Head gasket gone?

[Godzilla]

I dont know if the head gasket has gone on my girlfriends Golf 1989 1.6 Driver has gone. I was checking all vac' pipes earlier as she has been cutting out recently. I checked the oil filler cap and there is some thick yellow gunge on it. Also there is thick yellow gunge inside the breather that goes to the rocker cover. Im wondering if (hoping) its condensation as I know the 205 GTI's are commonly mistaken for this. Another thing that has bought concern is the water, I topped it up with just under 3/4 of a litre of Anti-freeze. She has'nt really been run over the past 6-8 weeks as the clutch is gone (well almost) and we have been doing a lot of bodywork on her.

Any ideas if it could be the HG?

[dabill]

does loads of steam pour out of the exhaust when its running, and is the engine running like a complete bag of cr@p?

if not, then it might just need a good cleaning out (as this may have never been done) and take it for a nice long blast, giving it some welly and burning off all the mank in the engine.

it might be the oil cooler however now i think, just check all the cheaper options before you assume its the headgasket...

[DarnPB]

There would be various other symptoms if was the head gasket. If it has gone between the water jacket and the cylinders, then you would have difficulty starting and you would be producing white smoke or steam. Your compression will also suffer on that cylinder. If it has gone between the water jacket and an oil way then you would get a transfer of both oil and water in both directions. Look in your water reservoir for signs of black or dark brown oil floating on the top. Also check your dipstick for signs of water. If the gasket has gone between a cylinder and an oil way, then again, low compression and a smokey engine. The spark plug will also be fowled up. If beween 2 cylinders, then you would lose compression on those cylinders and also a possibility of back firing.
A quick way to check compression is to disconnect your HT lead to the centre of your distributor, disconnect your ECU, if one is installed, and turn the engine over on the starter. Listen to see if the engine ´misses´a compression.
On the brighter side, if the car is not used regularly, and when it is used, only for short distances, then all you have is condensation build up.

[Godzilla]

Thanks for replies 
I have a bit of white smoke on start up, to be expected of this weather I think?
The plugs are soot like. Changed plugs today, no troubles with performace as far as I know, cant really put her to the test as the clucth is slipping.....getting repaired this weekend. Im wondering where the water loss has gone? I did a complete syetem flush a month or so ago as the heating was not working, turned out to be one of the safety by-pass things at fault. I topped it up the the correct level then but had to re-fill today using nearly 3/4 of a litre and cant seem to see any signs of a water leak.

[rubjonny]

there are loads of places mk2s can leak without you being able to see!
1) Plastic flanges on front/side of head
2) Radiators
3) Coolant hose connections
4) Inlet manifold coolant o'ring if its a carby

Sooted up plugs suggest to me its running rich, old 1.6/1.8 carbed engines suffer from a problem with the o'ring in the inlet maniold swelling shut, preventing coolant from flowing round the inlet & carb autochoke/waxstat.  This results in the carb staying on choke for too long, and also a waterleak underneath the inlet.  The leak is almost impossible to spot, since it drips on the zaust manifold then immediatly evapourates!  Though on mine the leak was so bad I would see white smoke coming out from between the 2 manifolds, I assumed it was a leaky zaust at first but once I took the inlet off to change the o'ring it was clear it was from there.

Check out my 2e2 carb FAQ