Having a perfectly clean contact surface between the head and cylinder is essential as there's no gasket. Torquing the heads nuts down in the right order and by gradual amounts side to side is just as important. If oil is coming out then you don't have good contact there. Be sure that it's not just a pushrod tube leaking though.

 

yeah i thought that about the torque of the nuts etc but everything has been done by the book, just wondered if anyone has ever placed a gasket in there? as im sure this would prevent major engine damage i think as gasket would blow out as it does on other engines preventing damage. so what can i do . are we talking engine pull again and make sure surface is totally flat ?

 

If you're sure about the source of the leak then you don't have much choice. If oil is coming out then so are gasses from the cylinder. Noise, smoke, and a compression test may confirm.
This may help http://www.bostonengine.com/articles/csccs.html
and maybe this http://www.1800vw.bizhosting.com/headtorque.htm

 

yeah i thought that about the torque of the nuts etc but everything has been done by the book, just wondered if anyone has ever placed a gasket in there? as im sure this would prevent major engine damage i think as gasket would blow out as it does on other engines preventing damage. so what can i do . are we talking engine pull again and make sure surface is totally flat ?

id do what moby says!... a compression test along with visual tests would be very informative...

DONT put a gasket in there...you can get copper head shims for hi performance motors.. but theyll lower your comp ratio.. and shouldnt be needed!..

i once partially stripped a motor that was "rebuilt" with a new head by a local-ish vw garage.... there was a liberal smearing of blue hylomar "stuff" around the cylinder to head seal area!... i wont mention the 2 "stacked" pushrod tube gasket rings on the pushrod tubes....

needless to say.. motor had driven badly and leaked... bottom line: no gasket in the cylinder head..

 

well i think the root of my problem is that the bore isnt flush with the head , not sure why but ive heard from another club that the best thing to do is get the heads skimmed and put a shim in to make up the gap that the skim has taken out which will make it true flat again. anybody ever had this done before surely i cant be the only person. and if u have how much am i looking at? im guessing and i say guessing as ive not got my hands on a compression gauge yet that compression wont be that good , i mean if oils coming outa there so is compression so cant really see the point of doing a compression test till after the heads have been skimmed.

anyone had this prob before?

 

If you had no leak before then I don't see why you have one now, except for all/any of the points mentioned in the links above (eg. the head studs are pulling etc)
A light grind of the cylinders into the head seats with grinding paste should be all you need do to clean the surfaces. Incorrect torquing may have distorted something of course.

 

ive rebuilt this engine by the book valves re-seated and the part where the valves are cleaned out and sanded back but emerypaper shouldnt have taken that much aluminium off to make it leak. it def. def. wasnt torqued incorrectly i would put my life on that one. even had the book ontop of the engine when i did it to make sure i did it in the right order. I was thinking along the lines of getting the grinding paste out but not sure how i can turn the barrel onto the head except by hand which is why i was just gonna go down the skim route and shim the gap. all help appreciated on this one.