[Vwdiesel] Reman or new head?

[James Hansen]

Caveat Emptor.  Some folks love parts place.
If you have many miles on this head, it needs rebuilding anyway.
Overheating makes the head move in relation to the block, as evidenced by
the oil in coolant. It will be warped, any competent shop can skim it, or as
Mark suggests, lap it yourself, but it should need seals etc...
Any rebuilder that tells me to use hylomar on a head gasket is a machinist
not confident in his work.
Assemble dry, if flat, it seals.
Try this Craig:
http://www.aluminumheads.com/Volks.html
I've never heard bad about them, but then I'm one guy.
There's one other, super cheap stuff, mostly China origin, but the url
escapes me now. I'm away from my nest just now, don't have my little black
book.
Val uses his stuff IIRC, he'll remember.
-james

-----Original Message-----
From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
Behalf Of Craig O.
Sent: February-28-11 8:40 PM
To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Reman or new head?

The head gasket on my 81 is leaking badly after a thermostat failure / 
overheating incident.  I also have a lot of oil in my coolant.  I 
haven't started the engine since this happened.   I haven't disassembled 
it yet, but I am assuming that the head is probably warped.
In the PartsPlace catalog, they go into detail about how most machine 
shops do not have the expertise to recondition a VW diesel head as there 
is not much tolerance for shaving metal from the head.  They state that 
in order to properly recondition a VW head it has to be heated and 
pressed.  Is this just a ploy to get me to purchase a head from them?
If I was to purchase a head from them,
I can get a re-manufactured head from PartsPlaceInc for mid $450 or a 
new head from them for $600.  My question is this -- If I do decide to 
acquire a replacement head, is there an advantage to spending the extra 
money to put on a new head?
Also, they mention in their catalog that  they recommend using a gasket 
sealant called Hylomar but I see that VW does not recommend a sealer.

Craig


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