Valve stem seals..does my head have to come off?

Hi there all,
I believe the stem seals hae gone on my 1.8 Clipper. Bit smokey on start up and gives out a big puff of smoke between gear changes and coasting.
I rang up a couple of places in town and they said it was a head off job and the prices were 300 plus vat (or no vat for cash) and 4-500, plus vat. I don't have that sort of money to throw at the car at the minute, so wonder if the head really needs to come off and does anyone know of a VW friendly garage that can do the work at a reasonable price in Northants or surounding areas.

yea.. this is normally a head off job. with a head rebuild. this is why cost is high.

Head does not have to come off, but much easier if it does.  You can get spark plug adaptors to run a compressor on to hold the valves closed - not tried that method - or the old trick is to feed rope into the cylinder and the turn the piston up to lock the valves in place - not tried that either but need to on my Blue S1 .

Cheers

Rich

i have done a few head recons and always took the head off, depending on ya level of mechanical skills, of which mine is fair, it is a fair job to do and you have to be sure timing doesnt alter.

not heard of the methods above and i cant see how you would get the valve springs compressed.

also best to re seat the valves while the head is off just to make a proper job of it

good luck