opinions on saving a head.

[the caveman]

 I was going to rebuild a AAZ for someone, but even though the cracks between the valves is well within VW specs,on 2 of them,the 2 sides of the cracks are lifting away from the casting, about 1 or 2 mm. Is that a sign that they will completely break away and fail, or can i get a machine shop to heat, press and perhaps weld those bad spots. I deal with a very good machine shop, but they may be reluctant if i don't give them the go ahead.

[maxfax]

I had an old 1.5 head that had something going on like you described..  Kinda looks like something pushed out to make the cracks?  Every situation can have different results in the end with something like this but between my machinist and I we opted just to peen the cracks shut and weld them..  The reasoning behind peening them shut was to see if anything else broke in the process.. I was really rather surprised that he even suggested typing this normally they are pretty fussy..  At any rate the thin worked fine for a good 60K miles..  Had the cheap--- sprung for head studs he'd probably still be driving it...

[arb]

If the head is other wise flat,  I'd peen them and weld them ....