At some point in this engine's life the water pump bearing wore out and the impeller wobbled and scraped until the seal failed and the leak forced replacement.  I'll bet most engines have wear of this sort.  Nothing to be concerned about, and if your current pump is not wobbling you could put it back in if you want, depending on how many miles are on it.  I typically got around 80k on my pumps over the years, at least with the OEM type.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Neil N
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 9:25 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Coolant Pump: wear at case

But I thought VW made sauerkraut BBQ sauce just for that purpose?
Good point. Thanks. Somewhere in my parts heap is a brake pressure equalizer in a ziplock bag.

I doubt  the wear at the case is an issue. Maybe the 0.5mm step is there from the factory but the concave semi circle wear is not?

On Thursday, September 25, 2014, Brett Ne <brettn777@gmail.com> wrote:

> If you're worried about the seals drying out during storage, just give 
> them a good spraying with silicon spray and store it in a plastic bag.  
> But do take care that no barbecue sauce gets on it...
>
>
>
> --
> Brett in Portland, OR
> "Albert" '82 VanaFox I4 Riviera
>

--
Neil n

Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca

'88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p

'81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"  http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:

http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej