I was thinking the same regarding the OEM heads versus aftermarket.  The
leak is not bad, around the diameter of an eraser on a #2 pencil, maybe a
little bigger and the breach on the cylinder mount is the same.  It appears
to be torched.

There is a VW air cooled machinist not too far away that used to be
affiliated with a big air cooled shop here in Dayton, I'm sure he can set me
up.

I will also take Dennis' advice and look at the case and studs.  The engine
was running fine before the breach and even running with it, simply was
making some noise, from what the PO said.  With the PO being an aircooled
guy, he was pretty sure what it was but came across the complete 60k engine
in his hunt for a cylinder head to swap on and bought the whole engine.

Thanks for all the responses.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike [mailto:mbucchino@charter.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2011 6:43 PM
To: Joe Luther; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Re: General engine bolt/nut sizes

Sounds like the cylinder head top gasket pushed back allowing a leak to
'torch' the head.
Depending on the depth of the damage (you say it small), the heads can be
flycut to clean up the sealing surfaces.
They can be welded and re-machined an indefinite number of times.
Original, properly re-conditioned german heads are better than aftermarket
new heads.

Mike B.