Thanks. Hopefully get there eventually Cheers Shaz, it's the mk3 one already though. Got a selection of breather attachments from Danster so should be able to knock something together that looks reasonably factory. Fortunate enough to have access to a ramp for this so once the Renault that's on there currently gets it's head put back on it's all go for mine
I do love this thread and car. 3 words spring to mind for all your persistance and determination. Built, not bought
I'm in Warminster, so not too far from you. There's Wilts v-dub club but it's largely aircooled really although watercooled is welcome. So as you can tell from the pic above, the Golf is looking like somewhat in pieces. The puzzle of why my car has been running like a dog has become very much apparent. Literally came back to uni last weekend for a super busy term (final). Got through the door and received a phone call from my mate saying 'everything is ready to go, ramp is free, bring the engine down'. Problem being, engine is a 3 hour round trip back home. Mercy dash back at 1 in the morning saw the block arriving in Cardiff. Amazing what you can fit in a Lupo Work started on Wednesday and the engine and box came out in a few hours during the afternoon. No pics unfortunately as I forgot the camera. All went ok with no nasty surprises other than a couple of minor things. Starter motor is fubbard as the terminals are completely corroded and found that the power steering pump is cracked and leaking which would explain the drips on the drive. Bit of extra expense but they both seem to be original parts so they've done well! Seems the engine and box has never been removed either by a few tell tale signs so all in all a good indication that most of the fittings shouldn't have been messed with. While it was up on the ramp I'm pleased to report the underside looks rather good too, along with the chassis legs and battery tray so pretty happy with that. Yesterday myself and a mate began to switch everything over from the PB block. Head came off (more on that in a sec), all associated bracketry, water pump etc etc removed and put onto the new block. Gearbox off which is in desperate need of a clean before it goes back in and fitted a new Sachs clutch as it would have been daft not to with it all apart. Pretty impressed with the state of the old clutch to be fair, as far as I know it's the original and still had life left in it after 160k. The PB lump was in great condition as well with all the bores looking spotless! Testimony to VW quality; I will be keeping the block as a spare as it's too good to scrap. Old and new block being built up: The head on the other hand is another story: My expensive, refurbed head is essentially a large paperweight. Massive chunk of the valve missing; f**k knows where this has gone. Most of the mechanics in the workshop we are using said they'd not seen anything like it before and were amazed it was running. No wonder compression was down on cylinder 3 and I'm lucky it's gone as long as it has without going bang. You can see in the pic that all of the valves are white so it must have been running extremely hot as the cracked one was stuck. Headgasket was perfect and all in one piece. The decision has been made to have my old cylinder head skimmed and freshened as I know the history but I am fuming about the other. Obviously I'm not an engineer but my mate was saying it was probably caused by the valves not being seated properly when built? If anyone has any thoughts on this please share. On a positive note it's so nice having a ramp to use. Windy gun is handy too. I'm unbelievably busy with uni work at the mo but hoping to spare an afternoon next week to get the block and box into the car. Crack on with the top half once the head comes back from the machine shop and fingers crossed have it running by the end of next week.
Cheers Nothing special. Gunk/petrol concoction, paint stripper once it was clean and a lot of elbow grease. Popped down to do a little more yesterday afternoon. Progress was a little slow as can't really do a great deal until the head comes back from the machine shop. Should be Tuesday hopefully but I then need to juggle the car and work and unfortunately work has to come first. Anyway, I did manage to get some paint on the gearbox which was absolutely caked in 20 years of oil and grime. Props to my mate for scrubbing that up for me whilst I was away Bottom end is pretty much complete now. Just need to drain the old oil in it, replace the filter and clean the pick up pipe for the pump. Swap the engine mounts, get the head back on and we should be good to get it back in the car. On a slight side note this was in for an MOT. 36k on the clock and just the most awesome V12 soundtrack!
Epic - 10/10 for getting stuck in Is the head with the burnt valve really junk? Looks like you might get away with a new valve, guide and getting the seat recut. That said, PB heads are hardly huge money so it might not be worth it. I suppose the damage could be as a result of the valve not seating properly; did it ever get a compression test before you started having problems? On the other hand it could be that the whole engine has been running too hot (dodgy cooling / too much ignition advance / running too lean) and the valve on no.3 just happened to be the first to let go. That said, it's often more likely for a cylinder at the end of the block to go first as it gets less cooling than the rest.... so this possibly points to a specific problem with no.3. The valve being slightly bent would obviously affect it's ability to seat - perhaps when the car's back together and you're less angry about it all it might be worth removing the valve and spinning it up in a lathe or drill to see if it's true..? Jag looks like a monster Hope it all goes back together smoothly
Cheers Mike, Unfortunately yes, I think the head is junk without some major work. I took both heads (luckily I kept the original one) down to the machine shop and the guy honestly didn't believe that the car was running. Two of the valves are bent, guides are scored heavily and were completely gauled up and black when the valves were whipped out. Number 3 was completely stuck. I never carried out a compression test on the first day it was fitted however seeing as the problems arose straight away, I'm leaning towards blaming the head rather than the setup. A few parts are being used from the fubbard head on to the original one but I've asked to have it returned so I can examine it at a later date (even though it'll already be in bits). At least with the original one I know the history and know it's not been skimmed already. It's having new guides pressed in, one valve replaced, stem seals and a light skim. Costs are adding up but needs must. Lesson learnt as I paid far too much for the 'reconditioned' head. My plan of doing the job properly seriously backfired Regarding the Jag, I've been reading up on it. A collaboration between Lister and Jag, apparently only 35 were made. 7-litre V12 developing 496bhp. Seems I got to admire a rare piece of machinery.
A very brief update without details but it runs and is back on the road! I have a few teething issues to address regarding a judder around 2k rpm and intermittent cutting out but it pulls like a train through the gears - 5th being the most surprising! I know I've missed a fair few steps out however will upload pics with proper update of whats been happening at a later date. However, engine wise all back together: Happy days!
thats looking fresh mate fair play. impressed with that,looks the buisness. hope when i put my reconned head on i dont have the problems youve had!
Cheers. Yeah, not cool with the head. These things happen though, I've calmed down over it now (ish!) Overdue update time - been doing a few odds and sods on the car recently. Car is back on the road and running well. I'm also no longer a student and got the car back the same day as my results so was a good day all round Sorted the judder and the intermittent cutting out - turned out to be a timing issue. Followed RJ's guide and it was a couple of degrees out. Backtracking a little, few ups and downs through the engine conversion but was a relatively straight forward swap and a rewarding one at that. Although not lightening quick, it really has made the power delivery stronger and pulls well in any gear - 3rd and 5th just pull and pull providing an effortless drive, much more torque but still retaining those GTI revvy characteristics. Exhaust downpipe is an unbelievably tight fit with the taller block but it just squeezes in there! A fair amount has been replaced under the bonnet to freshen the car up, some planned, some not! As mentioned before, my few months old 'refurbished' head was basically scrap. Here is the offending valve after it was removed. One of the others was also bent as well. So, the original head was sent away for refurbishment with new guides, stem seals, a slight skim and lick of paint. Got a bit carried away with replacing parts but it made sense to sort it whilst everything was in bits. These included a new Sachs clutch, all new 16v engine mounts, 2E dizzy, starter motor (the old one fell apart as it was removed), power steering pump (finally found the damn intermittent leak - a hairline crack), new metal coolant pipe as the old one was rotten, every gasket you can think of, cambelt and tensioner etc etc yada yada. Unfortunately I don't really have many pics of it going back together as time was tight and I was busy with uni work. A few randoms though: How it was looking: Back together and stored at my mates for a while (it was in good company). Wind forward to the past week or so and seeing as I have had a few days off it's been a case of sorting those jobs that have been on the back burner for ages. First up, clean 3 months of dirt, roadwork dust and garage grime from the car as it was grim Commandeered my grandads drive and got cracking! Next on the list was to get the tailgate that has been sat in my house awaiting replacement onto the car (gathering dust for the past year and a half!). Cue an hour of undoing bolts, swapping components/mechanisms and pulling various bits of loom through with rope. A nice straight forward job, bar me slicing straight through my finger on the inner panel work of the boot. Old one was a bit rotten around the usual areas: Haynes manual says about tarting around with removing the headlining. Found it easier just to leave the original hinges in situ to save having to re-align the new tailgate. New numberplate lamps and gaskets freshen it up a bit: Finished macoy. Colour matches reasonably well however hoping to blend them together more with a polish. Complete with ghetto number plate fixing until I got hold of some numberplate tape . With the tailgate on, next on the list was to dig the Ronals out of hiding. Looking pretty much as grim as the car was. Whilst routing around in the toolbox I found some metal door inserts I'd nabbed from a poverty spec Mk2 down the scrappy a while back. They fit a lot neater than the bent plastic ones that were on there before. 30 second job for tart points. Tidied up a bit of the breather pipework and replaced the washer hosing for mk3 items. Always nice to have working wipers again Have had a couple of annoying rattles on full throttle from under the bonnet since the conversion. One was a tab on the downpipe knocking (grinder soon sorted that) and the other seems to have been the throttle switch. Seems to have worn away a bit of the bonnet but it's the inner skin and underneath so not that bothered. Only cosmetic. Next up was sorting the low hanging Jetex. Fitment of the exhaust under the car is great however the height of the back box has always been poor looking like a kev saxo special. How it hung: How I wanted it to hang: A friend cut and rewelded the hanger a little higher for me and I managed to fettle it a bit higher using a jubilee clip and a new exhaust mount. Sits much better now but needs a slightly smaller jubilee clip to raise it further.
Last but not least, rid the car of Tornado pink - the annual polish/wax session (god I hate polishing cars ). Scrubbed up well though: New genuine Mk2 floor mats are a nice touch in my opinion: And that's pretty much where the car is at at the moment. Hoping to finish wiring up the VDO's asap (another job that I never get around too), install the mocal oil cooler (again, been sat in the toolbox for yonks) and get a Toad immobiliser wired in. Quite pleased with progress as I found this pic on an old phone (taken the day I bought it - 2 years ago now. Looked a right shed!) Thanks for reading
where you say the timing was a few degress out do you mean ignition timing? and could you compare the performance of the new engine to anything else on the road?
Ignition timing was 2 degrees out. Was set at 8 instead of the correct 6. Still pops and bangs a bit but I think that's down to the stainless exhaust. As for comparison to something else, not really - Unless I compare it to my 1300 bug (in which case it's fooking rapid ). If it's any help at all, on private roads it was a dead heat through the gears between my friends similarly powered but completely stripped 1.6 205 GTI and mine, bearing in mind my car has a heavy leather interior and crap in the boot. Inbetween searching heavily for work I've spannered a little on the car. Double edged sword - bit of time for the car but I HATE being out of work . Finished plumbing in a Mocal cooler yesterday and it seems to be doing a good job so far. Using a Polo/Lupo GTI filter and a thermostatic plate, the oil didn't go over 104 according to the MFA on the roadtest with some enthusiastic driving. Sat at between 92-94 most of the time. A temp decrease of roughly 10-15 degrees. Only problem I have found is getting a good seal on some of the unions. PTFE tape has helped a lot however I have a slight weep from one of the connectors (typically the hardest to access with the bumper on etc ). Will also modify the rad cowling for the other side when I get hold of a dremel so that can be installed - just needs a hole cut into it for the oil pipes to go through. Oil capacity increased by around 1/2 litre. You can barely see it when the bumper is on which is exactly what I was after Also installed a mk3 weighted shift rod. This has been sat in the toolbox for an absolute age! Took 2 mins to fit and it's transformed the gear shift. If you have a mk2 and haven't done this I'd highly recommend it. VDO wiring and uprated headlight loom on the cards for later if the weather improves!
