Anybody from around London or Heathrow area with a bit experience wanna come on by and help me on the weekend doing my head gasket and cam oil seal?

If not I will do it myself but I have never done a head gasket and would like some guidance and a hand. I'm sick and tired of enduring the pain from my cars problems alone.

20 quid and some unlimited cups of tea/coffee and food is best I can offer but worth a try..

It's a pretty easy job on these old Polos. Just make sure you have all the tools you need before you start. Are you sure things like exhaust manifold nuts will come off ok? Keep a note of where all the nuts and bolts come from as they are all very important. While you are there you may as well do the cam belt, oil change and you'll need to replace the coolant anyway.

As well as the head gasket you'll need to replace the head bolts too as they are single use.

I feel the pain of working on cars alone. Sprained my groin trying to push the rear subframe up and move the shock absorber into position

thanks for the advice kwijibo coupe. I already removed the exhaust manifold pretty easily to do the sump gasket so they are okay, i wasnt aware of the head bolts being single use so cheers for the advice! ill have to get some, i recently changed oil and stuff but will do the cambelt too. I have some spline sockets which i needed for the driveshaft when i did the sump gasket...do you know of any other "special" tools i may need before i start?? i have all the usual stuff already

and i know vdoubleu i have had a small nightmare with each job myself too and i just cant be arsed with the hassle lol i need somone else to share the pain

spline is bigger than the driveshafts
a good 6mm hex /allen socket- hammer these into the pulley bolts so they're seated properly and hopefully not round off
torque wrench
decent straight edge to check the head is flat - it should be unless youve boiled it up
razor blades or good scraper to clean off the old gasket mess
other than that its just sockets and spanners

i would leave both manifolds on to save work

If I remember right it's an M10 or M12 spline you need for the head bolts.

A good size breaker bar is handy for cracking these off if you're built like a skinny rake like I am.

They should be loosened in stages and in a certain order to save warping the head.

And then the same for tightening the new ones. But you'll need a torque wrench for tightening them properly.

As already said a good quality 6mm hex (Allen) bit is needed for the lower pulley bolts. You will need this off so you can remove the lower timing belt cover.

Everything else you'll need is just a variety of 10, 11, 12 and 13mm sockets and spanners.

cheers steve, i have a full spline set now so I'm sorted for pretty much all tools, i just need to pick up a torque wrench from somwhere and I'm pretty much ready to go then i guess,

cheers kwijibo i will bare all of that in mind when i do it, not sure how good quality my hex's are but i have like 3 sets so should be fine.

this looks a lot easier after looking at the process a few times and your tips, I was expecting to be a bit foggy on some steps but it all seems clear unless anything has been missed, the only thing i can hope for is that the head is indeed flat or thats more money

cheers guys

main things that might cause agro -

cam belt pully needs to come off- need to stop the pully turning somehow or use a impact gun on it (please dont ruin it and cut the cover )

lower pully - the 6mm allen heads like to round off , hammer in the tool before trying to loosen

make sure you clean off all the old gasket material really well

get help lowering on the head , take care not to damage the new gasket while fitting the head in place

timing- turn the engine over by hand with a spanner (clockwise) double check the marks are 100% check again until you are sure , if not ask before starting the car

Edited 19 November, 201411 yr by steveo3002

I'd fit a new water pump too whilst its all apart hoover out all the bits of crap once the old gasket is cleaned and make sure no crap has fallen into the head bolt holes in the block or it won't nip up properly.

With an alloy head you should really get it skimmed but that's another tin of worms.......

cheers ill have to think about the pulley then, i may be able to borrow an impact from a guy as i dont want to cut the plastic cover either... thank you all for the advice guys...dont know what i would do without the forum!

and cheers mk2 olop i forgot about that, think there only like 20 quid aswell, i will check over how flat it is with my engineers square and check if it needs skimmed...i hope i dont need to but if i have to then so be it...i dont want future problems cropping up

yeah check it over with a good striaght edge - soon see if its warped

some folk smear a bit sealant around that oil channel on the front corner - make up your own mind on that , i dont see that it does any harm