Club 80-90 Forums

I have just taken the head off a T25 JR (Golf or Jetta MkII) 1.6 diesel engine to replace the head gasket and have found a few cracks between cylinders. If I replace the head do I have to have a JR head or can I use others?
Also, is it worthwhile repairing the head (one of the cracks is just bigger than the width of a thumbnail) if I can't find a reasonable replacement?

Do you really mean between cylinders or between valves?

I owned a JR engine 1.6td had the head skimmed & gasket.The JR head has hydraulic buckets which has a oil gallery between the block&head for lubrication&cooling for them.The JX cylinder head shim adjusted tappet dont have this gallery.So interchanging cylinder heads require matching up with cooling&oil galleries between block and head .When i took the JR head off i noticed there was cracks between the inlet& exhaust valves .The engine reconditioner said the cracks where common and in most cases dont extend into the cooling galleries.A pressure test was done for the cracks which confirmed all was okay the head was skimmed.Replacement head gasket& skimmed head cost me £100.

I guess I meant valves (8 circles on the bottom of the head) not the inlet or exhaust valves.
I have done more research and many people are saying that this is quite common and that I could get the head skimmed and then repaired but I am worried that one of the cracks is quite bad and the head around it is not too good.
Have attached 2 images below, one shows the bad crack and the other is what the other three cracks are like. What do you think is my best option (I might have someone who can do the repairs for very cheap, it just depends whether it is worthwhile?

To my eye that left hand pic. shows that something has been bouncing up and down in the cylinder. The crack seems bad to me and heaven (unless you are agnostic) knows what damage has been done to the valve seats and cylinder wall itself.
The right hand one seems to have a crack between the injector hole and the valve seat also.
There may be more problems other than just the head. I personally would source another head but only after checking the bores and piston rings first.

Someone else may pop their head above the parapet and have another viewpoint.