pics of doing cylinder head gasket

[james butler]

after doing all the valve grinding i sent the head off to be skimmed and pressure tested this robbed me £50 which wasnt bad considering he did it in a couple of hours. looked mint when i got it back

[james butler]

next i gave the head a very thourough clean with petrol to make sure no fillings/swarf is still in the head. then i fitted in the new valve stem oil seals, remember to put the valve spring seat in first! i used a 13mm deep reach socket to push the new stem seals onto the valve guide. it doesnt take much pressure to push them on so theres no need to whale them on with a hammer. i didnt do the way the haynes manual said about sliding them down the valve stem as this sounded a very fiddly way of doing it. at bmw we always fit the stem seal onto the valve guide first then lube up the valve stem with engine oil and push them in, never get any probs doin it that way. i refiited all the valve gear in reverse order that they were taken off. before refiting the head you have to refit the manifolds with all new gaskets and nuts. the head gasket has a specific way of fitting so you must read instructions before fitting. somthing about a series of numbers being on the front on the head and facing up. if u look at the gasket you can see it will only fit one way.once i was happy i proceeded to troque down the head in the specified sequence and torque values.

[james butler]

befere refitting the manifolds i sandblasted them inside and out to remove grime. you would not believe how much carbon came out of the exhaust manifold. and they look much better for it.

[james butler]

once the head was fitted i torqued the head down as according to the instuctions on the headgasket kit.next i cleaned out the tappets and refilled them with fresh oil, there is a faq on club gti on this. then refitted the cam as instructed in the haynes manual this must be done with the came in the right place if not a valve may contact the piston.to prevent this i tuned the crank back 90 degrees so the pistons were all at the mid stroke so cannot hit valves.once you have the cam in leave for 24hours for the tappets to compress. while the cam was out i changed the cam shaft oil seal which involves removing the sprocket, i did this with a workmate and air gun which got it off easily enuf but use a torque wrench when tightening it back on.once left for twentyfour hours i line the came timing mark back up an then the crank must be turned FORWARDS 90 degrees to corect the timing, once i was happy with the timing i refitted the belt and tensined it all up according to the manual. all other parts were refitted the same way they came off but obviously use the haynes manual for the torque settings and anything else ive missed out.

[go-for-it1]

Top post James and using good photos is a lot better than just text. Mods - can this be a sticky as I guarantee I wont be able to find this post when I need it!!
Rob

[james butler]

as with all projects this is advice not fact and as such i will not be responcible for any engine failure due to the advice and photos ive given. this was how i did my headgasket when it failed and i hope the information proves usefull. but again if in dought allways read the instructions and failing that pay a garage to do it. do it right and do it once. it mite save you a whole heap of money to do it yourself providing you dont cock anything up. it cost me aproximately £120 to do this job. £40 for head gasket kit. £50 for skim and test. £30 for cleaning items +new plugs and coolant.depending on how badly the state of the headgasket was in i would advise anyone to change the oil after doing this job. i did mine a week after the headgasket was changed. the only reason i did it later rather than sooner wasthe fact that the water wasnt mixing with the oil when my gasket went. but becuse when the head is off you cannot seal the internals from crap dropping in ther i decided to change the oil.
but the jobs a gudden and the car drives better and smoother then before with no serious hiccups to date.

[james butler]

Top post James and using good photos is a lot better than just text. Mods - can this be a sticky as I guarantee I wont be able to find this post when I need it!!
Rob

cheers mate, its taken me so long to get round and post it im glad its done now

[GTXTRA]

james - cheers for this -
would be great for the FAQ so it doesnt get lost in the forum and people can still add further tips/tricks too.
see http://sciroccoregisterforum.co.uk/faq/ ... rocco-faq/

[walkinginperu]

Nice work matey, only wish I'd had the benefit of this over the last couple of months!
Great resource, would be really helpful for anyone attempting this.

Did you have a problem getting the coolant outlet from the inlet manifold to the head to seal up? Got everything bolted up over the weekend, topped up with coolant and then watched as water dripped out from that side of the head. Everything torqued up correctly and new gaskets used - so a bit of a head-scratcher. I'm just going to bung some Hylomar on there and try again I think

[MrD]

Have just put my head back together,flipping collets were the hardest part of rebuilding,kept dropping them,took about an hour in all i suppose.See how work pans out this week,as to weather i get the engine built back up and running again,also going to be popping a Janspeed manifold on,does anyone know where the join for this is ?
Am i right in assuming i take the old cast one off inc the downpipe bit,and it connects up to where that came from ?

[Tempest]

Very nice thread, wish I had done the same thing (take pics) when I recently did the same work on my DX head.

Tempest

[Risocco]

Excellent guide mate

Alex

[james butler]

yeah all flanges are a real pain to get to seal back up. my front flange was cracked and i bought a new one not so long ago so i didnt have a problem getting it to reseal. allways use a new o ring, if that doesnt work then yeah hylomar or some other sealant will do. make sure you dont use too much otherwise it will squeeze into the water system and jam up the pump. did you replace the oring in the manifold? if not that will be y its leaking.

[james butler]

unbolt your existing manifold as your new downpipe should replace all the existing system, thats the idea of the 3 to 1 manifold.

[walkinginperu]

yeah all flanges are a real pain to get to seal back up. my front flange was cracked and i bought a new one not so long ago so i didnt have a problem getting it to reseal. allways use a new o ring, if that doesnt work then yeah hylomar or some other sealant will do. make sure you dont use too much otherwise it will squeeze into the water system and jam up the pump. did you replace the oring in the manifold? if not that will be y its leaking.

Yeah used a new o-ring seal. I used a tiny bit of hylomar on the bottom edge of the water outlet in the inlet manifold and that seems to have done the trick!