Who offers the best engine gasket set for the 2.1?

[allsierra123]

Just curious if they are all basically the same or are there better sets to be had?
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95 GMC Yukon 6.5 TD 2 Door Tow pig/ Daily driver.
91 Vanagon GL. 1.9TD Conversion Sold
81 Vw rabbit 1.6 Diesel. Sold

[CF]

some are cheap some are good
the best way to know is buy it from a good suplier or a good engine rebuilder,like boston bob

[tencentlife]

For the wbx, Victor Reinz and Elring are the OEM equivalents. Both are good, and include the two sealants you need to do the job in more than sufficient quantities (I like the water jacket sealant for the case halves and oil pump, for example, and there is more than enough to do those things, too). The Elring sells at a much higher list price but is a bit more comprehensive (it has the water junction o-rings that the Reinz kit lacks, for one thing).

The biggest difference that helps to offset price somewhat is that Elring includes a flywheel seal that you would actually use, it's good quality, whereas the one included in the Reinz kit is junk. Although at retail you would still come out ahead price-wise to get the Reinz kit and in addition their excellent orange Viton seal separately, which is only about $10-15.

I did find the Elring kit at an incredible price, $74, from Northside Imports in Chicago, courtesy of 8419p27 Paul, who used to work there. They apparently have operations in CA, NY, and NJ as well.

www.northsideimports.com
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[allsierra123]

Well would you tear the whole thing down and install all the seals? Or just do the head gaskets? do I need an account to order through them?
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95 GMC Yukon 6.5 TD 2 Door Tow pig/ Daily driver.
91 Vanagon GL. 1.9TD Conversion Sold
81 Vw rabbit 1.6 Diesel. Sold

[klucz]

You don't need an account in Chicago (not sure about other locations).

[SlalomVan]

I am resurrecting a really old thread here. I am perplexed! I have rebuilt a handful of 2.1 wbxr motors over the last 10 years and always used a Victor Reinz gasket sets and the Right Stuff on the heads. I am pretty meticulous and take my time rebuilding these motors. All of these motors have over 100K miles on them and are going strong - except the last one. The last one I rebuilt about 6 months ago and has about 5,000 miles on it. I am still breaking it in.

On this most recent engine I ended up using a Elring gasket set with brand new AMC heads. The Erring set was not what I thought I ordered or was shown on the web site of one of our faithful and trusted Vanagon vendors. However, it is what came in the mail. So I forged ahead and used it.

Anyways, on this latest engine I have had both water-jacket seals fail within the first 5,000 miles on the rebuilt engine. When the first one on the driver's side went, I thought how weird, I must have pinched it or not had it fully seated when I torqued the head down. It split and was pushed out from between the head and the block. I pulled the head (with the motor in place) and used a Victor Reinz seal when I put it all back together. All was well for another 500+/- miles. UNTIL the the passenger side split yesterday in what looks like the exact same place. Fortunately both times I was within a block or two of my driveway and was able to limp home. Is this just a coincidence? Did I mess up both sides when I installed the heads? Or, is there something faulty with the gasket set I got?

I am interested to hear from this group and get your thoughts.

Once I get the passengers side a part I will take a photo of the water jacket seal and show how it has failed. Stay tuned!
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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

[tpinthepack]

Good luck on this issue,
Slalom Van I wanted to jump in and say that is a really nice-looking engine, love that color contrast with Red.
Tony
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TP in the Pack (I am a cyclist)
1968 Manx N.O.S. w/ Barrett Chassis
1960 Single Cab 1914 w/ 40 DLRA's
1990 Vanagon DOKA
1972 Super Beetle
1979 Super Beetle Convertible
2011 Porsche Cayenne

[MarkWard]

Stretch diagnosis: is it possible the heads were machined wrong? If the deck and the combustion chamber depth was incorrect, it might allow the head to over squish the seal.

I’d also be curious of the manufacture date of the gasket set. Maybe they sat on a shelf too long in a poor environment. After you seal it up hopefully you are good to go. If not, your going to have to make some measurements. Bummer.

[Abscate]

In this brave new world Brand(2005) != Brand(2022)

That’s programming wankerese for

‘ Wall Street wankers destroy good brands in pursuit of money’

Buying a brand based on past performance does not equate with future value.

Bosch rebuilt electrical stuff the most recent casualty of this mass shooting event
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[DanHoug]

man this is distressing as i have an engine i'm putting together and do NOT want the gasket to fail in 5k miles. i have two sets of gaskets, i'm going to go over every inch looking for a defect.
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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

[Wildthings]

[MarkWard]

It would be easy enough to temporarily install the head and measure the gap between the waterjacket and the cylinder head sealing surface. Then measure the thickness of the supplied gasket on the bench. Doing the math you'll get an idea of how much the gasket is getting compressed. It needs some compression, but too much and the water jacket would likely cut into it causing it to fail.

[hardway]

I have a sheet stapled into my old Bentley book. It came from Foreign Auto Supply Team. The sheet recommends fitting the heads dry at 20 ft/lbs and measuring the air gap. The recommendation is to achieve 0.020 to 0.030 of an inch crush on the gasket. It is a little tricky to measure the gasket thickness. I use a machinists caliper to wiggle around the lip after I tighten the set screw. If there was too much crush the gasket should have split lengthwise above the crankcase.

[ALIKA T3]

Yes, Elring gaskets fail. It's been documented by rebuilders Mark Pluygers in Holland who had a lawsuit I think against them but nothing good came out of it.
Avoid entirely.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10220345601339669&set=pcb.779968132443785
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[hardway]

I have been asked to post a photo of my ancient tip sheet for waterboxer coolant jacket heads. So here it is.

[MarkWard]

[DanHoug]

yes, thank you so much for making this public!!! i've got 2 water jacket sets and will be measuring them both for thickness as well as measuring the test fit clearance on my engine. great info!
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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

[dabaron]

Victor Reinz and nothing else has been pounded into me on this forum. now i know why... sorry man, it sounds like those gaskets were just crap from the jump.

i'm sure you'll have troublefree motoring with the proper manufacturer's product. inferiority is a plague.
_________________
1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic

[ALIKA T3]

Does this apply only for aftermarket gaskets? I had no idea they came in different thicknesses, is this done one purpose or is it just manufacturers tolerances from one brand to another?
VW only had one thickness and part number 025101345.
_________________
Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget

[hardway]

I have one leg in VAG products and one leg in BMW land. Reinz is reviled by BMW techs and for good reason. Reinz BMW valve cover gaskets leak profusely. Oil filter housing profile gaskets also. Now I only use genuine BMW gaskets on any rubber profile gasket. The same with Mercedes. Only OE or for the old ones Bruss,

Elring used to be the standard. Two years ago I was in a pinch for a Valvetronic motor gasket on a BMW valve cover job. I ordered an Elring. The Elring package contained a Reinz gasket.

I talked to the Elring rep at the BIMRs meeting about it. Unlike Reinz, Elring is still owned by the founding family. Most of the mittlestand firms have been sold to the very large international corporations. The rep told me that when they have a lack of a product that they will repackage other brands. Next time I see the Elring rep I will discuss this with him. I will say that I still use Elring gasket and seals in many applications and have no trouble with them.

I have probably done less than 30 Waterboxer head jobs in my time. I have measured every one and never found one to be outside the desired crush. But I am extremely averse to machining those cylinder heads. I have done my share of machining in the past and getting both cylinder bores fly cut square and to the same depth and then the same on the water jacket sealing surface is asking a bit much.

I am certain that I have used Elring in this application before. Something to consider is that there are a lot of counterfeit parts around. I have found them in the WorldPac supply chain. But They never made OE waterboxer parts in China. So that means that it is unlikely that counterfeits are making their way into the OE supplier pipelines. But on Amazon? FCP? Etc.. But this is the second thread on The Samba with failing gaskets branded Elring.