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Good morning to you all and second go on the forum. The project is progressing nicely thanks to your help. Sub frame off and sorted, gear selector oil seal changed, wheel bearing sorted and now onto the big one - the cylinder head! Almost lost the will for this one reading the Haynes manual! Can sort the timing belt, although it is a massive faff by the look of it, but wondering how much I need to dismantle to get the cylinder head off. According to Haynes I will need to disconnect everything attached to the inlet manifold and throttle body etc and remove it with the head. Exhaust manifold is off because I am replacing the down pipe. I am wondering if I can just detach the inlet manifold complete from the head and leave it in the car. Does anyone know on this please? It looks like I could get onto all of the bolts, but have not tried yet. Kind regards. Phil

Hello polo people, I have recently changed the head gasket on my mk2f coupe and after being ran up a grand total of 4 times oil has started to seep from under the gasket just above the alternator, iv had the head skimmed and cleaned up the block surface did everything by the Haynes manual, anyone got any suggestions what iv done wrong?

Hi all I was looking for a little advice regarding my 2010 1.6tdi. It's been losing coolant over that last few months, not massive amounts but I'm having to top up from min to max every 500 - 700 miles or so. I've checked the following and can confirm: No evidence of leak on the drive No steam from exhaust No rough idle No sweet smells in the cabin No contamination of oil on the cap or dip stick No hiss from coolant tank when engine is cold. I've taken it to a garage for a pressure test and they say they couldn't find any external leaks. They've suggested it's either a head gasket problem or the EGR cooler. Both extremely expensive and they can't say for sure which one is causing the problem, so I might spend the money only to find the problem still exists. I'm at a loss as to what to do. I asked them to do a head gasket sniffer test, but they said because my coolant tank looks stained/dirty it wouldn't be able to give an accurate indication?? If anyone is able to offer some advice, I'd be forever in your debt. Thanks

Hi I own a 95 Polo and recently noticed something strange with my oil cap, it has some creamy looking substance on the side that sits inside the engine and I have had mixed opinions of what it is for example I first got told I needed a new head gasket because water was leaking I then asked someone else and they said where my car was sat for a year it was just condensation in the engine and I just needed to leave my car running for a while I then tried that and it is still like it, do I need to run it for longer or do I need a new head gasket some help would be appreciated,

I'm about to get the head off because of a leak above the alternator. Stupid question do I need to drain all the oil, the Haynes manual doesn't tell you to under head removal and there's no water in it. I know the coolant has to go. Also I'm getting the head skimmed, should I whack some cling film over the cavity to avoid dust and such getting in while the head is off. How do I make sure the timing belt goes back in the right place? And finally any advice for fitting the new gasket, it's a rubber elring job? Cheers J

Hello, so I'm in the middle of replacing my head gasket on my mk2f with an AAV engine. By chance I was checking the thread on my new head bolts and it turns out they are 98mm long like the PY/G40 engine and the standard ones are meant to be 96mm long, now I'm stuck can I still use them on mine? or am I best to buy the right length for the engine code. The bolts are stamped with 8.8 tensile strength.

Hello polo people, today I took my inlet and spi throttle body off for a clean as my car is dropping revs like it's about to stall and then the revs come back up. Anyway when taking my inlet manifold off I noticed cylinder 1 is dirty as f*ck but the rest seem clean and as they should, any help would help out alot as I have no idea what could cause this. It's a 1.3 AAV spi engine.

Hi All, I am new here so please be gentle, I have a Mk2 H Reg 1990 Polo Ranger, for the past week it’s been running very strangely, ever since using different petrol to usual (maybe coincidence?). It’s a 1272CC Petrol engine. It’s got 143,000 on the clock it had a new head gasket done at about 60,000. But all of a sudden it sounds really rough like a diesel and is making a funny tapping noise every now and then that isn’t normal for it and it keeps missfiring and its stumbling when running idle, when you put your foot down and get to about 70mph it seems quite happy but it has a slight miss but when you slow down on slip roads and say town driving it starts to cough and splutter and feel like it’s going to stall which it’s done once but it restarted straight away. The longer the engine is running the worse it gets. It’s got no water in the oil no white smoke the only thing I have noticed is the small hose that goes back in the expansion tank does have some little bubbles in there? It keeps making the water level rise in the expansion tank so the water it seeping out under the lid of the pressurised tank so I am losing a bit of fluid but there is no white stuff in there. So to me it’s not showing usual head gasket issues? It has a new thermostat about 3 maybe 4 yrs ago. It has had a new webber carb fitted in December just gone as the pierburg was worn out I was planning to change the spark plugs and HT leads and the rotor arm and distributor cap to see if this helps as it’s not a happy car! I was wondering if anyone else has had the same issue or anyone has any ideas what’s wrong? Any help would be really appreciated. Many Thanks, Lewis

Hi All, I have a W reg Polo (Automatic) that's only covered 59,000. In awesome condition but I think the head gasket is on its way out. Can someone give me a rough estimate of what I should be paying to get it done? Is it easy on these engines?