Is it game over for my head?

head is off and there is a crack between valves 3 and 4 and valves 5 and 6
Is this head now knackered?





I got another head off eBay today but there is minor damage, as per photos. Will this cause issue? It's straight but if it needs to be skimmed due to damage I will send it back and try and get another

My 90s current head is cracked on every cylinder between the valves as is my spare head, the 90 one has been like it for the best part of 6 years.
I have my suspicions that all tweaked tdi heads will suffer the same sooner or later.

The second head in your pic MAY need a skim but you will have to clean it up to confirm, only bit that matters is the cylinder head to gasket joint.

Could be the bit on the lip in the last picture that causes the problem then.

Within reason, the gasket can accommodate minor imperfections in the mating surface. The scratches look pretty vicious in the pictures but that's probably because they're fresh. The head seems to have been badly stored or bashed about in transit. The real difficulty comes when pips have been raised on the surface as they take all the clamping force and elsewhere the gasket isn't squashed down as tight as it needs to be to create a good seal. I'd also be a bit apprehensive about those scratches where the metal 'fire ring' of the gasket goes around the cylinder bore because that's a critical area and the metal ring is less yielding and less able to accommodate scratches.

Personally, I'd chance it if I were a) very poor b) stuck in a rural area many miles from the nearest machine shop. Otherwise I'd get it refaced.

With a head like that I would pay for a pressure test and if it passes a skim.

ashleywood.ash said:

head is off and there is a crack between valves 3 and 4 and valves 5 and 6
Is this head now knackered?





I got another head off eBay today but there is minor damage, as per photos. Will this cause issue? It's straight but if it needs to be skimmed due to damage I will send it back and try and get another

Click to expand...

id skim it a see how it is then ,grooves/marks etc arent such an issue unless the cross a fire ring location or water way