Page 116 of Camper Products by Go Westy

118 www.gowesty.com call toll free 1.888.469.3789 local/international 805.528.7888 about $100 per engine, eliminate the counter weights, and it would work fine. Indeed, it would probably make it past the warranty period. Our goal, however, is to make an engine that performs better, is more efficient, and lasts LONGER. While it is true that our warranty is 48 months or 48,000 miles, which is four times greater than any of our competitors, we all know that should not be nearly the life of the engine.... Leaky gHead Gasketsh on Waterboxer Engines. Many early generation waterboxers suffered from premature cylinder head coolant leaks that gave them a reputation as a poorly designed, unreliable powerplant. This couldnft be further from the truth. Read on! The common leaking ghead gaskets designh problem on Vanagons is neither a head gasket or design problem. The part that actually fails and leaks coolant externally is the water jacket seal, not the head gasket. 40,000 miles, or two to four years. VW replaced countless water jacket seals under warranty, and the stigma has plagued the waterboxer image ever since. VW realized the problem and switched to a phosphate-free coolant. The problem was pretty much solved, but not entirely. Even with phosphatefree coolant, typical life of the water jacket seals were no more than 10 years or 140,000 miles. Out of warranty for sure, but still not up to modernday reliability standards by a long shot. So whatfs the answer? The trick to keeping this problem from occurring on your waterboxer powered Vanagon is to simply flush the coolant every two years with phosphatefree coolant and distilled water. We have taken engines apart after five years with ABSOLUTELY ZERO corrosion. So what started out as somewhat of a design issue turned into a purely maintenance issue. So, what kind of coolant is the best? Contrary to popular folklore, it is not essential to obtain at all costs the genuine German, VW endorsed, flownover-from-the-homeland Autobahn (blue) coolant. ANY coolant that is PHOSPHATE-FREE will work fine. That, distilled water, and flushing every other year is the ticket. Here at GoWesty, we have the building plumbed with Exxon brand coolant mixed 50/50 with distilled water. Thatfs the way we buy it, pre-mixed, and it works great. This is a nonissue, people! On to the next problem! As you can see in the photo #1 below, the cylinders in the waterboxer design are freestanding. The actual head gaskets are the small all-metal rings that sit between the top of the cylinder itself and the bottom of the cylinder head. They seal the combustion gases inside the combustion chamber, one per cylinder. The water jacket seal is an all-rubber, U-shaped cross section gasket that seals the water jacket from the leaking coolant out, one per cylinder head, shown below. When VW introduced the waterboxer in 1983 they did not realize the extent to which the design was susceptible to corrosion. The corrosion problem, particularly between the water jacket seal and cylinder head, was exacerbated by the presence of phosphate in the coolant. On early waterboxers it was not uncommon for the water jacket seals to fail and leak coolant as early as THE GOWESTY LIBRARY

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