[Vwdiesel] Reman or new head?

[Erik Lane]

I've dealt with those guys a few times. (I've had them rebuild heads, never
bought one outright from them.)

They did excellent work with a good turnaround time and I never had a single
problem with them. They came to me highly recommended, and I always tell
people to try them. Of course I live near Portland, so it's no issue for me
to just take work to them. I have no experience with their shipping, but I
have no reason to believe that they would slack on that.

Erik

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 8:43 PM, James Hansen <jhsg at sasktel.net> wrote:

> 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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