head gasket budget

Can aanyone tell me what they paid for a new head gasket so i can start saving?  After changing the hose on this thread and changing oil I'm still getting water loss and milky oil.

 http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=big-block-carb-engines_2%2Fwater-boiling-on

95k on aa standard1.8 clipper..

sounds like it could be 3 prices

Just head and belt
+ cracked head
+ cracked block

Its not a daily drive so no rush to get it done.. to be honest if i had a garage I'd give it a go but its not an option…

Cheers Jez

£250 at a guess 

That's without cracks 

Look up Bert on here - if you are near the midlands even better 

Do it your self about £30 on gaskets and about £20 for the bolts should be able to do it over a weekend if there is no problems with the head or block. 

Thanks for the replies.. £250 seems good>> I will try to find Bert !

Considering should I save up more and just get the whole engine rebuilt as I'm looking to keep the car.

parts are cheap to do the job, u need a few tools to do it

the expense comes with the work to the cyclinder head like a skim, or valve work

I got my head done at a local machine shop for 100 for a skim, crack test, valve machine (diesel heads are different) all cleansd and rebuild eith seals I provided them

if your doing it might as well go the whole hog

Agreed for all the effort and expense of puling apart the engine I may as well ask for an over hall.

I don't have a garage at home so possibly on the lookout for someone who fancies me driving the car to them to do the work !

You never know there might be someone on here that fancies doing it for me for a price ?  + the engine over hall Timeing belt tensioner etc.

cf_emoticons__BangHead: should have bought a house with a garage !!

Cheers
Jez

first up, hold your horses. if the engien is runnign fine, dont rush into spending a fortune on it.

1st thing, replace the coolant channel oring in your inlet manifold, these are a common failure and will allow coolant to leak out. I dont know where the 2e2 faq thread has gone from on here but heres the one on the mk2 owners club, oring replacement is covered near the bottom of the 1st post:
http://www.vwgolfmk2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=14917

as for milky oil, is it just on the cap and in the breather? if so this is normal if car doesnt do many long runs and will be worse in the winter. if you have mayo on your dipstick though, then you should worry

Would a bblock test show a failure if the o ring has gone?

do you mean a coolant system pressure test? if you can do this then it woudl show up the leaks in the coolant system yes, for the same of a few bolts I would take the inlet off anyway as its almost certainly going to be in poor shape, will cost 10 or less for the inlet gasket and oring so you may as well get it checked!

main issue is the 2 middle allen bolts are a bit of a pain to get to, so the 1st thign to do before spending money is get yourself a mirror and check you can get a tool into the bolt heads, a few thin extensions and a decent allen bit tool is what you need

Yes tthinking is it worth a garage doing the head gasket test where the water turns yellow or whatever it is…

Maybe i ask them to change the o rring and then do the test…

ah yes, you can get em from motorfactors too shouldnt cost much. but yeah unless car is running bad dont worry about the gasket for now. if exhaust gasses were getting into the coolant generally you would see lots of white smoke out the back as well (not to be confused with the little white smoke you see on cold days due to the normal combustion process/condensation in the exhaust system)

i would be VERY surprised if the gasket had gone at 95k, they usually last around double that milage and beyond. usually gasket will only blow if you allow the engien to overheat

Ok so first test will be to see if there is gas in  coolant then report back!