In a message dated 96-09-23 23:36:31 EDT, kdlewis@juno.com (kenneth d lewis)
writes:

>	If your "head gasket" was leaking you would have no external
>indication. The head gaskets are on the inside. They are small metal
>rings/washers that seal the top of the combustion cylander to the head.
<snip>
>ken lewis

VW uses a unique head gasket arrangement on the wasserboxer motors.  There
are actually TWO different types of head "gaskets".  The one at the top of
each cylinder creates the compression seal - this is the one Mr. Lewis
describes above.  The most common head gasket leak on the wasserboxer is past
the head gasket that seals the coolant inside the engine.  This "rubber"
gasket is kind of a rectangular shape and goes around both cylinders on each
side of the engine.  It is on the head in this gasket's sealing area that the
corrosive pitting occurs and coolant begins seeping past the gasket and out
onto the ground.

Jim Davis
87 GL Syncro
88 GL Wolfsburg