UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

As the subject suggests i've blown the head gasket on my polo, which i suspect is a result of either the fan/thermostat failing to kick in to cool the engine.

Seeing as the labour for this job would be far more than the cars worth i'm having a crack at it myself as the rest of the car is in excellent condition.

Problem is i cant work out how to loosen the water pump so i can release the timing belt. The haynes manual simply says remove the retaining screws and twist pump clockwise but gives no details. So far i've removed two screws one from directly under the centre of the pump and another from the top LHS which also secures the timing belt cover. I cant seem to find any others but the pump wont budge. Are there any more screws and does anyone have any other advice regarding removing the pump/timing belt? Any other general head gasket replacement tips very gratefully received.

I suspect the camshaft bolt is going to prove difficult to shift, any quick tips anyone?

Many thanks in advance
Paul

ohhhh, i think im starting to forget how i did mine, i left it too long... i have photos on this pc somewhere, too.

i think there's only 2 bolts holding the pump on ..... might be three but definately no more than that (nowhere for them to go). feel around the plastic cambelt shroud at about the same radius and see if you find anything. if not, its probably just stiff (seized in place from years of rust and neglect) and your best bet is to wedge a long screwdriver into the alignment tab hole thing (shouldnt be too hard to find) and lever it inwards towards the block that way, so the belt goes slack. you should see the pulley "rotate" in an eccentric manner as you do it.

if its that reluctant and you dont know the cars history you'd do well to replace the entire unit along with the cambelt when refitting everything, though.

the camshaft bolt isnt that bad, but best to crack it before you loosen the waterpump/remove the belt at all, so you can use the tension from that (car in top gear, down off the jacks, handbrake on hard, footbrake wedged and wheels chocked) to push against. if that's no good, there's a variation you can do on haynes "make yourself a custom tool" nonsense. Take the rocker cover off (more so you dont damage it than anything else) and use your common sense and judgement of the angles to literally wedge a spanner in the works (through one of the holes in the sprocket - in fact better to try and wedge it in two places to spread the load on the spokes, still with the belt in place) and lock the thing in position. it doesnt take too much to crack it after that, if you've got a good torque wrench, and retightening it up to the specified tension is the same thing, reversed, but not quite as difficult.

the actual headgasket replacement job isnt too bad, its the getting to the thing that's a total arse ache, particularly getting the bloody alternator driving pulley off (undoing it with allen bits through a tiny hole in the inner wing, then removing the engine mount and jacking it up about a foot higher than normal to free the thing), and dealing with the coolant drain/refill.

top tip for lining up your head and gasket in relation to the block and each other, if you haven't any dowels - make some mock ones. get a couple packs of cheap, long (18 inches?), wooden barbeque skewers (for kebabs and the like), make bundles that wedge firmly (but dont get stuck) in the bolt holes in the block, wrap tape around in a couple places to keep the bundle together, and use them to first get the gasket lined up (and to keep the slippery so-and-so in place), then the head homed in on gasket and block. Once it's fitted on there, remove the corner bundles one at a time and drop a new bolt in, doing it up just finger-tight really (dont torque ANYTHING with any worthwhile tension other than as instructed in the manual) to keep the whole affair from sliding off the block when you remove all the skewers.

Thanks very much mate. I'll give it a go tomorrow when i get back from work and let you know how i get on. The trick with the kebab skewers sounds like a winner.

Or just drop two bolts in diagonally and the gasket will line up properly with them.

yeah and how you going to do that when the motherf***ing gasket keeps sliding off the block before you can get the head near it? or spins (then slides & falls) as youre trying to line it up that way, at the slightest touch.. thats why i started with the skewers, only after putting them in did i realise theyd be great for positioning the head itself too

you only need a max of 3 though - like logik says, 2 diagonally will probably do (my placing of them, again, was kind of ad hoc)

the bolt method probably works a lot better when the whole engine is off the car, so you can be sure of keeping it level, but mine was done in-situ and so there was a good 10 degree slant, perhaps more!