diff --git a/releng.wtpbuilder/build.properties b/releng.wtpbuilder/build.properties
index 2acab1ee234fee8df2cfa7d0aebf8af1fd99a640..f19467d06735e0030f8ff63206269b1b0b3c534c 100644
--- a/releng.wtpbuilder/build.properties
+++ b/releng.wtpbuilder/build.properties
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ javacDebugInfo=true
 # It is only used to drive the build process
 # it must be relative to the buildHome
 eclipse.builder=org.eclipse.releng.basebuilder
-eclipse.builder.version=R3_1
+eclipse.builder.version=r311_vM20050914-1235
 eclipse.builder.fetch=true
 
 
diff --git a/releng.wtpbuilder/scripts/build/build.xml b/releng.wtpbuilder/scripts/build/build.xml
index 7b06c80247a782b590767e4863c9f80d32860160..da2d9f18680ee10dbbb4b47e7af0653860218fe0 100644
--- a/releng.wtpbuilder/scripts/build/build.xml
+++ b/releng.wtpbuilder/scripts/build/build.xml
@@ -48,7 +48,10 @@
 	<target name="getBaseBuilder" depends="checkBaseBuilder" unless="basebuilderLocal">
 		<!-- ***  change the repo info -->
 		<property name="builderCvsRoot" value=":pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/eclipse" />
-		<property name="eclipse.builder.version" value="HEAD" />
+		<!-- note: the HEAD version of base builder is not good to use. 
+		     in some cases, won't run at all, in the best of cases, will simply
+		     be unstable, as its the development version -->
+		<property name="eclipse.builder.version" value="r311_vM20050914-1235" />
 		<cvs cvsRoot="${builderCvsRoot}" package="org.eclipse.releng.basebuilder" dest="${build.home}" tag="${eclipse.builder.version}" />
 	</target>