Thanx for the heads up on retorquing H2O heads. I did notice the owner's
manual coverage of recommended services didn't mention this as previous
manuals (air cooled) did. I had assumed this was due to improved
engineering, rather than "..if ya do, you're gonna break it!" <g>

....more ponderings...

Is this sealant used with the gasket?  If so, it's possible you've hit on
the source of the coolant creepage.  Constant temperature cycling against a
flexible gasket, causing the sealant to develope hairline cracks. You now
have passages for the coolant to be trapped in. This trapped coolant then
has it's protective qualities consumed and corrosion sets in. The corrosion
tracks on the heads from my old engine had a spidery type of pattern,
heavier in the area of the coolant passages.

Also, if a head is properly torqued when installed, not enough movement
occurs to cause cracking?

I still think is must have something to do with trapped coolant, otherwise
other thinner aluminum parts would be failing more regularly too.

- Mark *** 91 Carat ***

At 10:18 AM 4/4/98, Old Volks Home posted the following:
>*********************************
>
>Retorquing the Wasser Heads, a procedure most common to Air Cooled VW
>Engines, is specifically a no-no because the sealant applied to each of the
>Head Nuts will break loose and then you will have some coolant leakage
>problems.  Of course, you could theoretically remove and reseal each Head
>Nut, but that would get a little tedious after awhile.
>
>