dr_mat

Ironically a 16v engine in a VR would probably cost MORE to insure than a VR in a VR, just cos it's a non-original replacement engine...

I passed my thanks onto the guy personnaly and ticked all the 'very impressed' boxes relating to him on the review thing on the PDAs they have. He may of been a ford man at heart, but think i can let him off for that! Actually bypassing the "metrics" and writing a letter to his dept would really go a long way to a) embarrassing him and b) protecting his career. :) Stats would have shown that he was probably better off towing you to some place and getting off to the next call sooner rather than sorting you out... Speaking as a person who works in "support", you very rarely get any positive, personal feedback when you've put in the extra effort required.

Sounds like you should take the offer of the £1200 "low miles" engine, but get the timing gear looked at before it goes in. Then strip everything electronic off the old engine and keep them as spares (those bits are expensive). Strongly consider a new clutch since it's got to come out anyway, and if it's done 100k+... Always go for a VW replacement clutch.

Walnut dash inserts?

Brand new engine for less than a rebuild...! Actually that's not a brand new engine, it's a rebored 2.8 with new pistons/rings, but it's as good as new. The value of the car won't increase because of a brand new engine (people tend to assume that the going rate for a car includes a working engine..), though it will hold it's value more in the long term because the engine would obviously be in good shape.

No change in driving style, but a change in air temperature. That's going to make a difference. A 5 degree change in the air temp during a cold start will radically alter the MPG average over short journeys.

ahhhh the "diamond-runner"...........was that not just a scam tho Possibly. But who knows. It wasn't proved either way by anyone on the forum, so who's to say it wasn't genuine.

There was that R32 Golf that came up on ebay a while back. 450,000 miles in 2.5 years or something mad like that. Two new engines, one new gearbox...

Ebay. Even if it's also faulty, the odds of it being faulty in *exactly the same way* are almost nil, so you still prove the point about your old one, and since it's likely to have cost less than £30 you can't really go wrong.

Doesn't surprise me, tbh. A genuine gasket and bolts kit will be nearer £100+VAT and I'd guess that only leaves £300+VAT for labour to make up the magic £500 .. Depending on where you are, £300 labour is only 4 hours ..

What about the cam position sensor?

Spooky, didn't I see exactly this post in another thread? I did: http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?p=584757 You may well be right about it overfuelling. And if it's doing it on all the plugs, you'd surely notice it in MPG .. ? If it's a fuelling issue on all cylinders, it's either going to be the MAF, lambda or the ECU itself. Running failsafe shouldn't cause enough overfuelling to do this.

MAF sensor problems won't show up on VAGCOM.

I've been told you don't need to skim the head on a VR6. Or something like that. At least, if you do it has to be a very very fine skim.

Town driving expect 24 mpg, and in extreme cases as low as 18. Insurance is the killer though. Since you're under 25 check that you can even get insurance on a group 18 car at all...

Sounds like a reasonable explanation (the overlap, not the speaking bottom!), but it still means you're igniting air/fuel mix in the exhaust, not in the cylinders, which is somewhat detrimental to the exhaust unless it's a competition zorst .. Perhaps you should ring Nasa and get some 2nd hand tiles off challenger? You're lucky you don't have to run a catalyst .. you'd be replacing them everytime it flamed the exhaust.. (Should add that I think most cams overlap a little, but it's not usually enough to cause this kind of effect..)

Bit worried about the "flames out the exhaust" bit too.. That's not normal..

And is it still spot on? I mean was it cooking the exhaust when it was first mapped? If not chances are something's changed. What about the exhaust valve timing? Ignition timing?

I'd say something's wrong fuelling wise. Otherwise, by this logic, a Bugatti Veyron would melt the entire car body..!

Dirty white/grey isn't oil smoke mate. Blue is oil smoke. It's has a very clear, very obvious blue tint to it if you're burning serious amounts of oil. Still the head gasket though. It is after all the responsibility of the HG to keep the oil from the water from the contents of the cylinders. Take it to a garage, tell them to check the coolant for exhaust gas traces, that will prove it.

Define "gunked up". You mean oiled up? All five plugs?

Yes, if the HG is gone it's time to think about doing the timing chains, though tbh there's not *that* much shared labour. At 117k miles it's worth checking on though, definitely.

Best mechanic around my way is a Peugeot specialist. But he knows more about VW engine electronics than the main dealers would ..

"slight oil leak"? It's not at all unusual for high miles VRs to show a little seepage around the HG.

It does not suprise me that once it's cooled down it's ok. Classic HG. Gaps shrink when the block is cold. Get it warm, put some pressure on it .. bang..