Well, the new cylinder head arrived on Friday afternoon so we were able to make some real progress on the New Beetle TDI this weekend. The head is now installed and torqued down, and the exhaust is reconnected to the turbo, and the turbo oil lines are hooked up. The diesel injector pump, crankshaft, and camshaft are all locked at TDC positions in readiness for the timing belt installation. We need a handful of little dealer-only items, such as some stretch bolts (for the motor mount, diesel injector pump pulley, and large timing belt idler pulley) and o-rings (for the outer cylinder head coolant flange, vacuum pump, and throttle body).

Here is the brand-new AMC brand cylinder head, which came ready to install (complete with valvetrain and exhaust manifold studs):



Here is the new head, with the exhaust manifold installed:


These TDI engines use several different head gaskets, depending on the cylinder block used. The difference in the head gaskets is just the thickness, and the only way to tell the difference visually is by the number of round holes stamped into the front tab. If you're ever installing a new headgasket in a VW TDI engine for any reason, make sure to pay attention to the markings on the original headgasket used on your block. In our case, we had a "2 hole" head gasket. Here is a picture of the holes which identify the gasket:


Here is the surface of the block after Pete spent some time cleaning it:


And here is the new head, finally installed:

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