Date: Wed, 18 Dec 96 23:55:20 CST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Kyle Wade <pengi@cruzio.com>
Subject: Re: Raceware Head Studs
At 09:56 PM 12/18/96 -0600, you wrote:
>
>Hi all,
> I have heard a lot about RACEWARE studs for the Wasserboxer heads.
>Supposedly they have been able to stop the leaky head gasket syndrome. If
>(when) my heads start to weep I will try them. But I was also wondering
>if anyone out there has used these studs, and how well they worked? Also
>do you guys think that it would help to prevent/postpone the leaking if I
>switched them out now? TIA
>
>Cory
>'86 White Westfalia ("Day")
>'91 Black Jetta GLi 16V ("Night")
m I've seen these studs and we've( Volks Cafe)have used them on HP type 4
engines too.
We've yet to build a Waterboxer engine with Raceware studs, but with the
info availible on these studs, the research they've done on studs for other
engines (911 Turbo) that have other types of stud problems than Waterboxers,
but too have stud breakage problems.
The info given by Raceware is that these studs are Stronger, Coated with
Anti-Corrosive coating (Epoxy I think).
The Strength and expansion rates are matched to those of the engine more
than the VW studs. Also the different qualities that these studs have seem
to keep the heads from lossening due to expansion of the engine at different
rates.
I do want to add a couple of things;
I've seen many Waterboxer engines torn down, many are rusty inside, and
the studs are pitted and rusty. Many of the rusty studs are thin and about
ready to break.
Today we tore down a motor, it looked like it was built a month ago, best
we can tell it was original from VW, it came out of a 85 7 passenger.
From our opinon this is a Prime example of a Well maintained Cooling
System. Correct coolant used for the life of the engine, changed on regular
intervals. This just goes to show us if we maintain the cooling systems and
use corect coolant Always, Maybe we won't need to spend BIG money on studs
like Raceware?
Kyle
Kyle Wade
Keeper of the volks-motorsports page
www.volks-motorsports.com home page
Pengi@cruzio.com