Most diesel heads have cracks after 10K miles - most aren't problematic... I
guess at 160K+ miles, the cracks might be to the point of being an issue,
but if you don't mind doing the job twice, I'd try just a new gasket first.
Reconditioning of the head done right will be $200-$400 depending where you
are.  Can't just be milled off.  Second time you do the job, it's much
easier ;)

Cleaning out the holes - I used a bunch of Q-tips - rubbed all around until
they came out clean.

Need to use new head bolts each time - stretch bolts... one use only.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Dennis Haynes
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 9:54 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: How to do a head reseal on a diesel vanagon?

You should have the head inspected-tested for cracks. Very common on the
Diesels.

Dennis

>From: Florian Speier <groups.florian@GMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: Florian Speier <groups.florian@GMAIL.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: How to do a head reseal on a diesel vanagon?
>Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:25:08 -0700
>
>I have to do a cylinder head gasket job on a friends 82 diesel westy. Does
>anyone have a better writeup than the bentley, especially, do i need these
>specific tools for the drive belt?
>The engine is currently bubbling out coolant between head and block....
>argh.  I know that on an engine with already 165k on it, this might be a
>temporary fix, but I am unsure of the costs and time involved in a
>1.9conversion, so I guess its gonna be just fixing it for now.
>
>Any advice is greatly appreciated!
>
>thanks a lot
>flo