VW 8v 1800cc headgasket, easy medium or hard?

[Lankytim]

The garage thats meant to replacing the broken engine in my Audi 100 is messing me about. 2 days max has turned into a month or so of zero progress. The cam tensioner broke so I bought a good 2 litre lump to replace the original 1800cc lump. Basically the valves are mashed so a new head would do the trick instead.

How easy is this job? Do I need new head bolts? Any special tools? Could I do it in a weekend?

Ill have to save the replacement 2 litre engine thats meant to be going in for another day. I need to get this hulk back on the road before it winds up scrapped!

Sorry for the question flood recently, Ill repay the forum.. somehow!

[blobbletec]

if you get a secondhand head please make sure you have it crack/pressure tested and refaced will cost around £70 but is well worth it for piece of mind before going to the effort of fitting it and finding it is scrap, it may be worth finding out how much it is to have your head repaired, sometimes the easiest/cheapest option imo. how easy is the job..? ordipends on your experience really.. good luck.

[veloxbill]

helpeda friend do the job years ago iirc it was simple enough just your basic ohc 4cyl. I also recall we used new head bolts most germanengines use yield to torque ones. Besides they are cheap enough a new headgasket and timing belt are probably more costly, cheap insurannce IMO

[berendd]

bolts are not necesary, but give the head a planing session to make sure it aligns on the cylinder block..

also make some markings on your pulleys and belts to make sure you align everythinh right, the original markings are most of the times hard to find and easy to mistake. take some tipp-ex or paint..

[retrowagen1234]

as a general question. maybe of some help to you also. do you need to lock the cam and/or crank when doing it? as i see tipex is mentioned but when the cambelt is removed sureley alot of other things could do a rotation or slight turn/drop the cam belt if so. how would you lock the cam and crank? just heard it mentioned a while back

[Thrasher]

Easy job to do.

Get the head skimmed, you'll need NEW bolts ( cheap enough from GSF ) and the correct splined tool to do them up. They need torqueing up properly. Nice simple engines really

[filmidget]

Thrasher has it spot on... the only thing I vaguely remember having a problem with was some contradictory information where to position the top pulley when timing everything up - something to do with whether the mark should line up with the top of the head, or the top of the camcover.

It's a carb innit? An injection head (Golf/Rocco/etc) should have slightly bigger inlet valves, though obviously need to block injector holes. Also the injection/gti cam is very slightly hotter, and is direct swap into the carb head.

Wish I had known earlier, I ditched a couple of runner 1.8 engines a few months ago

I think the only head in my place is a solid lifter, but will have look/word and see if there's a spare hydraulic lifter head knocking about (I assume it's a hydraulic head?)

[Lankytim]

Nope its a solid head. The head I'm looking at is the hydraulic head though.

[moomin]

minor tip don't by the spline tool from halfords as it's too wide and it prevents you tightening the bolts at either end, other than that it's not an overly differicult look on VAG based forums for step by step guides