How prone are the heads on the alh to cracking?

Newbeetle

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Location
Weatherford, Tx
TDI
2000 New beetle TDI
Ok so this is kinda long but I figure a description will definitely help. I recently experienced an overheat, I had been dropping coolant for a while but didn't have a temp gauge cause the new beetle just has a dummy light, one day I noticed the heater started blowing cold off and on, the car has a new heater core and the blend door is working so I new something was wrong, so I got to thinking and checked the coolant hose to see if the thermostat might be sticking open or closed, sure enough both hoses were warm but one side was swollen up way too much like it was stuck halfway or something. Remembering that I had a newthermostat at the house, I went home and installed it, bled it and all that good stuff. After I installed the new thermostat the problem went away for about 2 weeks, heater worked and I stopped loosing coolant, till one day it started doing it again... this time even worse, so went and borrowed my buddy's scanguageII and notice that it was getting up to 215f at idle when it was about 40f outside. I also noticed that the fans weren't turning on, so I tested the a found that the motor on the big one was burnt up and the fan switch was also bad so I replaced all that and the problem still persisted so I though maybe I've got an airlock somehow so I tried bleeding/burping the coolant buy squeezing the hoses, I did get was seemed like some air out. After this it started to clear up or so I thought, I drove over 60 miles one way with it at a pretty steady 188f to 195 or so, until I was on my way back home and made it about 45 more miles at a steady 188f...and the it happened, the ref light started flashing and the temperature went from 188f to 268f, so I pulled over and let it cool off a good bit and checked it over, it had puked coolant out of the bottle all over my passenge wheel, after letting it cool off a good bit I started it and looked everything over and noticed I had air bubbles coming into the tank, luckily I had some distilled water in the car so I topped it off with it and out of hope I bled the crap out of it again, I thought for sure it was 100% toast but to my surprise it made it all the way home, it didn't even try to overheat but I knew something was wrong thinking probably a bad head gasket or even worse, so I got it home and checked everything, water pump, thermostat, hoses, coolant flange, checked floor for coolant etc... came up with nothing. After all this I bummed a ride to the Home Depot with my buddy that's a diesel mechanic and he helped me assemble a homemade pressure tester, we hooked it up and pressured up the cooling system and waited.... after a good while of sitting there it hadn't moved, if it did it was maybe a half a psi. It was getting late so we wrapped things up, it wasn't till the next day after the car had sat for a long time that I noticed that there was puddle of coolant under ther car, a traced it as best as I could and it seemed like it was coming from in between the head and block, by the manifold, just above the turbo (also car has no egr cooler so that rules that out), so I bit the bullet and bought a head gasket. I'm pressed for time cause this is my only ride and my boss sounded like he really didn't want me to miss much work. I was just wondering how prone the head are to cracks cause I
so pressed for time, or if I shouldn't worry to much about it. Oh and I forgot to mention I did also check and make sure the head bolts hadn't backed off and they were fine.
 

Nero Morg

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2017
Location
OR
TDI
2014 A6 TDI, 2001 Jetta TDI, 2014 Passat TDI
Paragraphs my friend, please use them. That much text bunched up is a little difficult to read.

I don't think they're really all that prone to cracking, moreso they will warp. Definitely sounds like you warped it enough to blow the head gasket, being as you got it up to 268!!!

Check for flatness on the deck and the head, then slam em back together if they are true. If the head is warped, get it machined or replaced.
 

Newbeetle

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Location
Weatherford, Tx
TDI
2000 New beetle TDI
Yeah, sorry about the bunched up sentences. I was typing all of that on the phone so I wasn't t really thinking about that.
 

HPsenicka

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Location
Orangeville, Ontario
TDI
2 x 2004 Jetta Sport BEW (Malone Stage 1.5), 2014 GSW TDI - Wolfsburg Edition, 2015 Passat TDI -Sport Trim
Yeah, sorry about the bunched up sentences. I was typing all of that on the phone so I wasn't t really thinking about that.

You could go back and edit that mess... you would have to pay me to read it in its current state.
 

Mavrick

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Location
Ontario
TDI
2003 VW Jetta TDI
Not prone to cracking.. haven't seen one cracked yet. Not common to leak coolant from head gasket either.

More common would be the coolant side flange at the end of the head leaking... when it leaks, it will run along the parting line of the block/head. I would make sure that isn't your problem first, before pulling the head.
 
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