Diesel Engines Cyl Head re-fitting

Head Gaskets

Simon Baxter: There are 3 thicknesses.

GSF only sell the thickest, the 3 notch.

VW sell them, but they are back ordered from Germany, and very expensive.

I'm slowly building up a stock of gaskets and I'm expecting the next delivery from Elring in the next day or so, but I am now away on holiday till the 11th of August.

I have on order, 1,2 and 3 notch head gaskets so the job can be done properly. (Did you know you have to measure the piston projection from the block to determind what gasket to use?)

.66-.86mm 1 Notch (1.4mm thick)

.87-.90mm 2 Notch (1.5mm thick)

.91-1.02mm 3 Notch (1.6mm thick)

Cylinder-head bolts

These are 'stretch' bolts, torqued up in tow stages then 'set' using a given angular rotation (90 degrees, 90 degrees usually)

Tips

HarryMann: Some useful tips here, from General Tools and Techniques - Thread-chaser

Andy Simpson: The bottom bolt in the picture is cut-off and slotted - two of these are useful for locating the head on engines that are fitted on the slant, such as the VW T25 diesels - stops head sliding off the gasket while fitting in situ. (Make sure you don't screw them in too far, so that you can't get them back out)