[V6-12v] B4 head gasket replacement

[James Whitehouse]

Tom,

It could still be seeping oil on the 'inner V' head gasket and running back under accelleration (you get a sudden whiff of oil smell as it burns on the manifold) or it could be the Valley Pan Gasket, or a simple valve cover gasket.

If it's at the rear side of the head dripping on the exhaust heat shield, it could well just be a leaky valve cover gasket- fairly common, and you re-heally want to make triple sure it's not just a valve cover gasket before you start thinking about doing the VPG. Worst thing about the VPG job is that you must re-torque the head bolts 1/4 turn or, ironically, you will almost certainly get the head gaskets seeping oil problem you were thinking of previously!

VPG leaks have to come down the back of the block from the V really, as they can't blow over the V to the side, so to speak. Check the path of the oil, if it's coming from the back of the V up underneath the intake manifold, it can either be the VPG or the 'inner-V' head gasket (this is where my head gaskets had gone - after doing a VPG and finding out about re-torquing the head bolts too late - I did re-torque them in fact, but two months after the VPG job and too late to prevent the head gasket seepage). If it's not coming from in the V under the intake manifold at all, it's quite probably just the valve cover gasket.

If it's a valve cover gasket, remember to spray the insides of the gasket with silicone (away from paintwork!) and use silicone sealant on the cam transitions, or it'll seep again.

Let us know what you find out!

Cheers,
James

--- On Sat, 12/7/08, Tom Christiansen <tomchr at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Tom Christiansen <tomchr at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [V6-12v] B4 head gasket replacement
To: "Audi Mailing List" <v6-12v at audifans.com>
Date: Saturday, 12 July, 2008, 3:15 AM

Actually... (Plugging my brain in here): The leak is above the exhaust.
Wouldn't that then be the valley pan gasket? That might not be so bad...

Tom

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:33 PM, Tom Christiansen <tomchr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Folks,
>
> The left side head gasket on my 1994 90S is leaking about 1/3 of the way
> forward from the rear end of the engine. At least I assume it's the
head
> gasket. Oil is dripping onto the heat shield above the exhaust.
>
> Is there a way to tell for sure if it's the head gasket?
>
> Is there a cheap ghetto fix that would make it stop leaking for another
> year or two?
>
> What am I in for if I decide to attack the head gasket replacement? Broken
> studs? Heads that will need to be planed? I'm pretty mechanically
inclined,
> have half a clue, and have the tools (except for tools to extract broken
> studs), but I've never attempted anything this involved. How much time
> should I expect it to take to complete the job on my own?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
>
_______________________________________________
V6-12v mailing list
V6-12v at audifans.com
http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v6-12v


      __________________________________________________________
Not happy with your email address?.
Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html