Club 80-90 Forums

Hello everyone hope your all well just got something to run by you all. We all know the water boxer suffers from water jacket and head gasket problems and I think we may be experiencing some of the symptoms but I'm not 100% sure. The symptoms are this.

Our pink coolent has gone yellow not sure if this is rust or something contaminating the coolent

We are slowly loosing coolent very slowly but I topped up the expansion tank to max a couple of weeks ago and it's gone down I have checked for leeks and can't find any.

There is no creamy gunk on the dipstick but on the oil filler cap there is a little build up only very very little so not sure if it's condensation or not

That's it really not much to go on so sorry guys and it may be nothing but just wanting to know if our water jacket seal has started to perish and needs replacing

Going yellow is old rusty dirt in the system.

As for loosing coolant there are so many pipes and joins that could be leaking you can't assume it's water jacket seals. It took me years to find all the leaks in my tin top when I first got it and there were several different leaks, one of which was water jackets so you can't rule it out either.

You really need to get underneath and look at the water jacket seals because they leak at the bottom usually, unfortunately they are hidden by the push rod tube covers but you can with USB endoscope ( these are cheap enough on ebay) look under the covers through the gaps, or you may be able to remove the covers, either just remove the lower bolts and lever them out just far enough to peer in or remove completely but often clamped under rusty exhaust bolts.

Any signs of wetness on the seal often means it's failed, not definite because it can be leaking from a pipe above and running down.

Leaks often show white deposits, these are where coolant has dried, or bad leaks pink deposits if you have pink coolant.

a little condensation in the filler pipe is common this time of year.

boxers have that mayo in the oil filler all the time, more so in winter, its condensation, because the oil filler tube is higher than the rest of the engine, heat rises, but it also cools faster in that tube when the engine stops. its perfectly normal, and expected.
the oil does not mix with the coolant as in a inline upright engine if the water jackets fail , and there are no wet head gaskets.
if the oil does mix with the coolant, or visa virsa its total, not gradual, internal seals just give up in one go if they do go

filling the header tank to the brim and then finding it below full can often just mean the pressure cap ( darlek cap on late models) is not working correctly, and the coolant is being pushed out to the top up tank, butnot returning fully.
as has been said, there are many pipes and connections also .

serious investigation work is the only way to know what , if anything is the leaking point

Thanks guys I'll get under the van tomorrow and have a look. I'll check the pipes aswell as I'm sure some of them may need replacing and there must be a very small leek somewhere or it's the darlek cap did not know you could check the jackets from under the van so that's really good to know