ALH 280K miles head gasket advice?

Well, that day has finally come where my trusty old '03 Golf engine (280,000 miles) has bit the bullet. I just had the valve cover seals replaced and within one tank of fuel the coolant system became flooded with oil so I took it in. The prognosis is the head gasket needs to be replaced.

So decision time. Do I pay the over $2000 to have the head gasket replaced, the engine machined, and all the assorted things replaced (timing belt etc), or should I just try and find a replacement engine and gain myself one with lower miles? The problem is that I live in Los Angeles and anybody who knows this city knows that it's next to impossible to get around without a car. Money is tight, so I have to consider my budget and I'm trying to make a payment plan deal with my mechanic.

My next question is this: If I decide to go the route of replacing the engine, is it possible to put in a BEW PD engine rather than an ALH? I would love to have the extra HP and torque that the newer engine provides, and they're both around $1500 on ebay. Does anybody here have experience with swapping a BEW into an ALH engine bay?

Any advice would be welcome! Thanks!

If the cars in good shape otherwise, I'd consider the two grand five $400 car payments.
These cars often make it to half a million miles.

CyberMindGrrl said:

Well, that day has finally come where my trusty old '03 Golf engine (280,000 miles) has bit the bullet. I just had the valve cover seals replaced and within one tank of fuel the coolant system became flooded with oil so I took it in. The prognosis is the head gasket needs to be replaced.

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Valve cover seals replaced?

How did they determine that the head gasket went? Did they just go on the presence of oil in the coolant or did they pressure test the cooling system? Realize there is an oil cooler in the system which can introduce oil into the coolant as well.

greengeeker said:

Valve cover seals replaced?

How did they determine that the head gasket went? Did they just go on the presence of oil in the coolant or did they pressure test the cooling system? Realize there is an oil cooler in the system which can introduce oil into the coolant as well.

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Sorry, valve cover. I went in to get the seals replaced and found out that it's impossible to do without replacing the whole valve cover.

And yes, they pressure tested the cooling system.

[Update]
Well I bit the bullet and approved the repair. Total cost will be a little over $2600 including the timing belt, new hoses, and new glow plugs. I looked online to see if I could find a used engine, and the cheapest I found ran around $2000 with shipping, plus $1700 in labor to swap engines. So all told, I'll be getting an almost completely rebuilt engine for $2600. And the good news is that I can put hundreds of thousands more miles on it. All told, I think repairing it and keeping it on the road is the best option given how rare these cars are in America (I bought mine in Canada where they are far less rare).

Your oil cooler is bad, bad head gasket almost never puts oil into the cooling system on these engines.

Do not approve the repair until you rule out the oil cooler. $100 part and takes about 20min to replace...

turbocharged798 said:

Your oil cooler is bad, bad head gasket almost never puts oil into the cooling system on these engines.

Do not approve the repair until you rule out the oil cooler. $100 part and takes about 20min to replace...

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Interesting! I will look into that. Conventional wisdom dictates that a car with that many miles should be due for a head gasket, n'est ce pas? I don't know if that pertains to the ALH engine though.

CyberMindGrrl said:

Interesting! I will look into that. Conventional wisdom dictates that a car with that many miles should be due for a head gasket, n'est ce pas? I don't know if that pertains to the ALH engine though.

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lol. if there is no reason for a head gasket to fail, such as bad coolant, major over heat, bad maintenance etc, there is no reason to assume it needs to be changed just 'because'

Think of a head gasket more like a fuse than a wear and tear part. If heat/boost/fuel mixture is good, the head gasket should be fine. Something else usually causes the head gasket to blow. If that is not corrected, it will blow another one if the same conditions arise.

02Blue said:

Think of a head gasket more like a fuse than a wear and tear part. If heat/boost/fuel mixture is good, the head gasket should be fine. Something else usually causes the head gasket to blow. If that is not corrected, it will blow another one if the same conditions arise.

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Awesome, good to know! I've never had any problems with my car since this issue, so I will get them to check the oil cooler.

Thanks! I love this forum!

I'm sure some, if not all, who have commented, have high mileage engines. My 2000 Jetta has over 350k miles and I seriously doubt it needs a new head gasket.

I'm sorry, but I believe your mechanics are jumping to conclusions. There is only one oil gallery from the block to the head that has pressure. VW dealt with leak issues with the 1.5 and 1.6 engines where the head and block mate at this oil hole. So, that being a place of leakage is highly unlikely. Bad valve stems seals would have no affect on coolant, zero! Drain back holes from the head to block will not mix with the coolant.

Go with the guru's suggestions.

^^Exactly. The head gasket is not you problem as it does not cause oil to go into the coolant. Only way that could happen if the head or block is cracked which is highly unlikely.

I'm not a guru, but own a high mileage ALH (now at 339K), and the entire engine is original with only routine maintenance. (One exception, depending on how you look at it- I had the original fuel injectors rebuilt last year...) From what I have read on these forums, agrees with replies in this post- finding oil in the coolant, first suspicion should be the oil cooler. For the reasons given above, it's definitely worth checking and maybe even "shotgun" replacing because, as mentioned above, it's relatively cheap.

I'd describe the ALH engine as one where "general" conclusions often do not apply. What I'm reading through the text here... sounds like your shop is reasonable, but also note there's a good chance they may have generalized and made an expensive diagnosis that may not be the core issue. For that reason, I'd recommend use the list of trusted TDI mechanics at top of the 101 forum, see if you can find someone reasonably nearby to L.A. Even if you have to drive a bit for the service... having your ALH in the hands of someone who is specifically experienced with them... is invaluable and will save you $ over the long run.

Wish you all the best.

Ok I just talked with my mechanic. He says they did a pressure test which shows a head gasket failure but he's willing to stop work on it and look at the oil cooler. He certainly is reasonable and willing to avoid doing a head gasket replacement job so I guess I'll wait and see.

Also I checked to see if there were any TDI shops nearby and it seems that there is a serious lack of them here in the Los Angeles area. The closest is Santa Barbara which is WAY too far for me. I wonder what's up with that, I see TDI's all over the place. Looks like there's a serious business opportunity for a TDI specialist in LA!

Pull the oiler cooler and pressure check it on the bench in a bucket of liquid....couple of hours maybe.....if he's slow.

The pressure check on the cooling system shows there's a leak "somewhere!" Right? So, where is it?

If the leak is in the oil cooler (where I suspect), then the pressure should have put some coolant in the oil!

If the Photo thingy was working, I'd post a pic of a head gasket showing the seal around the gallery ........ That gallery is the only place pressurized oil could get into the coolant, as I stated above!

I'm presently on a business high speed Internet and the photo thingy does not work.

Try Wildrose Motors in Whittier.

http://www.vwtdionly.com/

AndyBees said:

The pressure check on the cooling system shows there's a leak "somewhere!" Right? So, where is it?

If the leak is in the oil cooler (where I suspect), then the pressure should have put some coolant in the oil!

If the Photo thingy was working, I'd post a pic of a head gasket showing the seal around the gallery ........ That gallery is the only place pressurized oil could get into the coolant, as I stated above!

I'm presently on a business high speed Internet and the photo thingy does not work.

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They're looking into it right now. I went down this morning and talked to them personally.

ALH head gasket.....

See the oil gallery hole? Its the hole that's weird shaped. The larger part of the hole is where a head stud goes. The offset allows oil to go over and up into the head gallery.

The small holes is where coolant moves from the block to the head. The one larger hole is a vent hole and also allows oil splatter in the head area to drain back to the crankcase.