On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, Ken Hunter wrote:

> I brought 2 of my 1.6TD heads to a trusted FLAPS to have them checked out.
> One of the heads had small cracks on three of the steel preheat chambers but
> had a flat sorface and no cracks between valves. The machinist called me back
> and said the head was no good because of the cracked preheat chambers and
> would leak coolant. I was dubious but brought him another head to check out.

I'm not an expert, but if you want an anecdote, I can tell you that I had
a combustion gas leak to the cooling system and found cracks between the
valves and the prechambers on two cylinders when I pulled the head.
Didn't find anywhere on the head gasket that looked obviously damaged,
either, so I have my suspicions.  I elected to replace the head with a
remanufactured one and it cured the problem, however I can't say for sure
whether it was the head or the new gasket that did it.  The leak would get
worse as the engine heated up, and it only leaked from the cylinders into
the water jacket -- I found no evidence of coolant getting into the
cylinders.

The question I asked myself is, "will I trust this engine if I put that
cracked head back on?"  I decided the answer was no, and I also *really*
didn't want to have to do the job twice.  You can make your own call.

             _ _
  __ _ _   _| | |  | David M. Brodbeck (N8SRE)              Ypsilanti, MI
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