bighands

Right so i have removed the oil cooler, althought this is very new part say a year old, looks like new inside as well, and i plummed it up to the mains and cranked on the pressure as i guess this has to be near if not more than the oil pressure would be? And not a drop in 2 hours :-( so its the head gasket or worse, completely re ferb'd the head, skimmed port and polished and new valves ect, and the apparently ins indestructible metal head gasket was fitted less than 200 miles ago, so how the hell can this happen?!?!?!? I was SO carefull putting it all back together, spot on with all the torque settings and tightening sequence! Its the end of the road for me the the raddo now i am afraid, never ever have i had such an unreliable car that falls apart every 500 miles, and i have replaced nearly every moving part in the past 3-4 years! 6 months of saving and its skyline time! Andy

OK so its update time, and it doesnt look good : Checked the water today as i havent had a good run in it since i re built it, and there was the dreaded sludge :-( This seems VERY weird as i was so carefull when re building it, skimmed head and apparently unbrakeable metal VW head gasket! And this is exactly the same trouble as i had before i replaced the engine, oil in the water, a lot! The only thing i swapped over ffom the other engine was the oil cooler that was only about 6 months old before the engine re build, i mean the STD oil cooler, sits above the filter, and i am wondering if this could be the cause of this, but i would of thought i would of had mayo in the filler cap as the water is under more pressure? or at least when the engines off and up to temp? Car runs fine, doesnt miss smoke on normal runs or loss of power? could these be a coincindence? the major smoke out yesterday, and todays issues as i cant really see a link? To be honest i have had enuff now been 'together' with the car for 4 years and think this could be the final biscuit its just one thing constantly after another ALL the time!!!!! :-( Andy

Thats what im worried about, terminal engine illness! The bottom end has only done 60k and the heads completely new, and i read in a post on the search earlier that someone had something similar to this and it was a cracked piston :-( im probably worrying over nothing, but on the other hand this isn't normal!! just have no idea why theres enough pressure to pull or blow that much oil in to the inlet, the engine seems to run completely fine, no mis fire and pulls so much better than it ever has! although saying that is running bit hot, (100 when on the motorway and about 108 ish when in traffic) Your right about the smoke screen, it was dangerous, completely covered 2 lanes of the dual carriage way for good 100 yards so you couldn't see a car length in front, quite impressive really for such a ickle engine! Andy

Its now a 2.0 16v! The crank case breather seems completley fine, and you can feel and hear it sucking i think it is, but all the internal pipes are covered in oil, i cant work out what causes it to suck so much in!? It just did it again tho not quite as bad, its only when your going flat out at around 6k it seems to spit a load in!!?? EDIT*** And no it was a re test so it wasn't tested, but its ok when you have 'cleared' it all out from just driving normally!

On way to get it MOT'd and coming on to a slip road, i booted it, foot hard down and when i looked in the rear view mirror, i shat myself. Smoke like i have never seen, plumes coming from the exhaust and i thought i had blown the new engine :-( every time i put my foot down there was more! So i crawled to the MOT place and had a look unde the bonnet, and it seems its sucked a shed load of oil up through the crank case breather, and spat it in the intake hence the smoke! Question is, why!? really cant have this happening again, as A, its dangerous for other people on the road as they cant see, honest it was that bad and B, its embarrassing! and im sure it cant be good for the car?? Andy

Ah nice one, i was i bit worried as it used to sit dead on 90 maybe get to 95-100 in a baking hot day stuck in traffic, but seems to run at 100 now, and go up to 110 when cruising at 80-90!!! but it was on min oil as well :oops: The bottom ends covered about 60k, but head was completely re built, new seals valves and port and polished so might get temps up a bit u dunno! Just so long as i dont fook my new engine up im happy!! Andy

Just a quickie, i have done a 2.0 from a 1.8 conversion on my valver, but i cant get it tuned for a few weeks, am i going to be running lean, and burn some nice holes in my pistons or will it be ok, I ask because its running hotter than before the transplant, but that could be an old sensor etc? Andy

Hopefully just a quick one, but fitted a second hand low millage gearbox when i did the engine swap, and all seemed fine the first few test drives, but last night 3rd was whining like a bitch, like someone had fitted a supercharger overnight, but i checked and no such luck LOL! Have to say i took it for granted there was oil in it and havent checked yet, but anything else that will cause noisy boxes? Andy

Sorry been away for a while! Exturbo, cheers for the offer but im hoping this is the end of this problem :-) Kev. 14.6 wast too far off what i was getting with the rear heater switch connected!! Sounds like maybe there was a fault in the circuit i will have to get a switch i no is working OK and see if its still there! But im fairly sure the alternator wouldnt be kicking up 90amps or anywhere close on tickover, and at the moment thats really all its been doing as still running everything in and its not taxed mot'd ect so cant go far till the new year! Now time to sort the stuck brake caliper and noisey 3rd gear it seems to of developed that i found out in a slightly illegal drive up my road last night!! Cheers, Andy

Theres a good company i use for nuts and bolts, called AHC in camberley, surrey Says on the site they only do boxes of 50 or 100, but ALWAYS go in and they sell individual to me, so im sure with a phone call they will, or someone can buy a box and knock them out for few quid a set ;-) Main site http://www.ahc-camberley.co.uk/catalog/ ... p?cPath=32 Allen bolt section http://www.ahc-camberley.co.uk/catalog/ ... 75&sort=1a Andy

ha ha, yea i thought that, its only a 10amp multi meter so think i would have a lump of smoking melted plastic in my hands LOL But there is some logic, that surely the altenator could of handled that drain and charged as well, but saying that the voltage has gone up to 14.2-3 volts now unloaded! Might just have to see if it flattens its self now on, and if it does see if i can get hold of a 100amp meter!!?? But on the same note, surely everything that would be powered, with the engine running, would be powered with the ignition and immob on, would beno need to see the drain with the engine running? getting there . . Andy

Ah ok so done a little searching, like i should of in the first place and thats the X relay, so would kill the drain anyway! So i got to pulling fuses, and on No9 the drain was gone :-) So its the rear heater, thats the de-mister i take it, so is this a switch thats shagged or something more sinister? Oh and the overall drain with ignition off is now 0.2-0.3 now thats low!! Getting more faith as the day goes on, but would that really be enough to kill the battery even with the engine running? surely the altenator can cope with that!!!? Andy

Right, found the relay thats pulling the massive drain, its No18? So what does this relay control to cause the drain, took the outer box off it and it all looks hunky dory inside It went from 12.something straight down to 0.17 8) But not a lot of good if i cant trace the fault eh!! Cheers, Andy EDIT, sorry just seen its relay No4, and has 18 written on it??

so is that a normal drain for the ignition on? So its definalty not the altenator with good volts readings, the altenator wouldnt drop on amps and not volts?

Ah yea i no a bit, but not a lot, and wasnt too sure if 11 amps was a lot! Also that was taken after the fuel pump had shut down. Oh and to make it a little easyer, it doesnt have ABS, electric windows ect, its a nice basic 'easy to fix' model Pfffffttt LOL Not sure where to start really, need an electrical wizard to confirm if the readings look ok, and what could be the cause of my mega drain LOL Cheers, Andy Oh, you think your confused!!