Cracked alh head?

Recently bought a 2000 beetle that someone said would not start and had ‘given up’ on. I trailered it home, put new battery in and it started and ran good!
Looking into it, I noticed soot in the coolant, so I hoped it might be an egr cooler issue. I deleted the cooler, cleaned the intake and pulled the oil pan due to cracks and welded it up. Reassembled the engine, added oil and coolant and took it for a spin, limp mode! Replaced turbo actuator, n75, check valve, and hoses. Car runs like a top now. Drove it to work and home today, almost 300mls. Heat didn’t work good. Popped the hood when I got home and noticed coolant reservoir level was extremely high and head is wet around glow plugs 1 and 4. Oil is clean and correct level. I’m guessing they overheated it by running out of oil? Possible to crack head? Or just blow a gasket? Has anyone seen an issue similar? Thanks.

Pull plugs and do a leakdown test. Also compression while your at it

No oil would result in a lock up in most cases. Is the moisture around those glow plugs coolant, diesel, or oil? The engine is probably no good or needs internal repair(head etc) hence the reason it was advertised the way it was.

You really need to look into it a bit more, the no heat could mean there is improper circulation or a thermostat issue.

Of the head is cracked a leakdown will show it

The car was placed on the road prematurely as my 03 wagon engine seized and I needed immediate transportation. I had not planned on putting the 2000 beetle on the road until I had a chance to go thru it completely.
The heat is there, just really suttle. And after driving, the coolant level in the reservoir is almost two inches above the max line that it was originally filled to.
Not sure if the moisture is coolant or fuel yet. No sweet smell or diesel smell for that matter.
Beginning to wonder if the soot in the original reservoir is some sort of stop leak that has plugged the heater core possibly. I need to clean the head and see if the moisture reappears by the glow plugs. Just seems I would smell coolant if I had a leak.
I will borrow a coolant pressure tester and run a test, and look into getting a compression test rig for a leak down test.
Thanks

Blend door foam loss does not help. But the fact that your increasing the level in the tank says A: you have a head gasket failure or B: cracked head.
An egr leak usually results in lost fluid..

Doing a leak down test along with the compression test and coolant pressure test this weekend. Thanks

Coolant rising with soot sounds like head gasket or egr cooler leak. Cooler been deleted?

Mongler98 said:

Blend door foam loss does not help. But the fact that your increasing the level in the tank says A: you have a head gasket failure or B: cracked head.
An egr leak usually results in lost fluid..

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Actually, that makes sense, egr would lose coolant
.

The coolant level rises and lowers with heat and cold, this is why there is a bottle. I am confused if this is an issue or just you not sure how that works.

I have deleted the egr cooler before I began driving it hoping to solve the soot in the coolant. Now having driven it for a couple days the coolant level has evened out but the heat is still mediocre. Smelling for coolant after driving I noticed none but did smell raw diesel. Popped the hood and watched the wet spots at cylinder 1 and 4 while having someone rev the engine and sure enough, fuel is bubbling out of the injector bases. Apparently looking as a final diagnosis of bad injector o rings and the previous owner having put stop leak in the coolant causing a gummed up heater core!
Thank you for your incite into possible solutions. I plan the run the leak down test after replacing o rings just to verify all is good and will keep an eye on the reservoir as the level increase sure looked like my 6.0l with cracked heads! (Still a great yard truck!)

There are no o-rings on the injectors.
I’m assuming that your talking that it’s leaking where it goes into the head or on the injector body itself?
If it’s leaking where it goes into the head it could be the hold down bolts are not torqued correctly or the copper sealing washer is not seated correctly, may a piece of carbon is keeping it from sealing.

You can remove those injectors and either replace those copper washers or do the backyard mechanic trick.
Take the washer an clean it up on a flat surface with 600 sandpaper .
Then take a propane torch, put the washers on a coat hangar and heat the washers till they are cherry red then let then cool down naturally.
This will soften the copper ( annealing the Metal ) .
I’ve done this dozens of times on my cars and never had on leak yet.

"heat the washers till they are cherry red then let then cool down naturally."

I'll beg to differ, quench in cold water to fully anneal. Mind you a slow
cool apparently works to soften, but I quench copper immediately.

Rrusse11 said:

"heat the washers till they are cherry red then let then cool down naturally."

I'll beg to differ, quench in cold water to fully anneal. Mind you a slow
cool apparently works to soften, but I quench copper immediately.

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You want them soft.

quenching them makes them hard at the crystalline state that it was at when hot. letting them cool down, the slower you can do it the better, will make the crystals all line up making it soft.

FWIW i have always reused those washers, a pass over some 300 grit till its clearly even sanded on a flat surface makes them work fine and also removes your fingerprints. if i had those washers when i had to do work then i would use them but often when i have to reprime the 3rd injector i end up breaking the seal and have to do this.

another trick is to clean the seat where the washer sits in the head. a screwdriver socket (nut driver) tool with some 300 on the end of it works really well, pit of playdoe down in the glow plug hole works great. just use compressed air to get it out by blowing it into the intake.
heating up the copper is pointless. it was soft enough when installed and no reason for it to be harder. head wont heat up to anneal it and work hardening is just the once time it was installed.

i never put heat to them and they worked fine.

BTW if you have an injector compression leak at the seal and the hold-down bolt is torqued to spec DO NOT TIGHTEN IT FURTHER. Find the problem. And be careful with the head surface and any sort of steel tool down there; you CAN score it and then it will NOT seal.

Not to derail the discussion here, but can you do the same copper-washer hack (sand with 600grit then propane torch) on the banjo-bolts for the turbo oil line?

I waited over the course of the weekend doing a turbo R&R because I forgot to pick up the copper washers - would be nice to be able to re-use them if need be.

Along same lines, how about on the oil pan drain bolt?

Yes, and yes.

Same same.

Cool!

Finally got some time! Turns out the thermostat was bad. Upon replacement, I saw that the coolant hoses have been boiled which explains the soot in the coolant reservoir. I have driven the car a few thousand miles now. Car has good heat quickly and cooling system works great. Now to deal with the injectors. I have purchased new copper washers. $2/ea.