Hello List. I've been lurking in the shadows, as my 87 Westy has been trouble free until now. The drivers' side head gasket is leaking very obviously- you can see it from above, bubbling away. It has 116k miles, compression was good (120~140psi) in March of this year when I purchased it @ 110k, so hopefully taking care of this should be all that's needed for a while.

Anyhoo, I am planning on tackling this job myself today after much research via this list and other volks websites, but I have a question: the Bentley says that the crankshaft pulley needs to be removed. Why? Boston Bob's site had no mention of this, and as of yet, I see no reason. Is this going to be necessary? I am not planning on replacing the heads- JB weld first, but if that is not an option, then I do have a new 2.1l waiting in the wings. I was hoping to find one of those deal-of-the-century-Syncros...but we'll see.

And yes, I also plan on replacing the water pump with a new one that I got from Ken @ Van-Again along with associated hoses .

Thanks in advance, Mike

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