head gasket failure - confirmed

[E. Roy Wendell IV]

I thought that something seemed familiar so I dug in the archives and  
confirmed that you are indeed the person who upped their boost by  
defeating the ecu safety by way of the zener diode despite the  
collective wisdom of the list telling you it was a bad idea. Not two  
weeks or so later you suffer a head gasket failure. Coincidence? I  
think not. A blown head gasket if the first symptom of an engine  
experiencing detonation. Any chance one or more of the fire rings on  
the removed head gasket is distorted?

As for installation of the new gasket, what you really need is tool  
number 3450 seen here:
http://www.zelenda.com/VW/page3.html
It's an allen headed stud that screws into the block in place of a  
head bolt and has a head that's  just the right size to fit the  
oversized holes in the head gasket and head. Once you have everything  
clamped in place by snugging down a few of the head bolts you then  
remove the stud using the special allen driver included in the tool  
kit. Without it there's really no way to make sure that the head  
gasket is centered around all the cylinders.

E. Roy Wendell IV
erwendell at mac.com
Too many type 44 tq
A pair of MR2s