Wether you get the head shaved or not should be based on teh condition of teh head.

Disregard the head gasket if it doesn't look bad, because even a small passage broken in teh gasket that you can barely notice is not good.

Check for distortion, you probably don't want anything as high as 0.004 inches of distortion, and no warpage.

Let me know how it turns out. I too have 740, case of overheating, same thing with oil coating in resvoir. I was planning to do it this summer.

Just get it surfaced, trust me. It only cost me $50. The project is big enough that you'll want it to be right the first time (I did this whole project on my '84 a little while back). As someone else mentioned, it comes back really clean too, which is nice. The machine shop should also be able to tell how well the valves are seating. As for the extra seals, I bought the kit and have a bunch left over too. There are 8 small rubber pieces with an undercut on the side and an conical flange on one end. These snap onto the top of the valve stem and act as a cushion between the valve stem and underside of the barrel. There are 4 similar sized round ones which I think have a metal clip around them too. These are the oil seals for the intake valves (none on the exhaust valves). These both require taking off the cam and barrels, and the oil seals require removing the valve springs as well. If you do this, you might as well lap the valves (cheap and easy to do yourself, something I missed which I now regret a lot) to make sure they seat properly. There is a gasket that goes between the exhaust manifold and down pipe. There are injector seals. There's at least one water pump seal too, where it meets the head. If its old, the water pump is something else you should think about doing while you're in there , being a lot easier to do with everthing out of the way. As for the other stuff in the kit, I haven't figured it all out yet either. Another thing to think about is the breather system, which on my '84 is next to impossible to do with the intake manifold in the way. I would replace all the breather system hoses, flame trap, and maybe the box too. With the exception of the breather box, all the other stuff is available at IPD for a reasonable cost. If you decide to pull out the valves, I figured out a cheap/tricky way to do it with common shop tools. There were a couple tricks I figured out in a few other places too.

Let me know how far you want to go. I'd be glad to share what I learned.

Warpage can be checked with a staight edge and feeler,maximum allowed is in Haynes. If engine overheated I would get it pressure tested or mgna fluxed for a crack at a machine shop. Curious why you are changing it.

what you're wanting to do and what you will get can/will be two TOTALLY different things. YOU NEED to get the head to a machine shop (many parts stores have the tools. NAPA usually does or can refer you to a good shop) so that it can be determined if the head is usuable or not. if you don't, all you run the risk of all the time, money and effort being in vain. if the head turns out to be ok, have it surfaced and COMPLETELY cleaned. surfacing it will remove the slightest amount of metal, just enough to give a good sealing surface. it will/should come back to you looking new and shiny. i'm sure that there could be some scientific mannor that can look at the gasket and tell you something, but any and all mechanics will tell you to take it to a shop.

whenyou remove parts/pieces, pay attention and note if it has a gasket or seal. DON'T change it yet. change it once your re-installing it. that way you don't run te risk of damaging it and causing problems later.

i recently did this repair on the wifes car (neon) and the heaqd took 1 day and 70$. turned out perfect (so far.)

good luck.

Shaving the head (removing metal) is done for two reasons - to increase the compression ratio and to re-create a flat sealing surface. I'll assume from the tone of the question you don't want the 1st. If you have overheated the engine or suffered a blown head gasket it is worth having the head checked by a machine shop to see if it is warped. If so, some shaving is in order. Otherwise, just clean well and use a new head gasket.

John Mc.

95 Jetta GLX

71 1800e

63 544 (2.2 liter bored out B20 - head gaskets are $100!)