Why the new 1.8 head.

[palmerj <palmerj@earthlink.net>]

Several have asked why I needed a new head.
The following is an email I sent to Bob Edmison.
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My story:
I left the car at the airport for the holiday... Wed nite to Sun nite.
Driving home, the check engine light came on and then started to run
very poorly. It settled up but the light remained on.
I took it to the shop to get it checked. Coil #3 was misfiring. Upon
removal of the coil pack, there was coolant in with the sparkplug.

Cracked head.

Apparently there was a run of faulty heads. Either poor aluminum or poor
castings. Either way, it could have been leaking since delivery!
When I drove the car, any coolant was burned off. Leaving it all weekend
let the coolant build up and the hard corner sloshed the coolant enough
to get the ignition to short to the head and give an error reading.

If your car is a later build (about June 97 on?) don't worry about it.
If your car is older, look for coolant loss. If you have the time, take
the plastic cover off, remove the coil packs (2 allen bolts, easy) and
check for pink residue or moisture. Look around the exterior for pink
residue.
If the head was prone to fail, its likely it would have already. Its not
a catastrophic failure, just something that needs to be repaired.

Good Luck...