In a message dated 12/08/2007 10:01:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

I just  finished with some maintenance with the cooling
system. In the process, I  replaced the water pump
because a drop or so has been dripping from the  peep
hole for a year now. In the process, I found out a
couple of  things:

1) The pump’s propeller somehow (seal went bad?)  moved
towards the crankcase and has done some damage to the
crankcase  body (see picture). It kind of shaved some
of the crankcase’s metal. I  guess it was rubbing on
the crankcase, I don’t know for how long. Water  pump
was made in  Germany.

http://www.esu.edu/~gstylia/vw/WaterPumpDamage1.jpg

2)  The water pump itself was really held by only 2 out
of the 3 nuts. The  third one seemed to not have been
tightened all the way when the pump was  replaced.
Still, there was no leak at that particular point, or
probably  some that I did not notice.

The pump was replaced 8 years ago. We were  going on
vacation driving to Destin, Florida and about 1 mile
from our  hotel, the previous water pump went into
pieces. What a time! Anyway, we  found a place to have
it fixed. The person who did the job was very nice  and
very helpful. It just turned out that in the midst of
things, he did  not tightened the third nut all the
way. So, all these years, we may have  been driving on
2 nuts. Is that fun, or what? I am not sure for how
long  the rubbing took place.

QUESTION: Should I be concerned about the  damage on
the crankcase body? Has anybody else had such  a
problem?

During that process, I also noticed that one of   my
water/coolant long pipes that go under the van needed
some work. I  will share soon.

This  is normal.  Every single one of the waterboxer engines I have seen has 
this  problem.  Not much you can do about it unless you want to remove the  
engine.  Just leave it be, install the new pump and be happy.  When I  rebuild 
engines I do fix that damaged area using JB Weld.  But since the JB  Weld stays 
liquid for such a long time you need to build a dam to keep it in  place 
until it sets up.  This also requires the surface your working on to  be 
horizontal.  Not the case with the engine in the van, eh ?   

Cheers,    

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (_Collection for sale_ 
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )
_Frank Condelli &  Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)  
- Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
_Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust  Systems_ 
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm)  
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camping event, Almonte, ON, June 07 ~ 10,  2007