silicone around incenter-center gasket on head & place > board on with a weight(brick etc)until cured.check seal position & place > on > board seal down-trace o.s. of head with pen.place head,prod tubes inplace > & > instl head touching block. NOW check tracing--if still ok seal in correct > pos.torque heads with BEAM wrench-ADDING 5 lbs as gasket is 50thsnd > thicker. > myne been on 11yrs with a cyl seal replace 3 yrs ago/reused seals.2 other > wbxs had same & run 2+ years each.use your own judgement as tothis > > comments ??? >


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