[Vwdiesel] turbo & head

[travis gottschalk]

Jon,
 
Just curious as to what you are doing with the engine that you only need a couple thousand miles and that is it but you need the performance. I would say that you turbo should be fine then. It sounds like it spins like my rebuilt turbo did (and used turbo with had the oil build up also). Clean the buildup off and try it on the engine. Should work I would think for your application. 
 
With the head. If you do change the head your oil ports would have to be the same as the newer engines had hydraulic lifters and the older ones (not sure which year they switched) had mechanical lifters that need shimming once in a while. So that would be an issue. Also you would have to line a head gasket up to see if all the cooling ports line up (or most of them). And you would have to change the injection pump I would think also. Don't try to put the turbo back on this head I don't think it could handle the heat and pressures. If your problem went away with the head gasket for a but then it would be that and not the cracks. I at first freaked out about the cracks to and never heard of them. But everyone that knew what they were doing confirmed it isn't as big of a deal unless really deep or wide enough to mess with the valves. So my engine is running fine with the cracks (81 rabbit with 1.9 td engine swap). I try to buy the metal head gaskets if possible for mine (could only find in Canada) and I have a head gasket sealant spray I got from http://www.partsplaceinc.com/ that I haven't had a problem with. Try another head gasket before trying something more costly and inspect old head gasket for problems (oil or coolant markings)
 
Travis G
_________________________________________________________________
Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from Jamie.
http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008