head gasket / water jaket seal suppliers and quality

[fastback]

As far as i know there are/were at least 3 suppliers of the seal for the waterjacket for the WBX
1.Genuine VW
2.Victor Reinz
3.another "german" supplier
how is your experience with these?
i have now experienced 3 broken gaskets on different engines from a reproduction gasket set's that breaks after short time.
looks like poor quality rubber.

IMAG0144 (Small).jpg

[tencentlife]

I've built about 25 wbx's by now using mostly Reinz, but I would say 7 or 8 with the Elring set. Never any problem, can't see any difference between the jacket seals, they are tough good-quality rubber, looks like probably nitrile. Maybe you need to check your jacket-to-head gaps, should be about 3.5mm all the way around. From what I have seen others do, splitting the seal seems to be the result of the head being pulled down at an angle and squeezing the topside when installing the heads, are yours split on the top?

[fastback]

The biggest crack is on top yes, but it showed cracking at all corners.
i have always been careful when tightening the heads though,
since it's a stock engine the distance should not have been changed any .
well it could have resurfaced heads, on it, i'll double check
if u compare the repro gaskets to the VW ones u can see a little differnence.
and the feel is a little bit softer on the VW ones
i do not know if these are Reinz or elring

[buildabiggerboxer]

Gentlemen, it seems it definitely has to be the German big name brands for quality. one item where price is not a factor.

[fastback]

here's close-up of the repro and the vw gasket

DSC02005_crop (Small).JPG

[Piledriver]

The guy from Oregon... (name escapes me) suggested milling .5mm additional off the decks to reduce squish on the gaskets.

He said it actually improved the seal.

Haven't had any issues with the VR seals, look perfect after many miles.

[ajdenette]

Are you talking about Rockey Jennings?

[Piledriver]

No...IIRC he went by type5joe, haven't heard from him here in awhile.