Highest quality Head gasket replacement or ….

[Boegrrl]

It has been a while but i know there are some very wise Vdub vanagon owners in here.
At about 185,000 I blew the head gasket. Who has the highest quality, legit OE seal kit for my 2.1 ?
(Pretty sound machine)

Opinions from longtime owners what is the best choice?
Or a new/used Subie eng?

Thank you gentlemen, you have been awesome for a long time.
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'87 Wolfsburg Weekender

[DanHoug]

first, some clarification... did you blow the combustion chamber seal so your cooling system became pressurized or did it start leaking externally? the combustion chamber gasket is frequently called a 'fire ring seal' and the rubber one a water jacket seal.

you don't really have much choice in quality... pretty much the only gasket set available is the Victor-Reinz or Elring. the Elring set has a couple extra seals but the Victor-Reinz reportedly has a better water jacket seal but that may just be the waves of the internet lapping at the shore. there HAVE been water jacket seal quality issues. not so much with the fire rings.
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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[Boegrrl]

I blew the wetside, coolant in a big wet pilleus cloud.

Mech suggests he replace all O rings, etc very good advice I think.
What gaskets have you all used?
How many hours labor do you think it takes in this experts hands?
(He does all the work on my vanagon - takes pride in it. I’m lucky!)
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'87 Wolfsburg Weekender

[SlalomVan]

There have been some recent documented failures with the Elring brand of water jacket seals. Get the Victor Reinz brand and make sure you double check them for suppleness and cracks before you install them. Check out this thread for more info:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=20

Unfortunately I have first hand experience with this issue! These photos are of a failed water jacket seal on a rebuilt motor with about 1,500 miles on it. Both sides failed in the exact same way within 500 miles of each other.

If I had really checked them before I installed them, I would have most likely noticed all these small cracks.

Once the head was taken of, you can see how they split and eventually squished out and gushed coolant.

These were purchased from one of our well known vendors who immediately refunded and replaced these for me. As far as I know they are no longer selling the suspect brand.
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1989 Vanagon GL - 2.1 (White - "Northlake" Totaled/Gone)
1988 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg (Orly Blue - "Poulsbo" - Sold)
1989 Vanagon G - 2.1 (White - "Kingston") - Full rebuild underway - Last on the road in 1997