Yesterday I bought a poorly 1.3 Golf, a non-starter with a blown headgasket. It was delivered mid-morning, The good news was it comes with tax, insurance, and 1 months IPO (MOT) remaining - and they all transfer to the new owner here in Portugal By noon it was up and running and drove nicely on a very short test drive. It took a couple of hours going around the local tool shops trying to buy a 12 point socket for the headbolts, once I had that the head was off in less than an hour. I looks like the gasket blew due to very loose headbolts (do stretch bolts relax over time ?) so it should be an easy fix (famous last words)
I’m looking after a mates place in Portugal and decided it was time to get some transport. This very original 1.3 got delivered today as non-running project.
Due to the way admin works in Portugal the tax, insurance and IPO (mot) get transferred to the new owner - so it’s legal for another month !
It took less than an hour to check it over and get it running, a quick test drive found lots of minor niggles but no big faults - apart from a blowing head gasket that the seller had warned me about.
2 hours spent shopping for a VW12 point socket for the head bolts then an hour to stop the head off and I found the problem - and headbolts not much more than finger tight !
I’ll be ordering a new cambelt, headgasket & headbolts tomorrow.
Before I put things back together, is there an online workshop manual anywhere? Any idea what torque settings are for the headbolts? I can find lots of info about 1.8s / 2.0s but very little about my 1300.
Also, is there a way to upload photos or should I upload them somewhere else then link them here?
