[Vwdiesel] Well, I guess this confirms it, internal head gasket leak

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

So, what next.  Re-torquing the head 12,000 miles after getter her running 
did not help, I should have done it 1,000 miles as you are supposed to I guess.

  I've seen both but I think the correc figure is 600 miles (1,000km)
rather than the 1,000 miles I've also seen.  I've seen head gaskets 
lose it shortly before 1K miles.  Not die but definitely suspect slight 
leaking.

>  
> So, what is happening then, there is no visible coolant leak, no drips or 
> minor minor drips under the car.  No white smoke in the exhaust.

  I don't think I've ever seen a diesel smoke from the coolant.  Must 
be something about the compression or something.  It's just not as 
common as on a gasser, from what I've seen.

>  
> **
> Will the starting get harder and harder as the temps get colder I guess?

  More like difficult then no-start.  :-(

>  
> Is the coolant fouling one of the cylinders, then just that cylinder would 
> not fire right away, not all of them?
>  
> It should not be effecting compression, right?

  Actually it's the low compression that's causing the miss.  Once it 
warms up a little, it's kinda like a glow plug ignition engine.  There's 
more heat to assist the lower compression, thus it smooths out.

> **
>  
> The car runs great, I am getting between 44mpg and 46mpg.

  Lower compression WILL be more efficient.  The 23:1 is for ignition.  
It's something around 19:1 that's needed for overall operation. I 
suspect something around 14:1 (if it'd burn the fuel well there) 
would probably be the most efficient for power and mileage.

>  
> I guess I can only hope it will just continue to leak at this rate and be a 
> bit hard to start, I do not have time any time soon to pull the head off 
> again to replace the head gasket, that is for sure.
>  
> Thanks for any advance
> Bryan
> 

  I think R&R head gasket on an A1 body was 2 or 2.4 hours when I 
was at the dealer.  I never could quite make that one but I didn't 
get many that were put-back-together-able.  Most were overheated 
and had scored cylinder walls.
     Loren



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