petemcr

I've been doing some serious sanding to smooth of the block, some of the marks really don't want to come out though but I've managed to get it nice and smooth Before After Also removing the old air con pump seen as it never worked and looks like it weighs a lot and spoke to stealth racing about the thin metal head gaskets, any one using one of these? Guy I spoke to told me they use some gasket paste on the side as they weep a little oil if not used

Hahaha and there it is

Is it like the R32's by any chance? A couple of people I know have Golf R's and I know the 24v Is a baby R32 so I'm guessing the lower delivery is all down low, one of theirs which has had work done is really twitchy, you touch the throttle and it just flus off. Funny enough there is a bottom end on eBay at the moment that has everything bar the pistons for £400 or so

Well this is my issue, I think I'm gonna just put it back together and see if it is knocking or if it's fine for now, then start looking at either a new block with low miles to drop in it, or just the vr6 from the v6 4 motion and just bite the bullet and use the money for that It hasn't had issues with knocking before so I'm just going to see how it runs once back together and hope for the best for now

Ok, sorry for the poor angle of this video but it was in the best place to hear it, now it's pretty apparent now that the "steam engine" as my friends have come to call it, but I noticed today that it sounds like it may be knocking as well, or it may be the exhaust gaskets knocking around... But after seeing the bore wear I'm now wondering,

It's not my daily, it was until the head gasket went, I'm assuming with the bore marks then that it will go pop?

I need to decide what I'm going to do now, do I just get the head back on and get it running for now till I decide, I didn't really want to have to remove the bottom end but if it's going to start going in to getting it out and having it machined etc.. Do I just bite the bullet and go for the 2.8 24v conversion and loose that lovely vr6 sound. It has never felt down on power while I've had it, so if I put it back together now to use over summer would it really cause that much damage?

The side ones aren't too bad, barely catch a nail at all, however the one on the very left is fairly deep and I'd say you'd catch a nail in it. It did burn a little oil when you gave it the beans but it wasn't too bad, I presume if I put it back together I'll just be back to burning off oil again? I've found someone who's selling a 2.8 VR fairly cheap, I'm wondering if it would be possible to get the 2.8 and have it bored out to 2.9 and use my pistons, provided they're not damaged on the side of the piston, just as an option

Not looking too good, all the other bores are perfect

That's what I was wondering, it has probably been like this for a while hasn't it, I was just thinking should I just replace the bottom end before I start to put it back together or should it be fine. I may just assemble it and see how it runs when it's back together.

Well it's just the chips in the piston crown that I was a little worried about and looks like something has been hitting the top

I've just been looking through some pictures I've taken of my bottom end and I just noticed something on piston #1 which I want to ask about, see if anyone has any opinions on this Now, I've not really touched the car in a while, nor put too much money in to it so I'm not exactly deep in to it, but I've just noticed what looks like a chip missing out of the crown of the piston and looking at the carbon on top of it, it looks like something has been rattling around in the cylinder, I'm going to crank the engine and check for bore ware but what I want to know is should I call it quits on the bottom end and try and source a new one Opinions?

I'll take these for £35 on Thursday mate

Am I best just sticking with the original factory head gasket? This looks to be the original head gasket and it has lasted up to the 185k mark so it seems like it's done its job well. I had a look at the guide to fitting the 1.8T sensor to the VR6 inlet and it doesn't seem to be that much trouble to fit, just needs the original hole drilling out to be slightly bigger and a hole drilling/tapping to be able to fit a bolt.

So leave the carbon build up all together? What about when you're cleaning up the matting surface, surely you will get some debris in the chambers from doing this?

Why no to the head skimming? I assume because if you get it skimmed it would lower the compression slightly? I was debating using one of the metal head gaskets from the MK4 US VR6's but they're quite costly, but being metal I would assume they will last a lot longer. My job for this weekend is going to be cleaning up the bottom end ready for the new gasket if I decide to do it straight away, but I think I'm going to get the head work done first and leave the gasket set till I've had all my parts done and I've sorted out the engine bay a bit, it's crazy how much that inlet manifold hides. Also going to remove the old aircon pump which is no longer used to save a bit of weight. Has anyone on here fitted the 1.8T intake temprature sensor? I believe the VR6 one is prone to heavy heat soak and this is a good option to to help eliminate that.

Not the best pics, I'll get some more but the carbon build up doesn't seem too bad

I need to start getting everything ready to put back together, got loads of other jobs to do though as well like replacing fuel lines I'm gonna clean the pistons this weekend I think but I'm gonna check how heavy the carbon build up is, I assume of the engine has been serviced with good oil regular and hasn't been running rich it shouldn't be too heavy? Been qouted £114 to have my head skimed, pressure tested and if it needs it the valves seating, £90 if no valve work needs doing

No problem man, you're right though, blown head gasket

That's awesome, cheers guys, given me plenty to read and go off, how long did you leave Wonder Wheels on for Marc? as I recall the carbon wasn't too heavy as I managed to get some of it just using a microfibre so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a battle. I wanted to turn the engine over to see if piston 1 and 6 have any bore wear, I believe they're the two that experience it the most from what I've read on line, was just a bit worried about it jumping a tooth, but I'll give it a go, the crank pulley didn't have any TDC markings so I've used a small metal rod in spark cyl #1 hole till it lifted and then started to drop and made sure the cam lobe had more on the bottom to make sure it wasn't 180 degress out, so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue when timing it back to TDC

Anyone got any advise on piston cleaning, mine have got a fair bit of carbon build up and while the head is off I wouldn't mind cleaning them up, I've been looking through a post on VW Vortex and the guy on it says to turn the bottom end over to bring up a fresh set of pistons to clean, but reading the Bentley manual it says don't adjust from TDC while cam sprockets are not attached as it may jump a tooth on the intermediate socket. Anyone carried this out? and what did you do, I was thinking about leaving some Redex on the pistons to soak in and then trying a microfibre to clean them up but if anyone has got any better ways it would be a big help. Here's the link to the guide http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4054146 Cheers :thumbleft:

Yea finally got to the bottom of it, cheers for the advise Si Got a few bits back from the blasters, trying to decide what colour to go with on the inlet, I was gonna polish the faces but I think I'm gonna keep it one solid colour, it looks brand new at the moment though Before After I was expecting to see some bore wear but it's really good

I think it running ok was what made it harder to locate, I've never been so happy to see a damaged head gasket. It was going to be a quick replacement and get it back together job but it's turning into a bit of a build now with a few parts going off to the powder coaters

Issue finally located

So this is a legit piece of software that could be purchased? I have no issues buying legit software if it makes browsing the manual easier personally and wasn't condoning copying in anyways