MikLSP

Update: The engine has been stripped down again and despite the mechanics initial thought that the bearings looked ok with the sump off, it turns out the #3 crank bearing had indeed nipped up. The crank has now been sent off to be polished and new bearing on the way. Not sure what would cause this to happen but I'm at least glad that nothing has happened to the cylinders or pistons.

Yeah all done at the same place. Really just waiting to hear from the garage again now before forming an opinion. :lol:

Yes that's the main thing I was thinking as perhaps the rebuilt oil pump was not right or something. At the time the engine stopped the temperatures were normal though, wouldn't it be getting very hot with no oil?

Well that is the natural thing to assume isn't it :( A friend just suggested that maybe he over-torqued some bolts and the crank nipped up when it got warm.

Another bad update on this, I've posted details in my car topic here, any advise? :(

Er, yeah! Here goes..... So, after my tensioner bolt failed causing untold problems [see here] and subsequently a very lengthy rebuild including having the head reconditioned, 8 new valves, cylinders re-honed, new piston rings, bottom end rebuild, oil pump rebuild, all new chains and tensioners the car was finally up and running again. At this point it was still with the mechanic as he had a few other little things to sort out...... Yesterday I received a call from him, expecting to hear that everything was now done and I could go get the car back, but no, the news couldn't have been much worse! :mad2: After the engine had apparently started first time after the rebuild and run very well since, he left it idling yesterday to get up to temperature and await the fans coming on. Suddenly the engine just stopped and would not restart, not even turning over and could not be cranked by hand! :brickwall: He told me he had taken the rocker cover off again to inspect the cams and valves, all ok, same with the chains. Also the sump is off and the bottom end looks to be fine so now the engine has to come back out to find what is wrong. Surely though if either end seems fine and the engine cannot be cranked the only explanation is a seized piston?! What could have caused this and what sort of outlook am I going to be expecting? It really seems like this car is cursed for me now :(

@ kev I got this one which I think is the original style. @ Roger Yeah, already had the clutch done the first time the gearbox was off, it looked like the one on there was the original.

Yeah, certainly glad to have found a cause otherwise it would have been a worry as to whether it might happen again even though everything has been rebuilt. Funnily enough, I bought my chains and tensioners from vwspares.co.uk and they could not supply the tensioner bolt. I asked my mechanic about the existing one and whether we could re-use it hence him testing it and finding that it cannot hold the pressure. Imagine if I had gone with the old one unknowingly and had the same thing happen all over again! :shock: I'm really looking forward to getting the car back now and yeah ok I've spent a fortune on it but I'm now going to have a Corrado with and engine, gearbox, clutch and brakes I can rely on (touch wood!)

Update on this, while progress has been somewhat slow things are coming back together now. Had the head reconditioned, 8 new valves, cylinders re-honed, new piston rings, bottom end rebuild, oil pump rebuild, all new chains and tensioners. I think we may have found the original cause of the problem too, the tensioner bolt was unable to retain oil pressure so the seal must have gone as Andy & Kev wisely mentioned. This has seemingly resulted in a loss of chain tension and skipped teeth on the cams :( Ultimately we have here a £1500 cost due to the failure of a £40 part! :mad2:

I think that's something I'm going to have to do as the connection to my stereo is a bit iffy. Hope you get it done :)

Absolutely :lol: Thankfully, I got another off ebay for £16 which sorted things out.

Mine was cracked on the VR6 but nothing as bad as the Golf. Just a bad design I think

I'm sure many of you know the VR6 coil pack for being prone to cracking as the plastic become brittle next to the hot engine... Well I just thought I'd share this one with you; the coil from my '99 Golf 1.6. The car developed a misfire and while the coil looked ok from what you could see on the car, I took it off to inspect and found that it was absolutely knackered!The cracks were huge and ran right across the top and also into the resin base. There was so much corrosion beneath it had lifted the plastic by a few mm. No wonder this caused a misfire! Corrado92.pdfDSC_0409.jpg[/attachment:hknhiwgl]passat climatronic wiring diags.pdfDSC_0410.jpg[/attachment:hknhiwgl] climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfDSC_0411.jpg[/attachment:hknhiwgl]2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfDSC_0414.jpg[/attachment:hknhiwgl] DSC_0416.jpg[/attachment:hknhiwgl] So there you go VR6 owners, it's not just you with ignition coils that fall to bits :lol: Mik

Can anyone confirm that this is a list of all I need to replace everything on the timing chains? Cheers :) Is there anything I have missed? Upper timing chain Upper timing chain guide rail Upper timing chain tensioner rail Upper timing chain tensioner bolt Lower timing chain Lower timing chain guide rail Lower timing chain tensioner rail

Thanks for all the comments lol! The timing chains were something I knew were a weak point but if I'm honest I perhaps thought things were are little exaggerated with paranoia and doom sayers. When buying a Corrado the chain rattle was a main concern but I (know I realise wrongly) thought that there being no noise meant things were not in imminent danger. As for the recommended service interval, I believe there is none as VW originally (also wrongly) envisaged the chains and tensioners to last the lifetime of the engine :cuckoo: I'm not going to start pointing fingers at Ady the mechanic who did my gearbox & clutch as I wouldn't have thought he touched anything down there which has caused this... As Kev says, this is one I have to put down to experience and bad luck. I just have to bite the bullet and at least be glad that after all is said and done I end up with an engine which I can fully trust. It also makes me want to take the car to a better level in the future, the bodywork is "ok" at the moment but I think once I get a mechanically sound beast I'll be tempted to get that up to scratch too ;) (later that is) :lol:

Not got exact costs yet but I have been told it will be 4 figure rather than 3 figure :( Yeah it seems so as I had no apparent chain noise. The other possibility may be that it dropped a valve which hit the piston and caused the chain to skip a tooth? Not sure, either way the damage is the same ;) If I had the gear to swap engines myself then I probably would but seeing as I'll be paying a fair whack to get that done anyway I think I'd rather have the piece of mind of a completely rebuilt engine of my own. It didn't backfire no. I have asked about the lips on the cylinders and they are not so bad that it needs a re-bore, apparently just re-honing. At least this way I will have an engine which should be in essence like new. He is also going to replace the oil pump internals. Will have to see if I can get down there and give the engine bay a good clean up while the lump is out.

Yeah it's a sh!tter that all this is coming at once (having just done the brakes, clutch and gearbox!) but on the other hand once I'm out the other side things should be looking good :) I wish I was able to do all this sort of stuff myself. I have no experience of this level of work as well as not having the equipment.

Doesn't it cost about £4k to do a 24V conversion though?

Well the engine running better was certainly a temporary thing! I've had a failed chain tensioner, even though there was no apparent rattle from the chain before that. It seems the chain has skipped a tooth and caused damage to 8 valves! :( More info here Some pretty major work on the way then! I might get to enjoy this car one day...

That's what I'm trying to do, other than the cost. I'm at least going to end up with an engine that I know is going to be good....surely! :lol: What things should I certainly be having done and what else does this present the opportunity for?

OK, got an update and the news is not great! Unfortunately I missed the phone call while I was playing football so just have a message to go on until I ring back tomorrow.... Anyway, here's what we've got: -The timing chain guides and tensioners are damaged. -8 (eight) valves are damaged!! -Lips on the edge of the bores Advise is rebuild! The more I think about this information I think it must be the case that the chain tensioner has failed, the chain skipped a tooth and put the valves out of time causing the damage to them! I also guess the clattering noise was perhaps the valves getting battered by the pistons :cry: As for the bore lips, I'm not certain what this means, is he saying the cylinders have a lip at the top of the piston stroke?

Still waiting for the complete diagnosis, he started taking things apart yesterday afternoon so hope to have the details today. I'll let you all know the damage when I get it :?

Everyone wants it to be the chains don't they :lol: I realise that these are a typical weak point though. I hate all this waiting to find out the damage, I just want to know now what needs to be done. Unfortunately I have neither the equipment, time or expertise (or patience) to start to undertake this scale of job myself so it's no doubt going to cost me dear!!!

Just spoke to the garage and while he hasn't had the chance to get it in bits yet he briefly turned it over to assess the noise :mad2: The first comment was "it doesn't sound good does it" lol! He thinks it's more than just a knackered tappet and is assuming a dropped valve. I just hope that there isn't any knock of effects!! He also said that if it looks like the piston has hit something then new chains would be needed in case it has stressed a link. Well it seems like this is going to be a bad one, just a question of how bad! :( I'd love to hear of anyone who has seen something similar?

The car is on 118k miles. No sadly the chains weren't done when the gearbox was off the other week, had the clutch done though and I wasn't worried about the chains as they seemed quiet. I'm pretty sure the chain itself didn't fail, the noise was certainly not something falling off and then going quiet. I guess I'm just going to have to wait for the garage verdict though. I suppose best case scenario here is just a tappet as that will only need to go as far as the rocker cover coming off won't it? In a way though I almost want to get the head off so I know the gasket is then a new one. What sort of things should also be considered at the same time as this kind of work?