Does anybody know what is different about a 'generation 3' head for an ea82 than earlier generations? What does 'generation' refer to anyway, with regards to these engines? Is the generation 3 head off an ea82 or some later engine?I seem to have gotten off this message board or the byb board hints that this is an improved head with regards to turbo engine over heating or blown head gaskets which the turbo seems notorious for.

A gen 3 head is simply a better head. resists warping, cracking and cools better than the early'er heads....although some argue there are no differences....while one (me) doesnt really know the difference at all for sure. I do have nothing but 2nd gen heads...

Having never looked at them personally, I'm going by what I hear. The ea82T had three different heads on it, according to what year the car was manufactured. Apparently the first generation cracked very easily, so they added more material and redesigned some stuff to make the second generation head, which still wasn't perfect. So then they added more material and maybe spaced the valves farther apart to further resist cracking.

 

Other people know a lot more about the specifics of this...

Look at the "EA82" on the underside in the casting; plain old EA82 is gen 1, EA82 underlined is gen 2, and EA82 in a box is gen 3. All three heads will work fine until the engine overheats; gen 1 is most prone to failure, gen 2 is more robust and gen 3 is least likely to fail. If the engine never seriously overheats a gen 1 head can last a long time and is really not a serious detriment.