vag 1.9 tdi AFN head gasket thickness

[mark260571]

hello, could somebody please advise me about head gasket thickness on my AFN tdi engine.

Basically, my engine takes a 2 hole thickness head gasket.

If i have the head skimmed to remove a reaonably deep defect in the sealing face, will i need a different thickness gasket.

I understand that, because the head has no swirl chamber and is completely flat that skimming should make no difference to the distance between the top of the piston and the cylinder head so compression should not be effected, but it will bring the distance between the base of the valves and the top of the piston closer because the valve seats remain unchanged.

i understand the Vag engine is built to very high tollerances but I'm not sure what.

also the value of the car is not worth a new cylinder head.

My gut feeling is use another 2 hole gasket as any diffrence in thickness will alter compression ratio which is not the way forward.

So at moment I'm thinking on lines of sticking to 2 hole gasket, any problems should be noticeable when engine assembled by turning the crankshaft on bottom pulley by hand.

could somebody please give me their opinion on this matter.


thanks
kind regards

mark

[theman53]

pretty much sounds right. The only thing you may run into is the valves need a certain depth that may need machined after skimming the head.

[mark260571]

Thankyou for your reply, thats what I'll do then. just wanted to run it by another person just to make sure i was not talking total bo---cks, as you can soon get drawn into tunnel vision.

thanks again.

[Vincent Waldon]

Yuppers...good to check, but you got 'er figured out.  In general if the skim is a couple of thou just to freshen the mating surface folks leave the valves alone...if the head needs some serious work due to warping the valves may need trimming as well as an align-bore.

[mark260571]

thanks vincent for that information. makes me feel more confident.

cheers mate.