[Vwdiesel] Head gasket thickness

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/27/2007 5:40:12 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tonyandlillie1 at earthlink.net writes:

> There really isn't a set # that it can be shaved to. I've seem as high as 
> .030, the key is how much the head has warped. If the cam bearings are out 
> of alignment (imagine a severly warped head, and the coresponding "bent" 
> cam). So, if the head is that warped, it will sieze the cam. As long as your 
> 
> cam turns under normal torque, I'd say you are ok to shave it. But, keep in 
> mind valveclearances also. If you get too crazy, you may run into issues 
> there as well.

  Until I had a mill I had them done at a local shop.  They used 
a big belt sander basically.  The method was go until it just, 
or almost cleaned up.  One 1.5 head went until he hit the 
valves.  We used it anyway and the car ran and sounded 
great!  New heads tend to have the valves flush or even 
protruding above the head surface, at least one or two 
that I've seen have...

> 
> On a side note, several people have mentioned that a diesel will get better 
> milage (ie, run more efficiently) at a lower CR. If this is true, is there a 
> 
> fairly easy (cheap) way to accomplish this? I know there will be the 
> addition of harder cold starts, but here it doesn't get all that cold.
> 

  I've come up with two ways since I want to try this but 
haven't had time yet, nor really want to risk my excellent 
starting Rabbit's good starting characteristics.  
  Mill the pistons.  I came up with 1mm to drop it to 19:1 
but I'd do all the math again before I went ahead with it.  
The other method would be to make a chamber in place of 
the glow plugs.  Just removing the plugs should give a drop 
of one full point.  Going with the thick gasket from the thin 
one (presuming the engine calls for the thin one to start with)
will give about a point as well.  Otherwise it's shave pistons 
or enlarge chamber space.  
  I suppose you could mill out a "combustion chamber" in the piston 
or around the valves and do some cc'ing until you get it.
     Loren


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