New to forums and polo's! Question about head gaskets

Whelmed · Post by **Whelmed** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:29 pm

I'm new to the UK-Polo forum (and England for that matter) and just got myself a 1996 Polo 3-Door with a AEX 1310cc engine for free. I was a VW Golf TDI mkIV owner for years in Canada and did all the work on my car so I'm not a stranger to getting my hands dirty.

The Polo is in great shape except the head gasket is done. It's got a new battery, tires, there are only 2 penny sided rust spots on her. The car still runs / moves but it will need a new gasket before I take it out for a spin.

I'm sure this will be my first post of many - but just wanted to say hi and to see what opinions are on how difficult replacing this part will be. I remember doing this to an engine 10 years ago (and that car was about 10 years old at the time) and it wasn't that difficult from what I remember. That car was such a junker I didn't even use a gasket, just sealed it with some sort of silicon paste if I remember correctly. Anyways, am I looking at 3-4ish hours here or am I looking at a complete weekend to do this?

BTW - yeah, I've got a Haynes manual in the mail

So I'll know more in about 2 days.

jonboy · Post by **jonboy** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:16 pm

your cars a mk4! the engine however is pretty much the same as the old polos, so its pretty easy to work on. should be do-able in a day so long as the matting surfaces arent corroded

Whelmed · Post by **Whelmed** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:52 pm

jonboy wrote:your cars a mk4! the engine however is pretty much the same as the old polos, so its pretty easy to work on. should be do-able in a day so long as the matting surfaces arent corroded

Ah! I thought I had the MK3b or something like that. Thanks for the heads up on that, and I look forward to getting my hands dirty.