Popeye775

I know there are a lot of threads on this already, but I could not find the answer to the specific question that I had. That question being: can I reuse the water pump/housing, alternator bracket/alternator, and oil filter housing off of my G60 on the ABA motor? Or do I need to use the ones off of the ABA motor? The reason I ask is because the parts off of my G60 are a lot newer and look to be in better shape than those off of this donor motor that I got. Thank you all in advance! (also posted to VW Vortex)

Hey guys, For anybody still following this thread, i made some headway. I replaced the ECU vacuum with OEM vacuum hose. It helped a bunch actually. Cruising around 2k RPM the car runs at ~14.8 AFR. When I’m driving and come to a stop, it will stay at about 14.5-14.8 AFR for a second but then slowly creep up to ~16-17.5 AFR. WOT is around 13.5-14 so still a little lean. I haven’t pulled plugs at WOT in a bit so I’m unsure if it’s just an exhaust leak causing my wideband to freak out or not but any opinions from anybody still following this thread? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey guys just a question to gain knowledge: How can the bad piston rings in a couple cylinders cause lean running conditions? I’m just curious as to how these would cause that i guess. Thank you guys for all the help Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you for all your information and help sir! It’s been greatly appreciated. I found that i can strap an ABA motor to my head as long as i put two head gaskets on if I’m running a smaller pulley. And slight modification has to happen to the distributor in order to make it work. But nothing major. Other than that seems pretty straight forward. So here’s the plan: Source a low mile ABA to temporarily be on the car and rebuild my bottom end in the meantime Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I did accidentally do the test on the wrong TDC sequence for cylinder one but that was quickly realized when the air was escaping out of the intake hose so i made sure to go according to firing order at that point. The lean issue i am assuming is coming from those bad piston rings as well as the misfire. Especially since once all oiled up and warmed up the misfire goes away. A solution i was told about is taking an ABA bottom end and strapping it to my head. It’ll be a temporary fix while i build my bottom end the way that i exactly want it to be. If i go to drive the car, would you say i should drop a little oil down into those cylinders to help lubricate them? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Last compression test done showed 125-140 PSI in all cylinders

No smoking at all out the back but does have a small misfire for the first couple minutes on a cold start Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also 20% were still in the good range, the 40% was borderline between mild and low leakage. At least on my gauge. 50% was also in the moderate range but was definitely really far off from that 20% in those other cylinders.

No no I appreciate it sir! So, I heard the air coming out of the oil dipstick hole. There wasn't air escaping anywhere else. I had each cylinder at TDC when testing so the test did take about an hour to do. So the valves should have been closed during this test. I can guarantee that there wasn't air escaping anywhere else as for that is the only spot that I heard the air escaping from. As for the PSI coming from the tank, I used enough air to zeroed out my gauge. I am not sure what PSI that was exactly but it was enough to have my gauge zeroed out.

Hi Si, The two were cylinder 2 and 4. 2 had 50% and 4 had 40%. I did a compression test not too long ago - around the time that the issue began - and the compression was still good. Cylinder 1 and 3 had 20% leakage. I did it for probably a minute per cylinder to make sure the leakage stayed the same.

So i am now in need of an opinion... I did a leakdown to reveal that two cylinders have piston rings going bad. No smoke yet, and no major oil loss yet. I am considering rebuilding the engine forged or swapping the motor. Anybody have any opinions for me? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The injectors capping out at 3 bar would make sense as to why when i turned my fuel pressure down to 3 bar from 3.5, the AFR didnt change. I have a leak down tester on the way (should arrive Sunday) just to check for piston rings going bad, bad head gasket, or bad valves. Im not assuming any of these right off the bat just because im not losing any extra oil or coolant. Not sure if bad valves would show up on a compression test, but the last one i did, all cylinders were within 10% of each other and still within spec of the Bentley as well. I did not realize it does actually have a MAP sensor. I will double check the length of my ECU vacuum tomorrow to ensure that it is SPOT on. I also switched to a colder spark plug as recommended by multiple people for the tuned G60s. I appreciate all the help as well sir. I will update you with anything i find tomorrow when it comes to the ECU vacuum and on sunday with the leak down test as well. If you find anything else in the Bentley or come up with any other ideas sir, i would greatly appreciate any of it. Again thank you! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Update: Checked fuel pressure: reading at 3.5 bar fuel pressure consistent. Turned down to 3 bar consistent. I am running stock injectors that duty cycle 80% @ 3 bar of pressure. Held down WOT switch and the AFR dropped to only 15.5-16. Something wrong with the WOT switch? Do I need the 30lb injectors instead to push the 3.5 bar of pressure? Here is a list of things that I have checked or done to try to combat this lean running issue (and just for maintenance as well) so far: - Fuel Pressure: checked - Injectors: New (stock size) - Pump: 5k miles - filter: 5k miles - Pressure regulator: New (adjustable) - Injector wiring: New - New Intake manifold gasket - New Vacuum lines - All new spark - Timing set to 6 degrees BTDC * Currently running basically all of the stage 3 kit from BBM with a 268 cam and 68mm supercharger pulley. Apologies for the long post. Anybody have any recommendations?

Thank you sir [emoji1374] will do Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I will drive it though and have someone sit passenger and let me know how the AFR looks though for sure sir, Thank you[emoji1374] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since it is a G60, there is no MAF sensor. It pops slightly on idle for the first couple minutes but that’s while it’s running rich, none after that first couple minutes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi sir, The plugs didn't smell like oil at all. They weren't wet either. If anything they just smelled like exhaust almost? Didn't smell like oil or fuel. I can't really put my finger on the exact smell. I just wanted to be sure that these looked ok because I have been having a lean running issue. My AFR tends to read lean (which could just be an exhaust manifold gasket or something like that giving me a weird reading) but more than anything I just wanted to have someone see if these looked ok since I was on and off throttle while driving around for a bit. Especially since I just put a new cam and lifters in as well to match the adjusted fuel pressure.

Can someone help me read my spark plugs? Yes i have an AFR but i didnt have anyone to read my AFR while i was on the throttle when i was driving, so i pulled plugs to see how they look. I drove for about 30 minutes on and off throttle after letting the car warm up for about 10 minutes. Here is how the plug looks (all of them look the same as this one). The ring does look dark, im assuming its idling rich but other than that anybody able to help me read these? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True. I’ve been having a lean idle issue for a while now and haven’t gotten a lot of resolve. When it turns on it’ll idle rich for about a minute or two (enough to warm up a bit) then lean out. Will also drive lean if I’m under like ~2800 RPM. So wasn’t sure if it could be the ECU or not Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Has anyone had an ECU go bad on them? If so, what were the symptoms you experienced? Generally curious just to see if mine is the reason behind my lean conditions. Thanks all! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey all, couple of things. First of all: new cam and lifters are installed and the car loves it! Second: it’s still lean at idle (upon cold start will idle at about 11 AFR which is uhhh real rich but then leans out to between 14-17 AFR) here’s what the plugs look like. This is practically how they all look across the board. Some a tiny bit lighter than the rest but not so far off that it’s causing concern. Any reason the car could be lean like this? Or is this just one of those quirks with digifant? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you sir Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So here is an update: Misfire is fixed. The issue was the spark plug wires - that I had just changed not too long ago - but the car still runs lean. Around 14-18 AFR at idle, 14 - 15 cruising, and 13 - 14.5 under throttle. It does drop down to 13.5 - 14 AFR at idle with the CTS unplugged. Can this still be the wiring from ECU to injectors, or ECU itself? Possibly the chip in the ECU? I am still working on trying to hook something up to Digifant to check for any computer codes as well. But if there are any new ideas to test out, that would be more than helpful! Thank you all in advance Any suggestions welcome!

It seems almost like there is an air leak somewhere. Check the idle air screw on the back of the throttle body. Do you have a Bentley? I would go into the Bentley and set the idle/timing through there. The way the idle is sticking is making me think air leak somewhere or something with timing could be off. Are you able to get it smoke tested to see about any leaks? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey guys, I was having a misfire at idle situation for on but the misfire is fixed. At this point, the car is lean under idle but no misfire anymore. AFR shows 14-18 at idle, 13.5-14 under throttle, and 14.8-15 while cruising. CO Pot is at 85 ohms for resistance currently and fuel pressure is at 3.5 bar. Tested for vacuum leaks and replaced wiring for the fuel injectors as well. Have also recently put new injectors in. So I’m reaching out trying to see what else there is that could be causing this lean situation. Could my chip (BBM STG 3) be curving the fuel to fire with the bigger cam that is going in soon? Or could it be something else? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk