Foxes like to leak at the bottom of the radiator and the heater core and you may never see it. If you were losing that much coolant at the head gasket it would be in the oil for sure. Easy test would be oil testing. That will pick up the glycol long before (ppm) than you will see it. The usual mode for these head gaskets to fail is between cylinders 2 and 3 and the oil galley to the head. Any other coolant issue is due to the gasket delaminating from the cast iron block and aluminum head moving at different rates during temperature changes. It is also common for these heads to crack. A major cause of failure is not properly filling/priming the cooling system after a drain or water pump/t-stat change. You gotta get the engine and all the hoses filled before you start it. You need coolant flow in order to open the t-stat on the inlet side of the pump. Dennis
-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of roger sisler Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 4:12 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Fox head torque question Hello, this 1.8 is similar to many VW inline four engines, and it is loosing coolant at the rate of about 1 qt per 50 miles. No exterlal leaks are to be found, therefore I think it is a head gasket issue. This Fox had been leaking coolant for some time(damn VW's), however I traced it to a lose coolant temp sensor at the bottom of the radiator.Got that fixed, and then this thing started eating up all my antifreeze. I first want to check the torque on the head gasket to see if all the bolts are tight to specs. I see that the spec is 44ftpounds + 1/2 turn. That seems like a difficult measurement to tell if a bolt is loose.I mean. Does anyone know if there is a proper torque number for this cylinder head torque on the Fox? thanks! |
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