[Vwdiesel] Heads up

[James Hansen]

You have to remember the time frame these were designed in.  Fuel 
crunch, escalating prices... much like now come to think of it.
Aluminum was chosen for weight reduction and cheap to build.   They can 
pop those castings out like rabbits.

Cast block is almost necessary, going aluminum on the block would only 
have added cost, not gained anything from the economy of weight savings 
or ease of manufacture.
You don't really want heat transfer in the head Brian.  The warmer the 
combustion chamber can stay, the better in terms of thermal efficiency 
and combustion.  Ideally, a ceramic head, if you could seal it, would 
kick butt because you could let it glow red, and it would be no big deal.

I don't assemble a head unless I use non-stretch bolts anymore.  I look 
at it like I'm wasting time, unless the one I'm doing is for someone 
else and they just can't afford it.

Rather than copper, is there an MLM (multi-layer metal) gasket available 
for the old heads too?  The MLM on the 1.9's rock.  I think they allow 
shuffling around better due to the layers.  It's kind of an intermediate 
step between o-ring'ed copper, and a stock sandwich.... and actually, 
the stock car world is going to the MLM stuff these days anyway. Copper 
is more so you can reuse the same gasket over and over.

I'd tend to shy away from race stuff, only because I have first hand 
knowledge of how it's used... it's designed to be torn down and rebuilt 
many many times.  On the passenger cars, we sort of want to do it and 
have it last forever, but on the racecar, we EXPECT to be into it five 
times a season, and celebrate when we don't have to.

-james

B & R Decker wrote:
> Hi Sandy;
> 	I suspect VW engineers felt they wouldn't get enough heat transfer
> with an Iron head but it would most likely have made the head gasket problem
> go away. The VW diesel is really totally reliable except for the head gasket
> problem. Personally on an engine I build for myself I pop for the close to
> 200 bucks it takes to buy Raceware head studs (re-usable). I wonder whether
> the solid copper head gaskets used for racing engines perhaps along with
> o-ringing would be the ultimate fix.
> 
> Brian Decker
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
> Behalf Of Sandy Cameron
> Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 7:59 PM
> To: vwdiesel at audifans.com
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] Heads up
> 
> Merry Christmas diesel heads.
> 
> Did VW ever make Iron heads for their diesels?
> 1.5 or 1.6?
> 
> I would be very tempted to try and get one, if so.
> 
> Have just done 2 head gaskets on son's and friend's cars, and it's obvious
> the slow deterioration of the gaskets is due to the alloy head, and the
> thermal cycling of stop and go.
> Must squirm around a lot.
> 
> Tempted to leave it running forever.
> 
> I even keep it on the block heater in winter when not running,, just so it
> won't cold cycle so drastically in cold weather (makes for quicker starts
> too !)
> 
> Iron heads might be a good idea.
> 
> Sandy
> 
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