[s-cars] Is taking the head off difficult?

[Igor Kessel]

Ed Walsh wrote:

> I have another appt. with the dealer on the 26th....
> Hopefully they diagnose the turbo or something else.
> But I think it will be the HG.  I was looking through
> some records and noticed the car was in for repair
> about 7,000 miles ago.  The trouble?  The car
> overheated due to a bad thermostat...  :-(

Ed,
If that's the case, you most likely need to take the head off the block
and check with a straight edge for warpage. Plane it if needed. Just be
careful to ask the machinist to remove as little material as possible.
Turbo heads don't like machining too much. Each head decking takes the
material off thus increasing the compression. In the AAN engine the
compression is already very high for a turbo engine (9.5:1). Thank
Heavens for the sophisticated Motronic engine management which lets it
run w/o blowing up. In my previous car, the '89 200TQ, the compression
was only 7.6:1 coz the primitive mechanical CIS management couldn't keep
up with the task of preserving the engine.

What are the symptoms of the head gasket anyway, Ed? Do you see droplets
of oil in the radiator expansion reservoir? Or perhaps you see the light
beige porous emulsion of antifreeze inside the oil filler cap and/or the
dipstick?

--
Igor Kessel
two turbo quattros