UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Yeah I'll probably will get some new headbolts thanks hardhitter.

When ya say lock grease da la mean loctite kinda stuf? if so nooo! dont put it near ur head bolts. As long as theyre torqued up youll be fine. shouldnt need anythin else. Also its well worth gettin it skimmed as you could find youll do the head gasket and then itll go again in 1000 miles coz it was warped which is not cool lol most engineering firms can skim for ya for buttons...well not actual buttons but ya get ma drift

cool I was thinking about head skimming, but weren't too sure what it was all about. Just got a quote for head skimming around £25-35, so I think I'm going to do that as well, when I do my head gasket later this week when all my parts arrive. thanks for the advice matt

just to hop on the bandwagon:

New head bolts: Essential
Nut lock on them: apparently not needed. I actually put a little copper grease on mine to ease them going in... and if they actually come loose I'll be very surprised as that final 90 degree turn of the screw is a minger.
New cam belt: Matter of preference. If it's new-ish and you're leaving the engine in, you can probably get away with it. If it's older (say 20k+) and/OR you're taking the engine out, do it.
(simply because doing the belt proved to be a pain in the arse due to inaccessible bolts that required engine-mount gymnastics... part itself is a negligble expense).

And I'll agree with the maintenance thing. The bits I ignored went forever. Things I dared to look at broke on sight

And the astra has gone nearly 14 months in my ownership now with, completely shot ignition leads excepted, no more maintenance than that specified in the service schedule. Paid it no mind and just took it to the garage when the appropriate miles rolled round. In fact i'm overdue to check the oil level (oops ... probably needs a change in the next 500 miles anyway). With all that, it's run like a beaut almost all the way.

I think it's cuz I've knackered one wing mirror and the front bumper and done nothing more than apply a bit of duct tape, it knows it needs to behave or i'll smack it up more. With the polo I was cooing over the merest scratch so it got spoilt

Don't put anything on the head bolt threads ! This is very bad because the amount of pressure the fluid you put on the thread exerted on the hole can have bad consequences.

Just make sure the holes and threads are totally clean, spray some solvent degreaser down and blow it out with an airline or similar. Just make sure nothing is down there and it's clean.

Whoops............

well, it was just a bit so they'd go in more easily

doesn't seem to be leaking so far

You are supposed to lightly grease the threads and the washer of the head bolts. This is to apply the correct torque during the primary tightening stage of the bolts. Otherwise you can find your bolts are not tight enough.
However you must not cause hydraulic lock with the grease (buildup of liquid under the bolt that can't escape as it is tightened) as this can cause the block to crack. This is why you need to be super anal about cleaning out the head bolt threads in the block and making sure it is dry.

FFS DO NOT USE LOCTITE THREADLOCK ON HEAD BOLTS!

Duck

that makes me feel a bit better about things, if you am speaking da troot, as its pretty much what i did

Yeah, when I got my headbolt set from VAG they came with a light layer of oil on them.