Well, my fun and thrilling 244ti isn't fun and thrilling anymore. It's a pain the butt. After spending gobs on trying to locate an odd cold start problem I find that I now seem to have either a bad head gasket or a cracked head. (Unless the rapidly depleating coolant is going somewhere else I can't see.)

So, just how tough a job is it to take the head off? I've done it before but on a Jetta which, obviously, didn't have a turbo.

Must I remove the turbo or merely the exhaust manifold? Can I do one without the other?

Any other tricky things I should know about?

Thanks for the help (and encouragement).

Rod

Don provides mucho good info. Perhaps I may suggest a cylinder leak down test as well, if I may be so bold. This should help point out a bad head gasket as well. If so, you should have combustion goodies in your coolant as Don wrote.

How much coolant are you loosing?

Rod, wait.

Pulling the head is not a casual or inexpensive job. You might even cause more problems than you now have. First, look long and hard for the leak.

If it were my car and I was worried about disappearing antifreeze, I'd carefully crack the oil drain plug, let the first few tablespoons drip into a bowl, and examine it carefully for antifreeze. It'll sink to the bottom, so should be the first out. Do this with a stone-cold engine (not run for several days).

If the antifreeze has mixed with the oil in a running engine, it'll form a "dispersion" and the oil will take on a grayish, cloudy characteristic.

Next, I'd pull each sparkplug and look for evidence of coolant in the cylinders. BTW, an engine leaking coolant into a combustion chamber will have an unusual amount of white exhaust smoke, particluarly on a cold day (steam). More typical, however, is that the combustion gasses are forced into the cooling system -- and can be detected with a simple instrument. Every garage should have one. I do.

Much more likely is a hidden leak elsewhere in the cooling system. First, look very carefully around the water pump. When the seal starts to leak, often antifreeze can "sneak" unseen down to the splash pan -- and if it's a slowish leak, you might not see a puddle 'til the leak gets worse. The antifreeze will escape only when you're driving.

Another "invisible" (but problematic) leak might be the heater core. Or even the heater control valve. If you find something around the heater (and fix it) don't forget to get the coolant out from under the carpets -- they really should be pulled. Otherwise you'll be facing rusted floors in a year, or so.

If you're really determined (and have some equipment available), get an old radiator cap and mount a barb fitting in it. Then hook a compressed air supply to the cooling system through a regulator -- you shouldn't use more than about 10 psi pressure -- 15 max. Watch for the expansion tank to start to distort and balloon (if so, too much pressure). This way you can accelerate any leak for you inspection without running the engine.

Rod, I haven't done a head job on a turbo but have done two on normal FI 240s. The job is fairly straightforward, just keep track of where you took things from so they go back together properly.

FWIW, the 240s have a narrow space between the front cylinder and the water jacket and this is where many failures occur. You might confirm by removing the #1 sparkplug and checking it. If it looks recently steam cleaned, you've found where the problem is.

I would encourage taking the head to a good machine shop to have its flatness checked and to also check valves, seats and seals. Unless they've been done, on an '83, it's better to check while it's already apart than to take it apart again later.

Chuck