[Vwdiesel] Help - messed in the head...

[Shawn Wright]

On 14 Apr 2005 at 20:18, Gary Shea <shea at gtsdesign.com> wrote:

> It sucks how letting anyone else touch part of your car leads to that
> part being screwed up :(  I'll never forget the place in Logan Utah that
> did an inspection on my Vanagon, knocked the press-on drums off with a
> sledge (before confronting the owner I quietly asked his son, who
> innocently acknowledged it), warped them beyond repair, denied doing
> anything improper, and when he finally agreed to replace them and gave
> me a ride back to my office, agreed with me when I told him that what I
> liked about Utah is how honest everyone was.  I could hardly keep a
> straight face on that one...

It's been a few years since I had any work done by a shop, but they screwed that up 
too of course. In fact, I think at least half the shop work I've had done in the past 20 
years has had problems, and I've always tried to find a shop with a good rep. 
 
> I had my TD head valve seats and guides done recently... I brought it in
> for the initial cleaning and had to come back later because I hadn't
> brought them the prechamber inserts.  Huh, the sealing surface of the
> head now has a big gouge in it... sigh.  Ok, so there goes the 1-notch
> gasket I already bought :(  I did get semi-lucky though, the guy called
> me when one of the prechamber inserts wouldn't stay in place.  He was
> afraid they would get pulled up by the cutting tool, just as yours may
> have.... he suggested we jbweld them in place, I gave him the go ahead,
> it worked.  I haven't dared to look at them closely since then :)  Nor
> have I had the courage to figure out the new clearance, if I can even
> think of a way to do it... they couldn't give me the exact amount of
> metal they milled off the head... it'll be at least a 3-notcher now
> though, based on what little information they could give me.
> 
> So I know just how you feel :)

I do have a spare NA head, are the prechambers the same on a TD? How do I 
remove them? I'm guessing tap them out with something in the injector hole? I'm 
already at a 3 notch gasket, so I hope this won't be a problem. I may try to measure 
the piston height, since I got them in last night. I was surprised how much they stick 
up.

thanks for the info, I will try gather as much advice before I talk to the shop.

Shawn Wright
http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright
'85 Jetta D 
'88 Westy 2.1L, soon to be 1.6TD 5 speed
 (see progress at http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels)
'82 Diesel Westy