82 Vanagon head gasket question

[brads69bug]

Ok, I'm taking over where someone couldn't finish on a 2.0 liter. One side of the engine has gaskets(in between the head and the cylinder) and the other side doesn't. I'm thinking it is due to the lack of experience like the rest of the Vanagon. The question is, should they be on both sides or neither? Im more of a Type 1 carbureted, air cooled kind of guy. The heads were re-surfaced from a shop somewhere and its looks to me like they have a ton of air pockets on the surface of the heads and wondering if they were just trying to bury the problems with the heads with the gaskets, but forgot on the other side maybe? Any input would help.

[Piledriver]

Head gaskets are to be skipped per VW.
Mind, they added base shims to compensate, but I suggest skip those too, as long as your deck is > .030".

CC the heads and see if they had one side cleaned up...first.

Vanagons are really hard on heads, looks like those may have had the snot cut out of them, can't see for sure from the pics.

It may be time to recycle those heads and find some 1.7s to swap in.

Does the rest of the engine look OK? (checked the rod bearings etc?)

[brads69bug]

I got as far as pulling the heads. The pistons and cylinders are new, that's about as far as I can tell.