Foxes like to leak at the bottom of the radiator and the heater core and you
may never see it. If you were losing that much coolant at the head gasket it
would be in the oil for sure. Easy test would be oil testing. That will pick
up the glycol long before (ppm) than you will see it. 
The usual mode for these head gaskets to fail is between cylinders 2 and 3
and the oil galley to the head. Any other coolant issue is due to the gasket
delaminating from the cast iron block and aluminum head moving at different
rates during temperature changes. It is also common for these heads to
crack. A major cause of failure is not properly filling/priming the cooling
system after a drain or water pump/t-stat change. You gotta get the engine
and all the hoses filled before you start it. You need coolant flow in order
to open the t-stat on the inlet side of the pump.  

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
roger sisler
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 4:12 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Fox head torque question

Hello, this 1.8 is similar to many VW inline four engines, and it is loosing
coolant at the rate of about 1 qt per 50 miles. No exterlal leaks are to be
found, therefore I think it is a head gasket issue. This Fox had been
leaking coolant for some time(damn VW's), however I traced it to a lose
coolant temp sensor at the bottom of the radiator.Got that fixed, and then
this thing started eating up all my antifreeze.

I first want to check the torque on the head gasket to see if all the bolts
are tight to specs.� I see that the spec is 44ftpounds + 1/2 turn. That
seems like a difficult measurement to tell if a bolt is loose.I mean. Does
anyone know if there is a proper torque number for this cylinder head torque
on the Fox?� 

thanks!