While you're doing the timing belt do the waterpump.

saw your thread on VWVortex too

 

The ECS and Diesel Geek kits come with a metal impeller water pump.

 

 

By "drain the block"are you referring to the hose that goes into the oil filter adapter? I did that (lots of skinned knuckles trying to remove the hose stuck to the fitting) but even then it didn't take as much coolant as it calls for. Are there other drain plugs elsewhere?

 

i had who knows what for coolant when i did mine last weekend. I opened the drain on the radiator, and put the hose in the death star, which you might call an expansion tank, and let it run until what was coming out of the drain was clear. Closed it back up, let the car warm up so I knew the thermostat was opened completely, an repeated the process. This time instead of using the hose, i used bottles of distilled water. Ran about 4 gallons thru the system. Let the level drop in the radiator enough to fit 2 L of coolant, but with enough water that I could bring the system to the full level if I still needed. I didn't feel like pulling any more coolant lines off the car to drain it than I had to, so even if this used a shitload of water, its still my prefered method.

BTW, whats not mentioned for those who want to do their own timing belt, is that you're gonna spill PS fluid, so make sure you get a bottle of that bofore you get started, or endure the terrible screeching noises of a dry PS pump when you drive to get some afterward. ; )

 

Wouldn't hurt to do spark plugs and a Haldex service too.

 

I ordered the timing belt kit from ECS and I found out dieselgeek's kit has the Thermostat housing cover. They said "replace it every time you touch it!".
Do I really need to order this part? Why ECS won't included this as dieselgeek stated that need to replace it.
thanks!

gTT

 

seems sturdy, don't know why they'd recommend it be replaced. You're probably safe reusing the thermostat housing you have.