That wear is from a past water pump failure. The down side is reduced performance at low-idle speed. Often this shows up as engines heats more than it should before radiator fan turns on. A good epoxy can fix this.

Dennis,
From my phone.
________________________________
From: Neil N<mailto:musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sent: ‎9/‎25/‎2014 11:47 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM<mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Subject: Re: Coolant Pump: wear at case

Thanks Stuart.

Just for fun, a close up shot of the engine case using a "real"
camera:  (not blackberry camera):

http://tinyurl.com/orxgqef

You can kind of see the wear Stuart refers to; the face of the case
where pump impeller (or a part of the impeller?) was rubbing created a
curved surface.

As others have commented from time to time, cleaning outlets where
hoses attach is important. In the past, have been used to dealing with
steel. It's interesting to see how the aluminum "lumps up", if I'm not
incorrect:

http://tinyurl.com/om8pwxb

I took a scraper and carefully removed the lumps, a little emery cloth
and they should be fine.

Found it interesting to see that the metal nipple outlet at case
(passenger side) was squished. I have no idea why. I doubt a hose
clamp would've done that.

Good fun learning about the WBX. I'd almost be tempted to do a rebuild
on one just for the knowledge. (and for taking pictures.     ;)

Neil.

On 9/25/14, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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

--
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