Blown C4 A6 head gasket
08-20-2012, 04:36 PM
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Blown C4 A6 head gasket
I'm looking at replacing the head gasket for my girlfriend's car this weekend. I haven't done one since I was in high school and that was nearly 20 years ago. Any advice would be helpful. Here's what I've got so far:
It's a 1995 A6 12v motor with about 145,000 miles on it. The previous owner sprung a coolant hose leak and thought he could drive the car home about 5 miles slowly. I'm almost certain the gasket is blown and I assume the heads need to be resurfaced. I've already bought:
New gasket kit with head, valve cover, and valve stem gaskets.
New head bolts
Complete timing belt kit from BlauParts - I figured while I'm in there...
A bunch of other maintenance stuff - oil/air filters, serpentine belt and pulley, radiator hoses
I plan on doing a compression test before I tear the thing apart.
I only paid $400 for the car but still don't want to sink more than another $500-$1000 getting it roadworthy.
So 2 questions:
1) Is there a forum thread that does a decent walk through of rebuilding the cylinder heads? I've searched and can't find one.
2) Can I keep my costs down by not replacing any valves and other parts (assuming they all look good) and just have the heads resurfaced and just replace all the gaskets and seals and bolts -- but leaving everything else as is?
Anything else I need to think about or replace?
It's a 1995 A6 12v motor with about 145,000 miles on it. The previous owner sprung a coolant hose leak and thought he could drive the car home about 5 miles slowly. I'm almost certain the gasket is blown and I assume the heads need to be resurfaced. I've already bought:
New gasket kit with head, valve cover, and valve stem gaskets.
New head bolts
Complete timing belt kit from BlauParts - I figured while I'm in there...
A bunch of other maintenance stuff - oil/air filters, serpentine belt and pulley, radiator hoses
I plan on doing a compression test before I tear the thing apart.
I only paid $400 for the car but still don't want to sink more than another $500-$1000 getting it roadworthy.
So 2 questions:
1) Is there a forum thread that does a decent walk through of rebuilding the cylinder heads? I've searched and can't find one.
2) Can I keep my costs down by not replacing any valves and other parts (assuming they all look good) and just have the heads resurfaced and just replace all the gaskets and seals and bolts -- but leaving everything else as is?
Anything else I need to think about or replace?
08-22-2012, 11:45 AM
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Once you put everything back together, you need to bleed all the air out of the cooling system or else you going to end up with another blown head gasket. If the valves aren't bent and you weren't burning oil, you should be good to just have the head resurface.
I replaced the heater core earlier to my Avant and thought I bled all the air out of the system, but on a long return drive from our family vacation, the head gasket blew which in turn started leaking water into the crankcase which in turn cause the engine to seize. Instead of having the car towed back and sinking more money into it, I donated the car to a charity and let them tow it. Still driving an AWD German car except that it's a BMW.
I replaced the heater core earlier to my Avant and thought I bled all the air out of the system, but on a long return drive from our family vacation, the head gasket blew which in turn started leaking water into the crankcase which in turn cause the engine to seize. Instead of having the car towed back and sinking more money into it, I donated the car to a charity and let them tow it. Still driving an AWD German car except that it's a BMW.
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