Former VWDieselParts.com Forum

Well, thanks to all the helpful folks here, but with a new baby, wife now at home, I just don't have the time or money to keep up with the Rabbit, and it's head issues... :( The body is awesome, and it would make a great car with someone with a little time and $, and more diesel knowledge than I hav...

Thanks for the replies...so what is this water wetter?
Thanks,

Howdy. One of my buddies who is big into the Ford Powerstroke trucks was telling me that Ford has a special coolant conditioner for their diesels. He suggested I add some to the 81 rabbit coolant. Anyone else done this? Any benefits? Any warnings?
Thanks,

If your car has an oil cooler on it, it would be sandwiched between the oil filter and the oil filter flange and have coolant lines going to it. no oil cooler. :( So basically it seems like it's got to be either yet another head gasket, or a cracked block...any way to narrow it down? I really don't...

IHowever, search this forum for the threads on looking for combusion gasses in the coolant bottle and see if you've got something going on there. It's been mentioned, but you've never commented on it. As far as I know, it's now fine. I wish there were a video somewhere of what normal/acceptable pul...

Just a quick question. When you replaced the head gasket, did you resurface the head either time? I didn't actually do either replacement, but I do know that "head work" was listed on the invoice both times, so I would assume that it was resurfaced. As for the oil cooler, where would it b...

Just to clarify the history a little - oil in coolant has never been a problem before a week or so ago. Both times the head gaskets were redone, it was due to pressurized coolant/running hot. After the last head gasket, everything was running fine...retorqued the head bolts, and running great, very ...

Oh god if your block is cracked!! :( ...Lets all hope not!! well that certainly might explain why 2 new head gaskets don't seem to have fixed the problem...I am so unhappy - flushed the coolant through for several minutes, a couple times, and can't get to clear water - there's still a little of tha...

If it ain't one thing it's another... :( 1982 Rabbit, 1.6 NA...113,000 miles, about 2000 miles on new head gasket, 1000 miles on retorqued head bolts...runs cool, no issues there...I just happened to check the oil & coolant levels, and noticed that the coolant tank has what seems to be sludgy go...

$4.45 this morning on my way in to work.

Gas up to $3.79, so filling the wife's car is pretty painful too...

Well the good news for my conversion is that the guy did it right - fancy new shocks & struts along with the springs...good news for it being done right, bad news for me now having to replace those too...

I need to go on Vortex and find someone to trade with...

OK, so when I got my 81 diesel 2 dr Rabbit last year, it was already lowered...after bottoming out on countless driveways & curbs, I am finally tired of it enough to do something about it. As I look at it, it looks like it just has different/shorter springs front & rear? Is that it? How hard...

Well, thanks to all the advice, it's done! :) I have an early (February 1981) block, with the 11mm bolts and the 10 mm hex head. All told, it was done in less than an hour...I was surprised at the effort needed to loosen the bolts that 30 degrees before torquing - had to break out the cheater bar, b...

Well, weekend came and went...

last stupid question - is it ok to do this with the engine hot, or does it need to cool down over night? I know with the aircooleds you have to let things cool down before adjusting the valves or anything like that...
thanks,

Thanks...so I haven't had a chance to pull the valve cover yet to check, because of life, baby, etc...but I'm going to do it this weekend. I figure I'll go to Sears at lunch tomorrow and get the 10mm allen head bit, and want to get the torx one too just in case - so what size is it? I figure I can b...