Headgasket on a 1.3 GF (?) engine

How long a job and how much should i be looking to pay?! also where would you reccomend getting the parts from?! VW want ?110 for the kit!

a good and friendly motor factor ie gsf should be able to sort you out for a fraction of the price.paid under ?20 for the last kit on the wifes polo.?110,my arse!!it pays to shop,but avoid good deals on ebay.

thankyou. im gonna get the bits priced up by our local motor factors tomorrow. scheduled in with my RAC friend for next weekend. gonna be a learning curve for me !! lots of poking about going "oooh wats this bit and oooooooooooooooooooooh that shouldn't look like that should it!" lol

Bert on here advised me to get a Payen head gasket, which cost ?20 from my local motor factors and is excellent quality.

HTH

Rich

yes ,payen gaskets are what i used and they are very good quality.its always worth skimming the head too.
   youll have fun doing a head gasket.my missus had an ace time doing hers on the polo.i made her do it as she said my job(mechanic)was easy,servs her right!its a good job shes a cleaner as she made more of a mess than me!

cant afford to have to car off the road long enough to skim the head at the moment, the gasket hasn't gone,. its just going at present. but i wanna get it done before it gets too much worse, i steam cleaned the bay last weekend and i think thats whats forced the gunge thru (it did this last time too, it looks to have opened somehing up temporarily) but tis spurred me on to get it done, when the cabs on the road in summer ill get the head set off and done properly, but for now i need it turned around in 48hours. Everyone is telling me not to bother and just to uprate to a 16v but this one has done just over 80k (80100 i think) so i dnt want to. im pretty handy with a spanner and a torque wrench etc so i don't think it will be too bad a job.

any hints on preperation tho!?? like if i start doing something now it will make it easier on the day (like lubeing up the bolts!!) other than the obvious thing of buyig all the bits!

by the time summer roles round you'll wish you had the head skimmed. ring a few places you'll find they are most likly able to do it in 48 hours.

its an ali head on a steel block when you remove the head it will warp meaning blown head gasket again in the forseeable future.

although it is a VW so you might be alright as they do tend to over engineer things (or did anyway) if it was french youd be looking at a pretzel for a head as they are made from cheese.

defo skim the head, else the new gasket would last 10 mins

also skimming the head will rase teh compresion = a bit more power out these low powered motors

If you're anywhere near Newbury I can highly recommend an engineering company to skim it for you.

As these guys have said, definitely get it skimmed. It'll save you time and money in the long run.

HTH

Rich

you guys dont seem to understand mmy predicament………

im working saturday morning…….. so at 12.30 on saturday lunchtime we are starting on this car- no engineering company this side of the pennines is open past 12 on a saturday and i HAVE to have it back for tea time sunday as i have no transport whatsoever otherwise.

the aim of this weekend is to make the car driveable til summer.  then she is coming off the road and is having a proper overhaul so i will get the skimming done then, unless i scrap the engine and put something else in its place.

i know i need to skim it but i just havent got the time at the moment.

but thank you.

You can check if its warped with a straight edge !