Really need help now!!

[joebrent 0]

The garage that recently skimmed my head and replaced the head gasket still cant fathom the running problems that have occured as result of the work. An auto-electrician has spent 2 hours on it and couldnt work out the problem. Im getting really desperate to get it sorted now. I created a thread last week about the problem and have tried all of the suggestions that you guys kindly put forward, but alas none of these worked :(

 

The problems are - irratic idle, i.e, doesnt idle at 1000 like it used its up and down and feels like it wants to stall. I f anyone can help it would be greatley appreciated :lol:

[randal 0]

Breathers, throttle body or an ECU reset spring to mind. Someone had a post on here about a vacuum hose that had to be precisely 39 inches long attaching to the ECU - not sure if it applied to the 1.8's tho. Hope this helps

 

randal

[nogrille 0]

sounds like an air leak to me. same thing happened on my mk2, fortunately it was on the way to the garage!

[randal 0]

Where would the air leak be from outta interest? Somewhere on the intake?

 

Much Gracious Muchachos!

randal

[Henny 0]

The garage that recently skimmed my head and replaced the head gasket still cant fathom the running problems that have occured as result of the work. An auto-electrician has spent 2 hours on it and couldnt work out the problem. Im getting really desperate to get it sorted now. I created a thread last week about the problem and have tried all of the suggestions that you guys kindly put forward, but alas none of these worked :(

 

The problems are - irratic idle, i.e, doesnt idle at 1000 like it used its up and down and feels like it wants to stall. I f anyone can help it would be greatley appreciated :lol:

 

Check the gaskets on the throttle body and the inlet manifold. Also check that they're all bolted on tighly too... I've seen 16Vs where the throttle body has come loose after a head rebuild and this causes a really nasty air leak...

 

....also worth checking that the injectors are fully in their seats... if not seated correctly, they can let air pass by and screw up the mixture... :roll:

 

The only other things I can think of are split air hoses (the big ones between the metering head and the throttle body) and missing/damaged/porus vacuum hoses :?

[randal 0]

Ah so that's where from. Cool, ta (again) Henny! Woo, 100 posts - no longer a n00b!

 

randal

[Majik 0]

yup i'd go with air leak too, maybe they left out a gasket on the inlet manifold, or loose vacuum

[jims corrado 0]

OK here goes nothing.

 

1, Take off the throttle body and give the bypass channel a good clean out with carb cleaner (this is what lets the air bypass the throttle body butterfly at idle). These tend to get bunged up with oil condensed from the rebreather.

 

2. Systematically feel along the length of each vacuum hose for splits, cuts, holes etc. Its often best to mark each one you have checked with a piece of electrical tape or similar.

 

3. If you think you have an air leak, take your (highly flammable) carb cleaner and spray some around the gaskets and vacuum hoses one at a time with the engine running (be careful though). If the engine revs rise or the idle suddenly smooths out, this is where your air leak is likely to be, as it will be sucking in the carb cleaner and burning it in the cylinders.

 

4. Check it isn't an electrical weakness. Drive the car along in 4th at about 25mph and try to accelerate. This will put the electrics under maximum load and show up any weakness in the HT system.

 

Hope these help.

 

 

Jim

 

p.s. I am only a trained idiot and all of this advice is taken ENTIRELY at your own risk!

[joebrent 0]

Thanks for all the ideas guys, i think these might do the trick! Ill keep everyone posted on this thread as to what happens :D

 

Thanks once again.

[kvwloon 0]

Yup, as before mate, symptoms sound exactly like how my 16v behaved after replaced my cam lifters, ran absolutely awfully until found a very slight air leak here..... pipe was just pushed on and all looked OK but ran and sounded like a bag of spanners. Securing this pipe with a clip fixed it! Worth a look, as well as the above?.....mind, reading the above again sounds like you already may have :oops:

[joebrent 0]

Yeah they have tried that mate, thanks for posting a pic up though!

[exturbo2003 0]

daft suggestion but have you had the co mixture checked :roll: could be that uts running very rich or lean and thats what the problem is.

did a rebuild on a 16v golf before that was set at 1.5% and after the rebuild it was 11%, ie no more slight air leaks as the gaskets and injector seals were good.

if you dont have access to one go to your local mot station ang give the guy a drink to check it tho he will probably do it for free, or will adjust it for a few beers.

good luck and let us know how you get on

[joebrent 0]

daft suggestion but have you had the co mixture checked :roll: could be that uts running very rich or lean and thats what the problem is.

did a rebuild on a 16v golf before that was set at 1.5% and after the rebuild it was 11%, ie no more slight air leaks as the gaskets and injector seals were good.

if you dont have access to one go to your local mot station ang give the guy a drink to check it tho he will probably do it for free, or will adjust it for a few beers.

good luck and let us know how you get on

 

Cheers mate, im gona give that info to the mechanic tomorrow, im praying this is gona fix it!!

[joebrent 0]

The mechanic had already checked the co mixture, everything normal and all other suggestions have been tried and unfortuneatley failed :(

 

Is it possible that the mechanic could of skimmed the head too much? would this cause similiar problems? What would be the implications of an incorrectly installed head gasket?

 

Any ideas are greatley appreciated.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The mechanic had already checked the co mixture, everything normal and all other suggestions have been tried and unfortuneatley failed :(

 

Is it possible that the mechanic could of skimmed the head too much? would this cause similiar problems? What would be the implications of an incorrectly installed head gasket?

 

Any ideas are greatley appreciated.

 

You can over-do skimming yes, but on the 16V it's critical due to the close proximity of the inlet valves to the piston. The 16V head, like the VR6 engine, was designed to be compact, hence the inlet valves being angled and the cam timing done with a chain.

 

Look at Vauxhall's 16V engine and see how big it is compared to the VW's! Anyway, that aside.....skimming is dodgy. I never do it.

 

If the engine turns over and runs then you're not getting any mecahnical parts knocking into each other but the compression ratio could have been screwed up aswell as the cam timing.

 

Incorreclty installed HG? Pretty impossible to do as it say's 'TOP' in large writing on it and there's also some locating dowels in the block. Highly unlikely I'd say. But leaking would be the net result if it was fitted poorly.

 

If you've treble checked and outruled the usual things, then what ever is left is the likely answer. In which case you might need a vernier pulley to restore the cam timing.

 

He did time up the engine properly when putting the cambelt on didn't he? What about the distributor? Was that put back to it's correct setting of 6 deg BTDC?

 

K

[joebrent 0]

All the timings have been double checked by both the mechanics at the garage, do you think the vernier pulley may fix it then kev? what exactly does it do? are they expensive? cheers mate :lol:

[exturbo2003 0]

what about the cam chain timing between the two cams

where are you joe

[joebrent 0]

The problem is now sorted! The timing chain was out a few teeth :evil: its all sorted now and running beautifully. :lol:

 

Thanks for everyones help, exturbo2003 was spot on :!: and to answer ya question im in SW London :-P

[Jim 1]

All's well that ends well!

 

I'm glad to hear you got this sorted joe... must have been very frustrating.

[joebrent 0]

Yeah it was very annoying mate, hows the g60 goin'?