Who offers the best engine gasket set for the 2.1?

[DanHoug]

i just measured 4 water jacket seals... 2 V-R and 2 unknown but look identical to the V-R in all machining marks. all 4 measured at 0.220".

according to the memo, this exceeds the typical gasket thickness of "Commonly (.145"-.170")". i have not measured my head to water jacket clearance but if we assume for a moment that it is the typical .130"-.150" clearance, my resulting crush on the rubber gasket is .070"- .090" which exceeds the memo suggested crush of .020"- .030".

all very curious.
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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

[bobbyblack]

So then.. The floppy gaskets are poor, seemably, from all sources. Would there be a point to finding the right thickness of gasket rubber, tracing the outline, and cutting it flat, and just forgo the U shape? I'm just about to do some engine work; what thoughts are out regarding why the continued use of a gasket that has the original shape if it is already going to be a 5k mi disaster?
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[ALIKA T3]

[ALIKA T3]

[DanHoug]

Rocky Jennings confirmed with me that the set he sent was V-R and he said he's never had a problem with them. so there's that!

i won't machine the heads to decrease my gasket squish and i haven't been able to get anything other than V-R so i'm just going with what i have but with The Right Stuff as sealant.

i would be kinda interesting to try making a urethane mold and casting silicone water jacket seals. seems like it would be a frustrating process to get right between the deep channel and the durometer needed.
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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

[SlalomVan]

I finally got around to replacing the leaking water jacket seal on the passenger side of my van. If you remember, the rebuilt engine has less than 5K miles on it. I had to replace the drivers side water jacket seal after it failed about 1K miles ago. The first failure on the drivers side was exactly the same as this time. Unfortunately I am getting really good and tearing off the heads while the engine is still in the van.

The gasket set I used when I originally rebuilt the motor was the Elring brand. The new water jacket seals I installed were Victor Reinz. The following photos show what happened.

Seal bulging out between block and head

Split seal still attached to block

Split in seal

Cracks in seal when bent. These show up all along the seal, not just the in the corners where the splits occurred.

I will be contacting the vendor I purchased the set from and let them know that I think these parts are flawed and prone to failure. I am not a professional engine-builder by any stretch of the imagination. I take my time, keep things very clean, measure, weigh and measure again and in general feel that I am pretty meticulous when putting these motors together. After looking closely at these parts and having similar back to back failures, I am confident the failures were not from how this motor went together.

A word of advice to all who take on an engine rebuild. Check your parts before you install them. A lot of these NOS parts are old and have been sitting on a shelf or in a box for a long time. They should all be checked and thrown out if they are old. Despite looking and feeling okay before I installed these water jacket seals, I should have looked at these parts more closely for cracks and potential issues.

Live and learn!
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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

[mark-hans]

Oh, Oh, this horror story continues (now years). We haven't had a water jacket seal problem in a long while, but again, we are short of VR, so we will be using Elring. I only hope that the quality control is better than 4 years ago. This jacket seal is essential to be correct and a bit flexible. Apart from the sea itself, there are various trains of thought of how to fit them. Sometimes I do wonder if this has an effect? I use a VERY small amount of sealant on both sides of the seal. Not a lot.... truly a small spread. When using copper fire rings, I tend to retighten the head bolts 10 minutes after the last round. If everything sets correctly I hope this problem doesn't return. Truth is, I don't actually know. I imagine these jacket seals are made by an independant company? supplying VR and Elring?
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Mark, Amsterdam.

[ZsZ]