they sure are !
I would say that almost any water-cooled vw engine could use a new
headgasket/s.
Unless you know the life and history of it .........
the head gasket is the 'wear item' part that gets the most stress on it.

For this waterboxer guy I was going to suggest looking at the edge of the
rubber 'water retention gaskets' ..........sometimes you can see there that
they've been done.........or never touched............or get some idea about
them.  But you can't really tell much from that.  I also look for signs of
cooling system corrosion in general.

Leak down test ..........I really like those.  Especially for a non-running
engine, like out of the van.
I just checked out a 2.1 used wbxr engine I picked up .......has newish
looking AMC heads..........each head has a quite badly leaking exhaust
valve.
Super easy to tell with a leak down tester.
I recommend new head gaskets and a basic valve job on any used wbxr engine ,
unless you have a reason to think it's fairly fresh.
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Sisler" <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: Evaluating a "Found" Engine

>I once heard someone say that Vanagon head gaskets were a maintance item.