George,
my guess is that the guys that did the rebuild didn't torque the
cylinder head bolts correctly or maybe stripped the threads on one of
the bolts or used the wrong gasket or crimped the gasket when they
first put it in.   If the gasket was put in right was wasn't already
damaged, I think one of your other hoses would blow before the gasket.

Gee, I hope this horror story doesn't happen to me.  It sounds
horrible.  Good luck getting it replaced.

-- Craig

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, George Thorburn wrote:

> I have an '85 Westfalia with the stock 1.9 WBX engine.  The engine has been recently rebuilt.( about 3000 kilometers ago) Everything has been working great until yesterday when I found a puddle of coolant on the garage floor.  After a bit of looking I found the leak.  The thick rubber gasket between the right head and the water jacket was torn and one end was sticking out.  What may have caused this to happen?  I was driving the van yesterday and the day before, the temperature has been over 30 Celsius (near 100 F).  The temperature gauge has been reading normal (near the led).  There is still coolant in the overflow bottle.  Is there a reason that there may have been to much pressure in the coolant system, or is it possible that the part of the gasket that popped out was not properly sealed when the engine was being re-assembled?
> I will be talking to the shop that re-built the motor on Monday.  Any ideas will be welcome.
> Thanks,
> George
> '85 Westfalia
>

--
Craig Oda   craigoda@communitybuilders.info
VW Info: 1983 VW Westfalia, water-cooled, automatic