Erm.. whoops helps

[lockdown 0]

Had a porblem with the car on the way home from work tonight and the general thinking seems to be its dropped a valve :epicfail: (bad times :( ). Its a 1.8 16v.

 

One of my mates has a 2.0 16v out of a mk3 golf knocking about doing nothing (good times).

 

Anyone one know the difficulty of dropping that lump in, in its place?

 

Will it mount up, plug in etc?

 

Many thanks

[tyler 0]

depending on year bud you might have to change the loom,ecu ect and it wont be much quicker for all the trouble i would remove head replace valve myself

[lockdown 0]

Im really not bothered if its faster, just that hes got the lump there to use. How much roughly would it cost to get the head done?

[Toad 0]

Just drop the complete engine in and use your existing inlet and injection system, plus all the sensors.

 

Easy...

 

You probably ought to have the Warm Up Regulator adjusted for the 2l engine, Stealth can do this and set the fueling up on the rolling road.

[lockdown 0]

Awesome! Where abouts is stealth?

[Toad 0]

Southam in Warwickshire I think.

[aide 0]

as the guys have said the abf block and head is a straight swap, it's also a taller block with longer stroke so it develops slower but better power, whether you want it or not :D

 

cos it's a taller block i read somewhere you can get hood clearance issues in the rado tho - but never done it myself so couldn't be certain :scratch:

[Toad 0]

The ABF has a better stroke to rod ratio than in the 9A, so it revs better, more like the KR characteristic wise, and can produce 200bhp with the right tuning etc.

[lockdown 0]

Stealths is 60miles from me. Would it be drivable without adjusting above said things? At least just to get it to them?

 

So disconnect everything from the 1.8 take it out and drop the 2.0 in and replace all pipes and wires? Nothing else to replace?

[davidwort 0]

yep, that's basically it, just swap all the ancilliary bits over, the ABF is a good engine, but the block is 15mm higher so you might have downpipe clearance issues around the bulkhead, I think it clears the bonnet OK, see how much clearance you have on the 1.8 with the early bonnet.

Worst case with the downpipe, I think I heard of someone modifying the rear engine mount slightly to sit the engine a little lower at the back.

You can set the WUR quite accurately by checking the colour of the plugs, set the idle CO to about 2% and you want just very slight carbon deposits forming on the rim of the spark plug end, not the electrodes themselves, should be running nice and rich but not over the top then. move the WUR screw in small 1/8 turn increments, you'll soon feel a drop in power if you lean it too much and the plugs will blacken quickly if too rich.

Stealth will then just tweak it for peak torque and hp on the rolling road and probably squeeze about another 5-10 bhp out of it, 1hr RR time should be all that's needed.

[lockdown 0]

This is all starting to sound very complicated :confused4:

[aide 0]

you could always just swap the head over....

 

things can getreally complex - the abf revs better cos it is a taller block, but the longer rod (159 v 144mm) means it is marginally slower to develop this powere as it has to turn the crank through a larger circle initially but this does provide better power... on the other hand the 9a has the highest standard compression ratio of them alll... but then the cyliner head ports are diferent in them all promoting different charcteristics tooooo arrgrgrgrhrhrhrhhrhrhrh my head hurts :D

[lockdown 0]

Not too fussed about taller heads etc. As long as it makes the car move im happy really

[lockdown 0]

Does anyone know what just fixing the 1.8 entails? New valve(s), piston I spose? What else would it have broke? Or is this going to be major heart surgery?

[aide 0]

think it would be impossible to say without knowing for certain what is wrong, it's either going to involve whipping the head off fixing and/ or replacing, but if the valve has fallen into the block then it could get a lot more complicated :(

 

if ur mate has that abf sat there doing nothing then you really should take the opportunity to do something with it imo

[Henny 0]

depends how lucky/unlucky you are...

 

best case? new valve, headgasket set and slight headwork to sort it all out...

 

worst? damage to the cylinder and piston causing the block to be scrap and having damaged the head too badly to be repaired causing the head to be scrap... :eek:

 

when it dropped the valve, what sort of RPM was the engine doing and how long has it been run/attempted to be run since it did it?

 

High revs + many tries at restarting = heading towards worst case...

idle + no attempts at restarting = best case...

 

Either way, good luck with it... 8)

[lockdown 0]

Well it was when I was coming off the motorway so maybe about 2.5-3k rpm, was runs going down though the gears. But I was on a round about so I had to nurse it a couple hundred meters to a lay by.

 

Its restarted twice after this happened ( once after i pulled over and had a look and once when the bloke came with the truck to pick it up). Its starts totally fine just like before. Turn the key and it fires straight away but on tick over it runs really bad and the engine shakes all over the place. When you rev it to 1.5-2k it sounds sweet as a nut but anything higher and there is a loud tapping noise. The tapping noise almost sound like and engine that's been run dry of oil.

[Henny 0]

doesn't sound like it's "dropped a valve" then.... that's when the head comes off the valve and falls into the cylinder... you know when that happens as it tends to embed itself into the piston and head and sounds like there's someone with a jack-hammer in your engine bay....

 

Time to take the head off and have a good look...

[lockdown 0]

What do you think it could be then? I'll tear it apart tomorrow and have a gander

[Wullie 1]

The only way to find out is to pull the head off and look. If it's a loud tapping it may only be a hydraulic tappet that gone. Grab the other engine anyway, it can always sit there for you to play with, take apart and rebuild ready for a real disaster.

[lockdown 0]

Right folks,

 

So far i've taken everything off so the main head is exposed where I can see the cams, chain, cam belt pulley etc. So far I haven't spotted anything bent broken or otherwise.

 

So where do I go now? I mean how do I carry on stripping it down? Whats next? Probs a simple answer but i've not done this before so can all you knowledgeable people point me in the right direction what to do next?

 

Thanks

[aide 0]

progressively undo the cam retainers - so the cams are not put under any bending stress, lift the cams out so you have access to the hydraulic tappets beneath, this means you'll have to remove the timing chain and cam sprocket - check cams for obvious defects

 

you'll need to lift the tappets out, this may be difficult as they'll be covered in oil and slippy, if you have a little suction cup this will do well or use monkey spanners with cloth wrapped round the jaws - don't scratch the tappetts also number or order the tapetts so you use the same tappetts in the same groove when rebuilding

 

inspect the hydraulic tappets for obvious defects, particularly underneath. check you can see two valve colletts which hold the valve spring retainers (saucer shape things) in place on the valve stem, they should be in the center of the saucer. with the cams removed the valve spring retainers should all be at the same height - if one is higher then you know which valve head has fallen off!

 

if you can't see anything obviously wrong then you'll need to remove the head, you'll need the right spline key to do this - post back on here sure and we'll talk you through it

 

it's late so i may have missed stuff, sure guys will be along to correct me :D

[Wullie 1]

If the head is still on the engine try the following to check the tappets are OK

 

Turn the camshaft until the lobe of the cam is facing away from the tappet to be checked and push down on the tappet with a wooden or plastic something and measure the gap between tappet and cam. IIRC it should not be greater than about 0.1 mm. This is normally done after the engine has been run and warm so some allowance may need to be made. Some of the more expert on here will be able to clarify. If everything seems OK at that point check the obvious timing marks that are all over the engine and if still OK then the only way I can see forward is to remove the head and look deeper. Trouble is you can't really see too much like valve springs etc without removing the camshafts and the tappets themselves. Hope I don't sound too much like a harbinger of doom.

[lockdown 0]

Right ok then i'm about to check/remove the cams and tappets. Do I have to turn the engine over to a certain point before I remove the cams? Has anything got to be locked in place? Also do you recommend taking the cam belt off? At least off the main pulley?

[aide 0]

actually it wouldn't be a bad idea to move everything to line with top dead centre asumng everything is still together, just put a socket on the crank nut and turn the engine until the timing mark on the cam sprocket is at the top and the two 'o' shapes on the cams should be facing each other level with the cylinder head

 

haynes has all ths info btw, mybe worthwhile getting yourself sorted for the £15 or so

 

let us know how you get on