Several years ago I bought some new heads for my '81.  I realize now that
they were probably the heads made in Spain (AMC?).  Anyway, they came
with clear instructions that head gaskets were *not* to be used.

Maybe you have one VW head and one AMC head?

Can anybody explain why the Spanish heads don't use gaskets?

On Mon, 17 Aug 1998, Harmon Seaver wrote:

> Just got a pair of rebuilt heads for my '81 2.0L from BusDepot, they
> look good and came quick. However, one has a pair of cylinder shims and
> a pair of head shims -- the other has just a pair of cylinder shims and
> a note *NOT* to use head shims.
>     I'm a bit confused. Don't have a Bentley for this engine, only a
> Haines, but it talks about "sealing rings" on the heads. So is the head
> shim in addition to the sealing rings from the gasket set? Seems like
> that wouldn't give the greatest seal. OTOH, the earlier air-cooled
> engines had no head gasket at all, and they did fine.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
---------------------------------------------------------------------