Guess what we get to do now?

[StephanieGA]

Head gasket! Yay for us! Which also means at the same time, we'll do motor mounts, timing belt and tensioner and valve seals. Hubby priced cams but that may be out of budget right now. Sounds like the girl's cabby may be down for a while. She'll have to drive the Burb which doesn't fit into her parking space at school, and don't even mention the gas mileage. Wah!

Any suggestions on good quality mounts or gasket would be appreciated.

Stephanie in GA

[Briano1234]

Get heavy duty Diesel mounts they last longer.
Head Gaskets are a "dealer" only item for me. You will need new head bolts, the original ones are Stretch one time use only.

You will need a 12mm Triple square tool to remove the head bolts.

On final assembly it tells you to torque to X ft/lbs + 1/2 turn, which is what seats the bolts and stretches them.

Now would be the time that you are going to flush and backflush your cooling system after reassembly, and you might want to throw in a Saleri Water pump.....( they are pumps on Steroids) They are more at Napa, but you can get them online cheaper.

[StephanieGA]

Thanks for all the info. Will pass it along to the fix it man, aka husband.

Stephanie in GA

[StephanieGA]

Hubby says ix-nay on the head gasket from the dealer. A) we don't have one in town. B) ridiculously expensive.

Can anyone vouch for any other brands?

Stephanie in GA

[Briano1234]

Hubby says ix-nay on the head gasket from the dealer. A) we don't have one in town. B) ridiculously expensive.

Can anyone vouch for any other brands?

Stephanie in GA

Move to a better town than Bugtussle....

Victor Reinz, usually is good. I have used Fel-pro gaskets before also.

Napa usually can get them in 1-2 days to bugtussle Here they have them in stock.

[StephanieGA]

found a victor reinz at AutoHausAZ which says it is OEM.

Hubby wants to know if the head has camshaft bearings in it.

Stephanie in GA

[Briano1234]

Good question, as I can't remember and I just replaced the seal last couple of weeks.

Figure 4-19 in the Bentley don't show any....

[StephanieGA]

That's what we came up with too. But he says every other engine he's ever worked on has had them. Never worked on a VW though.

Stephanie in GA

[Briano1234]

Well they machine for tightness. Now there is no reason to replace or loosen the cam to remove the head.

You just loosen and remove the 10 head bolts after removing the intake and the trick here is to loosen the down pipe connection at the manifold.... Leave the manifold attached and remove it as an assembly...It is awkward, but you have a better chance of not breaking a manifold stud when it is off the car.

Drain the coolant.
remove the hose connections
remove the fuel hoses and vacuum lines
remove the fuel rail
remove the tie strap from the Throttle body to the exhaust manifold.
remove the warn air hose off the
remove the throttle body
remove the electrical connections on the isv, throttle body (2) the fuel rail, coolant sensor, CTS sensor
Oil pressure sender
place the car at TDC.
remove the head bolts
Lift.....

There are a few more things that I missed probably.

[eric4321]

I did a head gasket on mine early this year. I would recomend replacing the crank, cam and intemediate shaft seal. All 3 seals are the same part # and not much to do when timing belt and head ect are all removed. Also 1 thing I did to eliminate coolant from spilling into the cylinders was remove the water pump and use compressed air to "blow out" all the coolant from the upper coolant flanges. Head bolts should be replaced and would not be a bad idea to repace water pump and hoses as well while everything is apart. And also as Brian said I prefer to remove the head with the intake and exhaust manifolds atached and then change those gaskets with the head on a work bench.

[gull]

Hubby wants to know if the head has camshaft bearings in it.

As far as I know none of the inline-4 VW engines have cam bearings.

This can be an issue when a warped head is machined; if the cam towers aren't align-bored the cam can bind.