Head gasket?

[Doug]

Last Spring, I bought a '92 Cabriolet for my son, who lives 150 miles away. The car has about 90,000 miles on it. It has a four-cylinder engine; I think it's a 1.8 liter. I don't see the car often, but the last time he was here, I noticed a small amount of antifreeze under the second spark plug from the left. It looks like a very slow leak at the head gasket. Long term, I know I need to have it replaced. Short term, am I doing damage by letting him drive it? We live in Virginia, U.S.A., and I'm wondering how much this would cost to have it replaced (along with the timing belts which still look pretty good).
Doug

[Doug]

Can anyone help?

[vujade]

sorry no one has helped yet doug, but most people hear are aircooled nuts..


I am sure someone has some experience with H2O VW's here, give it some time.

BTW... welcome to the forum

[zen]

can't say i can give you a qualified answer. i personally would get it taken care of ASAP. beats getting stranded and the cost of a tow.

if you can't get an answer here try vwvortex.com as it is geared to water-cooled.

[Oliver Knuf]

At first, you have to replace your timing belt every 50000miles, hopefully it was done at 50000, you've got 10000miles room to the next exchange.
If the gasket started to leak, replace it as soon as you can. The water pump is making a pressurized system inside your engine. The leak is starting to get bigger and bigger. Where I wonder about is, why the gasket leaks to the outside and why water. Normally the head gaskets start to leak oil to the outside and water goes mostly into the cylinders, as the pressure and the channels for oil and water lay in these ways. It's pretty rare to see the water pouring to the outside. A repair has to be done immediately in my opinion!

[Doug]

Thanks, Oliver. It does seem strange to me that I'd be seeing antifreeze right where the head meets the block. Anyway, I know I need to follow up soon.

[lightning bug]

A "done right" head gasket job should go for around $350-$450 with all new parts with a timing belt. The belt you can do yourself. The 1.8 8V is easy. Just keep track of where your pulley marks are. About 45 min. install for the belt.

[Doug]

Thanks for the help, Julian.

[SPEEDY57TUB]

Changing the head gasket can cost anywhere from $275-$425. Changing the head gasket on overhead cammed engines do cost a bit moreIf the car is a keeper and you're gonna do the head gasket anyways, do other things while you're at it. It's tough to do something only to have something else fail and you have to take apart the same parts to get to it. Take avdavantage of the given accessibility. "When in Rome.....". Unless you just recently did it, change the timing belt! Good Luck!

[lightning bug]

Oliver's right. The head must be pretty warped to be leaking coolant. Its usually oil as said before. Hopefully you caught it in time so you can just deck the head instead of replacing it.