Anyone ever see a head repaired like this? I picked it up off my neighbours running Rabbit that they had left water in all winter and had frozen solid. Was going to overhaul it and put it on my Jetta until I saw the weld around #1 injector hole.
as long as every thing is i nthe right place i wouldn't worry. i was just talking an engine builder today about an aluminum head for a chrysler 2.5L turbo that had cracks. he said that aluminum heads can be welded and repaired. they do that alot to the super expensive brodix racing heads. but i wouldn't worry about that fix as long as it was done by a pro and didn't block off any coolant passages or stuff.
I wouldn't worry about it. My IDI TD has a similar repair that has withstood the test of time.
did you clean around the injector hole??? looks pretty damn clean!
if you didn't clean it, then judging by the other holes... i'd say that there was no leakage from that hole. so it must be good to go!
similarly, i have a little crack like that one on a parts car that i have just acquired. hmmm looks pretty bad.
can a 'surface' crack be welded with the injector still in the head??? i dont know much about welding aluminum. i know cast has to be fully heated.. thats about it.
If I were doing the welding then I would leave the injector in the head just to make sure that the hole and threads did not get warped. Some might try on the car (depends on which injector needs work), but I would remove the head so that I could do the weld in the horizontal position without having to work around all the other stuff.