Buyer beware the aluminum head on the old VW diesel!!!

Veedubs were definitely built to a cost. I tried to buy a beater to use as a junker. The timing belt had slipped, and valves got intimate with pistons. The head was warped .010 with a max tolerance of .002. A new head and rings couldn't bring that car back. Had excellent results on leakdown, but couldn't get compression over 150psi. As it was a turbodiesel, pistons were $400 each, on a car not worth $500.

It finally got dumped off at the local high school after only two days of putzing around on the roads. The turbodiesels were quite a bit more troublesome than the NA engines. VW seemed to get the problems solved by the time the 1.9L IDI NA and turbo diesels were being sold in Canada. The TDI hasn't had any head gasket or warped head issues that I've heard of.