is anyone on here into '83 5000 Turbo Diesels ???

[Ameer Antar]

Cracking in the cylinder head is common to almost all aluminum heads. I've seen this on heads from American cars to Japanese and European cars. I don't think it's the design, but rather the fact that aluminum is just not as strong as the old cast iron head. (Also aluminum heads tend to handle a lot more heat than cast heads). The good thing is, you can get the cracks filled more easily on aluminum heads than cast iron heads. I bet you'll find cracks in most aluminum heads with 100k or more on the clock, maybe not between the valves, but somewhere. My engine builder says they're no big deal unless they're big (2mm sounds like a lot though).

-Ameer


---- Original Message ----

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:30:57 -0400
From: "E. Roy Wendell IV" <erwendell at mac.com>
Subject: Re: is anyone on here into '83 5000 Turbo Diesels ???
To: quattro at audifans.com
Message-ID: <0ac4729d37e32b0abe6ea8c6a3983ece at mac.com>
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> From: Tony Hoffman <tfh400036 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: is anyone on here into '83 5000 Turbo Diesels ???
> To: Patrck A <tm2 at zipcon.net>, harchris at smokesignal.net
> Cc: audifans <quattro at audifans.com>
> Message-ID: <20051012014257.97471.qmail at web54614.mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> This cracking is very common in the Audi and VW diesels of yore.
> Definately can lead to some problems down the road. There is a spec in
> the manuals for the maximum size of them.
>
> Tony Hoffman

Unfortunately, cracking between the valve seats isn't a problem that is
limited to just diesels. I've so far torn down two MC motors and both
have cracks between the valve seats on two or more cylinders. Just as
for the diesels, the Bentley says not to worry unless the cracks exceed
a certain width. My Bentley is in a box somewhere but as I recall it's
a whopping 2mm. Just knowing it's there bugs me though. Not very German
perfectionist rocket science type workmanship. Must be the door handle
and lighting/electrical system guys took a turn at cylinder head
design. The thing about Audi's in general though is that the car is
more than the sum of it's parts.

Roy Wendell
Morgantown WV, USA
turbo quattro type 44 times 3