The seals are seeping on my wasserboxer, although not low k's (over 200 000) it runs great and doesn't burn oil.

it needs a seal kit

The only thing I am worried about is I'm not sure how the former owner treated it. I am deathly afraid of opening a can of worms
My first question is this-
What worms could I expect to find?
Second question-
The Brasilian made barrel, piston and ring kits are quite cheap, should I throw one in.

I wont be touching the bottom end or rods, good german stuff should have no problems with more k's

My biggest concern is finding loads of corrosion in the alloy mating faces and rusted in studs.

If there are any who have done a few of these motors what do you usually find?

What condition are the studs in after 20+ years in the drink?
Aftermarket stainless studs?

There is alot I like about this engine design. If only they hadn't put the engine studs in the water jacket. Why oh why?

any reply's appreciated

what seals you talking about??
Water or oil??

"My biggest concern is finding loads of corrosion in the alloy mating faces and rusted in studs"
dead right!
Has the propper G12++ coolant been used?? and regularly changed?

Where abouts are you?
There are a few of us here with these
A few aven know how to fix them
Grumble and Menangler are good sources of info

Have you checked out
http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/ 

Can be a bit "funny" but a lot of info there

Beware, can be very likely that you will have more to do than seals. You can have the possibility of a complete teardown if there are problems with head studs.
Normally the higher mileage cars are good, lower mileage or non genuine coolant vehicles are the worst. At 200k yours unfortunately falls into the lower mileage group....just, so you never know, was it genuinely (VW) serviced for long, the books should tell you.
I recently had a head off my own T3, at 360k km, an genuine servicing untill 160k, and a comercial van in Sydney (thrashed most likely :tu, the insides were like NEW, studs, bores amd area's that corode....like new.
But if a head stud is coroded, jus one even, and on removal, it breaks down loww in the block........a very difficult to repair situation arises.

Steve at Kombi Rescue has done plenty. ph 0400 356 057.

Thanks for the headsup matbury, any stubborn studs, I'll make sure to gently heat them out before I break one.
So do the wasserboxer's use the same pushrod tube seals?
I'll guess possibly yes? fingers crossed.

Same at one end, but bigger at the other. Most seals are available separately.

don't use heat on the the engine case

if the studs look OK you might get away without changing them

they don't wind out easily in general

Oh yeah....lotsa luck if removal is necessary.....NO HEAT !!!

Well I saw some stainless engine studs on an american site, I was going to change them over and put in new liners. might just leave the ones in there alone.

Will heating the studs affect the block? Gentle heat on the stud should weaken the chemical bond that has formed and the little heat that soaks into the block it shouldn't be much different to operating heat. I would have thought that would be preferable to drilling a seized steel stud out of a aluminium hole?

Of coarse, the image of backyard joe going to town with a torch would be enough to scare anyone. I've seen even qualified trades people heating the tripe of of things. ouch
Of which i am; a fitter/1st class machinist, done quite a few engine rebuilds and plenty of machining, gearboxes of many descriptions. But NO wasserboxes.
I have removed a ton of sheared and rusted bolts and studs from all sorts of things. I hate drilling high tensile bolts out of aluminium in hard to get to places.

anyhow nothing that a shifter and a bigger hammer wont fix(just kidding(I hope))

I'm letting it sit for a little longer while I mop up a few of my smaller projects, as soon as i drop the engine I want to give it 100% focus.

Hi

I've been told by experienced people that if your going to remove the head studs do it as soon as you can after stripping the motor as they get more stuck as the case dries out.

I tried to remove the studs from my WBX that had always used genuine coolant and fit heavy BAS studs, not wanting to force the issue I gave up, the original ones were like new anyway

Steve

Thanks for the info steve, unfortunately the seals were seeping so the collant level will be well down already. Judging by the drip tray underneath a bit too. If nothing else comes up, I will start next week!

http://www.evwparts.com/vwparts/VanPistonCylRing/025198075.html 

http://www.evwparts.com/vwparts/VanGasketSets/025198009B.html 

Anyone know what the local shops are charging for this sort of kit?