Mk4 based head gasket issues

Seatman

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Location
Scotland
TDI
2014 Skoda rapid elegance 1.6 cr tdi
A friend has the skoda octavia with the ASV lump, 110bhp version of the ALH. The gasket started to leak into the water jacket causing excess pressure so a friend replaced the gasket. New gasket, new bolts all torqued correctly and surfaces clean from what I understand.

Anyway a few weeks later it's the same again. I'm thinking of doing the job myself this time and also maybe getting the head skimmed regardless of how straight it looks.

Anyway my question is should the head be skimmed any time the gasket is changed?

I always thought it only needed a skim if the car had been overheated causing warping etc but not sure on the tdi.

Cheers
 

flee

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Location
Chatsworth, CA
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS wagon
Seat, according to Franko6 the heads can get distorted in a number of ways.
And with the history of your friend's engine, I would deck the block, too.
At least hit it with a flat plate and some very fine grit paper.;)
 

BeatJumper

Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2017
Location
England
TDI
Ibiza sport PD130
I had an ASZ which had that problem. I got it skimmed and have had no problems. Interestingly the mechainc was 100% confident that the head bolts weren't stretch bolts so he didn't put in the pd150 ones i supplied :(

I knew a guy who had a pd engine with a hg failure and replaced the gasket without skimming and it worked fine. So I don't think the head should be skimmed every time
 
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