1.1 GG engine Cylinder Head Leak

Hi all,


I am renewing the headgasket soon and am aware of the common leak area around the LH front nr cylinder 1 (this car is no exception.)

The haynes manual states that jointing compound should be put around the stud and oil gallery as shown in picture below.

I'm after people's experiences with this when they did the job - did you seal it? what with and did it cause any issues? or if no compound was used, has it been fine?

thanks everyone in advance

i have done cylinder heads in the past but not on a golf so completely happy with doing the job i just don't want to do it twice!

Did mine about a year ago, didn't use any sealant as in book just tightened head to the settings in the Haynes and has been fine since I think it's just about getting decent gaskets (y)

Thanks man, good to know!

To be honest, I have used only VW head gaskets never had an issue until I swapped over a Diesel Engine as mine blew a tooth on a 2 week old belt, and it blew the Piston into the valves bent one and broke another but funny thing it still ran on 3 cylinders until the one that welded to the piston blew a chunk out of the head.

The new engine would go through head gaskets about 6 to 9 months, ao I got really good at changing head gaskets, 3 hours start to finish. New Bolts every time.

This was prior to the days of the interweb, and I didn't know that I could use the ARP racing Stud kit, as I do think I had the corner bite issue on the 1.5 that I had.

If I had sucked up and spent the 80 dollars on the Studs, back then (they were pricey then as they are now), I could of only changed the head gasket once in a blue moon, and I probably would still be running it today and never gotten in to the cabriolets.  

Personally I have never liked the X number of foot pounds, then 1/2 turn of those bolts.  With the ARP studs you can set the Torque, recheck in 500 miles and be good to go.  Now I did get over 300K miles on my Diesels engine as the new engine had about 100 less miles on it than I had on mine, but it was the Rabbit marking it's spot.  It was always the same issue on the gasket failures the oil port between the 3rd and 4th cylinder would flip the gasket material and leak in to the coolant.

From what I understand now, the ARP studs extend down further in to the block and with locktite (blue)
are a forever kind of thing that can be re-used…Which over the course of a few years would of paid for the many sets of bolts and gaskets that I consumed.

When I bought my 3 Cabby with a blown head gasket, I went with the ARP stud kit, and to this day it is Rock Solid… I only wished I had known that back in the day of my Diesel driving.  20 years of ownership and about 330K..It was still giving me 45 MPG.

Blimey!

Thanks for the all the info, I will look into those studs.