Club 80-90 Forums

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Hello. So, I'm three weeks into my vanny and she's developed a weeping leak from the head gasket. The head was off just before I bought it and was replaced without a stock (or even real, I think) head gasket, nor new bolts I'm sure. I'm in Chile where everything happens just on the wrong side of shady, so I've decided to redo the gasket myself, and do it right. This is my first diesel, though I've spent a fair amount of time tinkering with an older bus I used to have. SO...as I prepare to dive into this jobby head first with no guidance other than the abundance of expertise here, I am asking for any advice or suggestions, definitely DO's and, more importantly, definitely DON'Ts. The van is a 1.7 KY with a 1.6 head. I found myself an AAZ metal gasket (to fit the larger pistons of my 1.7 engine) and a miraculous supply of new head bolts. The cosmos aligned today for both these items to be found here.

A couple specific questions:

1. Is there a secondary sealant that goes with the metal gasket? I have never seen one like this before.
2. Does the exhaust manifold need to be removed to get the head off?
3. Anything else that must be replaced upon removal and re-installation of the head?

I'm in for an adventure...any help would be HUGELY appreciated by me and my new sidekick.
Cheers!
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Hello,

I've never used a sealant between gasket and head/block face. I personally would take the extra time to strip the head of inlet and exhaust manifold - it'll give you more space to work putting the head back, and it'll be easier to manoeuvre - remember you've got an angle of 50 degrees. Get a tube and suck out all the water from the head bolt holes, and stick a rag into them to get out any excess. If the bolts you've got are dry then some people put a tiny bit of thickcish oil on the threads to help them slide when you're torquing them - the ones I've had have always been prelubricated.

Get some wooden dowels and put a couple in to help you positon the gasket and head out - make sure you tighten the bolts in the correct sequence, basically centre outwards, and with the correct torque setting. Make sure also your torque wrench is calibrated if at all possible.

Supposedly after 1000 miles you're supposed to retighten the head bolts, but I know some folk that don't - stretch bolts were designed to reduce the need for retorquing, but everyone has their own understanding of this - I personally don't, but then I've just put on a reconditioned head which turned out to be missing vital components that I trusted were there, so my opinion on that probably isn't worth much!

You might have some bother getting the cam pulley off without a puller - alternative method is to use a punch in the centre of the pulley, and you might need to remove the end bearing cap to get a decent angle to it. This is the case on my head anyway - not sure about the 1.6 head. While the head's off you might want to change the injector seals and clean up where they sit. You're best off changing the oil too - coolant in oil is a bad thing, and of course clean out the cylinders but use a cloth and not anything that will score the walls.

can't think of anything else just at the moment

Good luck with it! I did a head gasket change in a scrapyard in Brazil once on a Chevrolet Monza (what we would call a vauxhall cavalier) - when you hear it come back to life you will enjoy that feeling!

Ewen

Thanks for the response...huge help. I am most of the way through the removal but I can't figure out how to get the timing belt off?! Am I a complete idiot? Nothing is standing out as obviously the tensioner. Is it the pulley below and between the cam and IP gears? I can't envision how the belt comes off without removing the crankshaft pulley and the plastic piece behind it...
Any thoughts would be a big help.
Thanks!

Hello,

the timing belt goes over the IP (Injection pump), cam pulley, crank pulley and tensioner. The crank pulley is at the bottom, the cam pulley and IP pulley are obvious. If you're changing the timing belt you'll need to take off the aux belt too, but if you're not you need to undo the tensioner (13mm socket) and then you need to pull or knock the cam pulley off and then the timing belt will come away with it. To be honest if you can get hold of a timing belt I'd do that while you were there, and get a new tensioner too. You might need to get the tensioner stud out too - either with the two nut method or with a pair of molegrips - not sure.

If you're going to retime it afterwards properly, I take it you've found TDC on the flywheel and have the cam and IP locking tools, as well as a tensioner tool? You can improvise all of these if you have to - 5mm thick piece of steel, 10mm deep socket and circlip pliers for example.... better than nothing. It's a good idea to have a tool to counter hold the cam pulley bolt too - it needs to be done up to about 40ft lbs and you don't want the cam taking that torsion.

Ewen

Thanks mate. I honed in on the tensioner after I wrote, but many useful tips. Only thing I'm still a little shady on is the counter holding of the cam pulley bolt. Any suggestions for how to hold it while I reef down on 'er on the re-install? I don't want to rip the schnizzle out of the cam plate on the back end.
Will be out scouring the Santiago stalls for a new belt and tensioner...the latter might be a tough find. Also, are there stock seals that fit around the top of the injector threads - O-ring like or metal? The dipshit that worked on it last inundated everything with a healthy layer of gasket gunk (including the injectors) that I'll be cleaning off everything for the next couple days. One was leaking pretty well when I pulled it off but everything else looked OK with the washer seats in place at the bottom of the hole. No doubt his attempt to make sure nothing leaked until the rig was a good bit from his shop.
Fun stuff!
Thanks again for the help
Seth

Hello,

you need something like this:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c56/1 ... F62110.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but I've seen one which was a big chain link chopped in half and welded to a length of pipe before - anything that is long enough to counterhold the torque wrench, and has to strong prongs which go into the cam pulley hollows.

What you're looking for with regard to the injectors is these I think:

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/shop?page=s ... d=injector" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

they are common to all non-tdi vw engines I think, so hopefully not so hard to find where you are.

hope that helps a bit

Ewen