Head building

[monomer]

I'm looking into a used head from a member on here.


Any tips/trick on proper head rebuilding?

[janb]

Hyd or Mech?  Turbo or NA?

I use Aluminum Head rebuilders in Portland, OR.
http://www.aluminumheads.com/

I like their double angle valve grinds and SMOOTH surfacing.
They use ceramic cutters on facing (due to HARD prechambers and SOFT aluminum in same cut.  You should see a rainbow spectrum across the alum milled head surface. (no radial grooves should be evident)  There was a pic of one of their VW-D facing jobs on this forum many yrs ago. (Sharkey?)

I have done a few myself, (valves, guides, seals) but it is not that much fun, but possible.  Takes a few hours and specialty tools (valve grinding equip, press, reamer, CLEAN parts washer). Probably $50 - $75 in parts.

[Rabbit on Roids]

ive done head jobs before, but they were pretty simple, replace & lap valves, replace seals, convert to dual valve springs, port & polish (altho the polishing i feel is a waste of time). its real simple as long as your valve guides arent totally trashed. but if they are, i would have a professional do it.

[monomer]

It's a hydro from a ecodiesel.


new cam, valves, stem seals, springs, lifters, etc...

[truckinwagen]

its a time consuming tedious process that is easy to mess up the surface of your head doing.
preparation is the key, and a good clean workspace.

I do all my own heads, but I am poor, if I could afford it, I would hire out the head rebuild every time

-Owen

[monomer]

any performance springs around?

[Rabbit on Roids]

what do you need performance springs for? because your floating the valves on your DIESEL? yea right... maybe if you are spinning 7500 rpms then you could benefit from better springs. most vw diesel engines have factory dual valve springs. at least both of my 1.5's do.

[Syncroincity]

Yeah, no need to spend that money on springs... if you want to increase the spring rate a bit, simply shim the spring seats with some appropriately sized washers.

[Rabbit on Roids]

or just dont do anything at all with the springs. if you shim them you might run into coil bind. you dont need to do anything to the valve springs. the cam spins 3000 rpms max. thats not enough to float the valves. or anything. but if you are running like 8000 psi of boost, and boost keeps blowing your valves open, then you should worry about your valve springs. but i doubt thats happening. spend your money somewhere else that will make a difference. get some more air into or out of that engine, thats how you make serious power. move air.