[Vwdiesel] Head gaskets

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/23/2006 9:49:48 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
vbriggs at stny.rr.com writes:

> I may be wrong, but I did read something to the effect that the heads 
> have to be heated until they are "Plastic" I guess to allow them to 
> "press" the head to "flatten" it, so as to maintain the cam journals in 
> alignment. Then doing the grind job, has anyone else heard that. I may 
> have been mistaken in what I read, it was awhile ago, and  can't find 
> that article again.
> 

  That is indeed the technique for overhead cam aluminum heads.  
Thing is, I've yet to find one of these heads that is actually the whole 
head warped.  As I said, the worst one I've ever seen still had the cam 
journals in a darn straight line (less than .001" from high to low) 
considering clearance is at least .003 to .004"  No way you'll break a 
cam by surfacing and then bolting down with numbers like that.  They 
just grow around the edges a bit.
     Loren