Need advice on wether a cylinder head is junk or not.

[wirscjd]

So apparently you need some posts under your belt before you can post in any other forums. Here's my story. I just bought a 1991 Eagle Talon AWD Tsi. It was cheap. Guy was asking 1100$, 115k miles, good tires, good body, good interior, aftermarket intake and header, A-pillar gauges. It wouldn't start and run and the guy said he bought it off some kid that told him all it needed was an ecm. I showed up with 400$ cash and a trailer with me, told him since I couldn't hear it run that's all i'd give, he sold it. I did a lot of reading on DSM's and found out the ECM is a common problem, took it apart and sure as shit the capacitor had leaked and burnt a hole in it. After some more reading I decided to buy MotoGuy's ecm. Great service from those guys, good ecm came fast. Plugged it in and the car started and ran great, did shake hard at all, didn't knock, sounded good. Took the car for a drive to find absolutely no power and crazy amounts of smoke. I am a diesel mechanic and rebuild diesel engines for a living. I should have known to do a compression test before I bought it. Cylinders 4, 3, 2 had great compression, cylinder one had absolutley none. So I read some more on the forums. The kid before me had the waste gate plugged so there's likely a hole in the piston.

Last sunday I tore it all down and yea found a hole in the piston here's the thing. The coolant was nice, clean and green. The oil looked like normal used oil, not coolant emulsified oil. The head gasket looked good, fire ring in tact. The cylinder walls look good, no visible scratches or any that you can feel. The valves look untouched, they all appear to be seating to be in good condition and undamaged. The piston is of course junk, there's a hole in it. And something did bang around in there for a while because the head is beat up in the combustion area. The turbo wheel looks good on the turbine side, no chips in the wheels, doesn't rub and spins freely, no excess play in the shaft. I have yet to pull the pan to see if anything is in it.

But here's the decision. I bought this car cheap and would like to keep it on the cheap side. As of now I have 600$ into a 1991 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD, with good body and interior, with a brand new ecm with a warranty. I am wondering if I could buy the 290$ rebuild kit off of ebay. Take the dremel to the sharp spots on the area of the head that's beat up, smooth it out. I am a diesel mechanic and am used to 350 lb cylinder heads, the turbos on my engines weigh more than the cydlinder heads of DSM's. The 2.0 isn't as robust as what I am used to. Should I look for a new cylinder head or could I get away with smoothing out the wounds? I like to have nice things but don't want to spend excess money if I don't have to.

Thanks.

 

[steve]

Without seeing how badly the head is beat up you have to be conservative and say you'll need a new head.

 

[thiazole]

You could always take it to a machine shop and have them check it out for you. It wouldn't cost that much.