unclean

Awesome! Thanks Jim.

Hey chaps,

I've given this a search, but couldn't find anything conclusive. I've seen some Reinz 2.8 gaskets for sale at a good price and was wondering if they're in fact the same part for the 2.8 and 2.9, or are specific to each engine?

(Also happy if anyone can point me other places which sell Reinz 2.9 gaskets :thumbleft: )

Cheers, Phil.

No problem, got mine rebuilt in the mean time :smug:

It's been a while since I made much progress due to weekend commitments and a hilariously rainy start to the summer.

I've been accumulating some parts and stripping down what I've got. A friend generously brought back some parts from the US for me, including a Gruvenparts Crack Pipe (interesting customs discussion no doubt!) and ARP head studs.

The gearbox and head are now off. The tensioner was absolutely shot with huge groves in it and about 5mm was missing from the end, presumably floating around in the sump. It's clear why the head gasket failed as there was loads of corrosion, yuck! Luckily the bottom end looks in pretty good nick with no scoring or obvious ovalisation on the rear left cylinder. I'm sending the head off to a local remanufacturing place later this week and have begun the process of cleaning everything up before getting the chain gear and gaskets in place.

I'm trying to keep the budget reasonable, but am very tempted to get a few pieces powdercoated and install an oil pressure sensor to make sure all the new gubbins are running peachy. I've taken a bunch of pics which I'll get up here later this evening.

Very good question actually! I'll check in with the Ford stealers this week.

Any chance I could nab the head from you VAG-hag?

Nice, thanks for the heads up. I've got some part details from VAG, but it appears some bits are now end of life. Do you reckon the Febi chains/tensioner parts are sufficient?

Unfortunately I blew my headgasket a couple of months back. I'm in the midst of the engine rebuild now and thought I'd just check if anybody has a recently reconditioned or even low mileage VR6 head hanging about before I send mine off?

I'm also on the lookout for bits like timing chains, tensioners and gaskets if anybody has unused ones stashed?

Cheers, Phil.

Hey mate,

What condition are the ABS pumps and gearbox in?

Thanks Jim. Given the great Euro exchange rate at the moment, I've found a place in Germany which should be able to do them delivered for under £200.

I made a start this weekend, some pictures to follow later; but essentially inlet manifold off, valve and upper timing chain covers off, arch liner out and bumper/slam panel off. Timing chain guides and tensioner are very worn as expected! In a way, glad I'm doing this job now rather than having anything more serious happen with bits of guide floating about. I've also found a local firm who should be able to refurb the head for a reasonable price.

Also, late last year I got a slim line SPAL fan bracket from ChrisL (as my aux fan bearing was shagged). I thought now is a good a time as any to sort it, as I'd rather not blow up a rebuilt engine; so two 9" and 11" SPAL fans should be with me to install this week! :smug:

Awesome work!

-Used a standard replacement head gasket on mine, by Victor Reinz, Stealth racing seem to use the block gasket kit and the head kit so was good enough for me. Saw a thread somewhere about the mk4 gasket having one coolant hole that doesn't line up properly (only seen one person mention that so might not be an issue)

-I used a VW water pump and chains, just didn't want to risk anything for the sake of a few hundred pounds.

-Sachs Clutch kit is fine, it what the dealers supply, same box same clutch kit, only VW charge £260ish and other places its about £100-£120

-Never did anything to my flywheel, its 220,000miles old, (not too sure if it requires anything done to it)

 

One thing Vince at Stealth mentioned to me was using some "wellseal" when fitting the gasket, but only use it on the area shown in red below

 

^^Where the red dot is (off the engine is where in an ideal world there would be another head bolt, and this causes a weak point so quite common for gasket to go in that point of engine)

Really really helpful, thanks Jim.

Sure enough, that's exactly where mine went!

Budget permitting I'd like to get some ARP headbolts in there. It does seem like these flywheels last forever, too.

Bummer about the gasket , it was all coming along well too . Hope all goes well in getting it sorted .

Thanks man. Yeah, quite a bummer, but these jobs really needed doing in the next year or so anyway I guess :)

When I did mine Phil I used the MK4 Golf metal gasket, it raises the compression ratio slightly to about 10.5 to 1 for a bit more power but you MUST then use good 98/99 octane fuel.

 

Ian.

Ah ha, good to know. Would this ideally get a remap?

Right, so a few extra tools now purchased and I'm going to make a start stripping the head this weekend!

I've been doing some research regarding whether to rebuild the head myself, use a second hand one for now or even swap the whole engine. I've decided to just strip the head and have mine refurbished. I'd considered doing some of the valve guides, seals, etc. myself but I think it's simpler to have the lot done professionally.

Obviously some jobs make sense to perform whilst the heads off, and I'm currently budget conscious, but also don't want to be paying twice for poor quality kit/doing the job again.

With that in mind, my current plan of things to do:

- Strip head

- Get head remanufactured including skim, clean, valve guides and stem seals as appropriate

- Replace gaskets

- Replace thermostat whilst coolant is drained

- Replace serpentine belt

- Replace water pump (with metal impeller version)

- Replace timing chains and guides

- Inspect camshaft sprockets

- Replace clutch

Now some questions for you lot :)

- There seems to be mixed opinions about whether to use metal head gaskets or stick with OE. Thoughts on this?

- I'd like to use a water pump with metal impellers, I can see a Febi one is available. Is this decent?

- Regarding the timing chains, I've seen some kits mentioned, is there a good source for these or just go with part numbers to the dealership?

- I've heard the Sachs clutch kit is fine, any opinions to the contrary?

- There's a local reputable engine/head remanufacturing place that have estimated about £200+VAT to sort the head. Any other recommendations?

- Does the flywheel need any love/replacing at 140k or what should I look out for whilst I'm in there?

Finally, any other things you'd be looking to fix with the head off?

Cheers, Phil.

I blame the noise from the BMC CDA I just put on, I don't think it's dipped below 4k RPM since

I've been having cooling issues for a few months where the second stage hasn't been kicking in. However, it hasn't recently been anywhere above 90, and mainly even lower than that (I believe my thermostat has stuck open) and when it failed it, coolant temperature was indicated at around 80 degrees.

After chatting with folks who know more about this than I, it's been suggested that previous neglect with the coolant lead to corrosion on the head which caused the gasket to fail. I had noticed a large amount of gunk in the coolant when I swapped it for G13 last year, but it looks like that work was too late as the damage was probably done over a period of years previously.

It's a huge pain though as I'd pushed to get work carried out and have the car ready for spring and, in particular, Le Mans. I'm going to inspect the head in the next week and devise a plan from there. I may swap another longblock in and push to get the car driveable again, which will give me an opportunity to rebuild the original engine properly and deal with the chains, uprated cams, ported or big valve head, etc. However, depending on the condition of everything, it's tempting to just stick a recon head on and replace the chains. I am somewhat nervous about destroying a new head if the block has been in any way damaged though. I need to keep this economical and I'm committed to carry this work out myself.

Sigh. I guess I wanted a project car and that certainly is what I now have :blackeye:

I do have some bad news though. I was finally getting some confidence with the car and starting to use it semi-daily given how good the weather has been for the last couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, that came to an end yesterday when I managed to blow the headgasket. Bummer. Big bummer.

Thanks all!

Abdul, it's certainly not, haha. Somebody put a nice dent in the front wing last summer, the bonnet isn't a perfect match and there's some imperfections on the bottom of the doors. It passes the 5-10ft test ok though. I absolutely love the colour though, especially when it catches the sun.

Thanks for the reply Jim.

Long term I'd certainly rebuild the original engine, especially when seeing how nicely yours is coming together! I was looking to get 263 cams, recon or ported head and new chains in there under my own steam later in the year. It seems like it could be a false economy to swap a temporary long block in for £200-300, such is the gamble I guess?

I'll get my plan sorted, but might well take you up on that offer of bits Jim!

Hey folks,

The headgasket on my VR just blew at the back left (looking into the engine bay from the front of the car). It was spewing coolant out of the side :-(

The engine was running fine when it happened, not even particularly hot (water temps were showing around 80 degrees C). It looks like the oil hasn't mixed and there's no drop in level. I flushed all the coolant and replaced it with G13 last year, but there was quite a lot of a cruft in there, which could point to corrosion in the head causing the gasket failure.

Now, I'm considering my options. The timing chains needed doing anyway, and I'm sure at 145k the valve stem seals in the head needed some attention. I'm half tempted to throw a lower mileage salvage AAA Golf engine in for the next few months/year, then take mine out for a more serious rebuild with shiny bits. However, I was also contemplating a TSR recon head, new headgasket and tackling the chains in situ now. I guess this hinges on the block being undamaged, how likely is this to be the case?

I'm keen to keep expenditure to a minimum for the next few months having just had a lot (LOT) of brake and chassis work carried out, but that also means I'm keen to have the car running for summer even with a stop gap engine.

So, any suggestions on the most economical and quickest way back to a running car?

Cheers, Phil.

I was under the impression you needed the Syncro/Rallye rear beam to fit the Corrado, but you could use this diff to upgrade it to Haldex? (Not calling anyone out, intrigued more than anything).

As title, looking for a late model Dark Burgundy Pearl offside wing (or even a pair?) as somebody has driven into mine and left a big dent :'(

I'm not sure if this was targeted at me or not? Either way, I'm still running the standard controller but for those who don't want to use it or it's broken or removed for some other reason, you can get controllers which sit in the coolant pipe work or screw into the radiator switch position.

 

Swifty, I got my fan from Burton power. They are a Ford specialist but were the cheapest.

Yep, it was. Thanks! Gotcha, something in my system is acting up and was considering replacing the controller with a standard one, or possibly aftermarket. After a little reading I think I'll retain the factory for the stages and over run.

Thanks for this.

Sean, could you provide some more detail on what controller you're using and how's it's integrated?

Cheers, Phil.