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[mark.adams]

When this goes, does the head always have to be skimmed.
Mine has gone twice and the head has been sent off to be skimmed both times.

[JamesV6CDX]

No - as with any car, pressure checking, and checking for distortion/warpage of the mating face is always required before deciding to skim.

I've changed a fair few 4 pot head gaskets with no need to skim - with sucesfull results....

[Marks DTM Calib]

On the 4 pots I do always send the head to be re-faced.

Now any good engineering shop who does this will not simply re-face a head, they do a number of checks for flatness first (needed to determine how much to remove anyway) and should only skim it if required.

So you may find its been sent for skimming and not actualy been done because it didn't need it......the guy I use normaly takes a very small amount off just to clean the face up anyway but we are not talking 5 thou.....1 thou tops.

[tunnie]

i still find it odd that yours has gone twice already...  :-/

[Craig_R]

For the price of a skim its worth it as its only about 30 to 40 pounds, and if you never had it skimmed and it was warpped you will be down on alot more money,

As Tunnie said bit strange it going twice do you change your coolent every 2 years or as i do every year, and do you have enough anifreeze in the coolent.

Lack of anifreeze is one of the biggest causes of the head gasket going

[mark.adams]

Mine went first time on the way home from the dealer i bought it from, i suspect it was gone already.
Their "garage" did it the first time, it went the second time within a month of me getting it back, symptoms were loss of coolant and power. When the second garage did it, that was when we discovered the first garages attempt at sealing the rocker cover was with double glazing sealant
I suspect the first gasket replacement was a bodge job done on the cheap as the dealer was paying for it (it wasnt a Vx main dealer)
Since the second replacement its been okay except the heating problems, i think i may have gunk in the heater matrix or HBV.
There was definitely oil in the header tank before the 2nd gasket was replaced.

[tunnie]

sounds like the first place made a complete hash of it, not surprising it went again!

[Kevin Wood]

Hmm. The one thing with engine-apart jobs is that you have to err on the side of caution, be methodical and if something doesn't seem right sort it rather than hope for the best.

Not compatible with doing the job "on the cheap" and no doubt under pressure from the boss

Kevin