Winston the Lupo. Head done, happy car!

[chompy_snake 833]

9 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Still just need to find a good cheap Lupo for the mrs, if she ever gets to take a driving test. Covid has seen it cancelled three times so far this year

I will have a look around these parts, they come up cheap around here often. That won't be the case for too much longer though I reckon 🤷 

Driving test cancellation sucks, I hope she is sorted soon with it. It was exactly the same with the bike tests and lessons so I feel the frustration.

[chompy_snake 833]

With help from a good friend today we have arrived at this position my with the red spares car......

 

I also got myself a present for £89 to make my life lots easier with this job and to take lots of the grunt work out ....

 

Over all pleased with progress so far 

[Lacquer Peel 16803]

Is that cordless impact wrench any good?

[chompy_snake 833]

On 11/11/2020 at 10:33 AM, Lacquer Peel said:

Is that cordless impact wrench any good?

Yeah it's not bad actually. 

Perfectly capable of wheel bolts etc, the lower torque means it's a struggle with some items but it is what it is.

[chompy_snake 833]

Sudden realisation that none of us are as fit as we used to be. 

Irony would have it that I sold my engine hoist last year (thinking it wouldn't ever see use again). 

Engine weighs in at about 84kg plus the box .... No issue thought me with helpers at hand! 

No chance, we couldn't lift the damn thing. Even with the box separated from the engine we still couldn't lift without ultimately causing injury (great just what's needed). 

Yet another £150 to spend as local rentals are nearly as much as buying one. Not sure the engine in the black car is going to last much longer, we now have a random injector turning off on #1 because of the misfire caused by valve going bye byes. 

Maybe looking at a January fix at this rate because of running out of pennies so having to run the current unit until it's inevitable demise ..... Should be fun 😆 

*Edit*

Just been told an engine hoist is on the way to land at some point next week. This little car has been full of ups and downs and is being saved wether it approves of the notion or not.  

Also I do not envy anyone the task of door hinge changing, VAG saw the need for one bolt from the outside into the A post and a hidden one from the inside all with stupid triple square spline bolts 🤔

[chompy_snake 833]

What a shock ..... 5 weeks of ownership, repairing faults, intended keepage on the cards. 

Lockdown must have gone to my head or something. Either that or I am seriously unwell. 

Compression going bye byes has become extremely intermittent now and sometimes you would hardly guess there was an issue. Just over 2000 miles in 5 weeks on a broken engine is alright in my books. Let me down once with ECU related FTP due to me continuing to drive the poor thing with added brokenness. 

[Alan Prost 278]

On 10/16/2020 at 2:30 PM, SiC said:

Uh-oh! Hopefully just a coil or slipped timing. Got a compression tester?

You sure its not EGR or MAF, that  is what often causes a problem, both simple to replace/ clean

[Alan Prost 278]

2 minutes ago, Alan Prost said:

You sure its not EGR or MAF, that  is what often causes a problem, both simple to replace/ clean

Ah I am late to the party here, see things have moved on 🙄

[chompy_snake 833]

37 minutes ago, Alan Prost said:

Ah I am late to the party here, see things have moved on 🙄

Things are rather complicated with the current engine. 

I can only presume it's a valvetrain issue. Never before have I had intermittent compression loss, could be anything ranging from a broken valve spring to a loose valve seat or a worn valve guide.  I always had the view of you either had compression or you didn't. 

The plan is too replace the engine with the unit from my spares/breaker Lupo (same AUC unit). Take the engine I'm running now to bits and find out exactly what the issue I have is. Then we can repair if possible and have spare engine aside. Only snag is that the new engine has a stuck lifter so those will be swapped out of the current engine, new timing belt kit, new clutch, best of both gearboxes on and see how we go.......

If it all goes tits up we have people on the look out for a golf MK4 pd130 for a conversion. This car is a fun little thing and I don't really want to get rid of it anytime soon (even though I have said this multiple times before with other cars). All we can do is see how we go at this point, however, things look very promising for a happy Lupo future 👍🏻

[bub2006 8791]

On 11/10/2020 at 6:34 PM, chompy_snake said:

With help from a good friend today we have arrived at this position my with the red spares car......

 

I also got myself a present for £89 to make my life lots easier with this job and to take lots of the grunt work out ....

 

Over all pleased with progress so far 

Where was this good friend then? I never seen anyone else there. Could have done with the twat to assist us

[bub2006 8791]

And rhys still didnt open the door on the red one.........

[chompy_snake 833]

2 hours ago, bub2006 said:

And rhys still didnt open the door on the red one.........

He can open the door if you do the engine change on your own without using a tree and a chain to remove the broken one.

The good friend certainly wasn't the arse crack you had on display all day I'll tell you that 🤣

[bub2006 8791]

I'm sorry,the shoestring snapped

[chompy_snake 833]

Well thanks 2020, yet again.

This truly is the year that keeps on giving (whether you want it to or not).

With the messed up order on the engine lift and its lack of arrival after the courier company lost 30kg of it and delivered the remaining boxes, plans had to change to an easier repair scenario. 

So ..... Off came the cylinder head from the donor car engine..... Wish I never bothered doing that!  I drove the donor car to it's final resting place (around 5 miles) and the engine seemed really good, except for the stuck lifter ofc. It really wasn't. It has 3 burned exhaust valves, 2 worn guides and the head is sort of banana shaped. Oh and 3 cam journals above cylinders 2,3 and 4 are badly scored along with corresponding damage to the camshaft. 

I have delivered the entire cylinder head to the machine shop and he reckons he can repair it (cam and journals depending, as the late AUC is an incorporated head and cam carrier with no blind on the transmission end to thread polishing tools in). 

Looks like it needs the cam re machining and polishing, repair and remedial to the journals, guides, all the exhaust valves and a skim. Cost circa £250 with vat hopefully. We should have news within a couple of weeks as to completion, then repair can commence.

[chompy_snake 833]

Door hinge dilemma ..... Has anyone any experience one changing the lower hinge without removing the wing on the driver's door? 

I have the hinge replacement and required tools but I had to remove the wing on the donor car to get the hinge off ..... Surely there is a better/easier way 🤷🏻‍♂️

[bub2006 8791]

Them rear springs can get in the fucking sea....

[chompy_snake 833]

Well that was expensive!

4x exhaust valves, 4x exhaust valve guides, Inlet valves all inspected and cleaned, 3 angle valve seats cut just because, camshaft sorted and cam fitting addressed ...... £320

Think they refaced the cam cover and the mating face too because the cam was binding up badly and had caused damage.

Picture not clear but it looks refaced on the top there. 

All that's left to do is get the remaining parts and refit. 

Kind of concerned as to how bad current cylinder head is .... We will find out soon.

Also, anyone able to supply torque settings and tightening sequence? Seems pointless paying for a Haynes when I will only ever use it for that.

[Jikovron 806]

Not a terrible price in this day and age, which place does that work? as I've used a classic engines specialist in Claycross but I reckon they would be way more expensive for the equivalent work.

Should have a decent bit of life in it now all that has been done eh

[chompy_snake 833]

4 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Not a terrible price in this day and age, which place does that work? as I've used a classic engines specialist in Claycross but I reckon they would be way more expensive for the equivalent work.

Should have a decent bit of life in it now all that has been done eh

I have always used Foxwood diesel at Chesterfield. Always done a cracking job to be honest and can't recommend them highly enough. They have rescued some pretty dire engines for me over the years but as anything prices increase over the years. 

Rough prices were £44 for the reface,they charge the same for pressure test I think. Of the £320 there was £190 labour and the head set that they included. No so bad in the grand scheme and cheaper than a new car for sure.

[Jikovron 806]

Bloody hell I forgot about foxwood diesel for reasons I literally cant fathom especially as they are a top quality engine works literally on the doorstep,,madness!!

[bub2006 8791]

19 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Bloody hell I forgot about foxwood diesel for reasons I literally cant fathom especially as they are a top quality engine works literally on the doorstep,,madness!!

Must be another local bod then. I'm only up alfreton too regularly go to staveley as well. If you see a fat angry bloke in a ford escort van then that's me. 

[Jikovron 806]

I've met you before a few years back up near Middleton on Top, I remember it being ridiculously cold!! 

[PhilA 12767]

That's really strange. I've never seen a head design on a 4 pot non-crossflow that's not mirrored down the middle (ie valves set up I E I E E I E I)

Very strange. Also VAG engines always smell funny, like caramelizing oil. So these ones retain that characteristic and fill up with nasty brownish-red resin?

Phil

[spartacus 4032]

I wish my mind was half as analytical as yours @PhilA, I would never have noticed that but now it's been pointed out it does look odd!

Another thumbs up for Foxwood, Sheffield Engine Services at Hillsborough are also good, although obvs a little further to travel. Or if you really want to go mental there's Nobles on Chatsworth Road in Chesterfield.

Result on the head @chompy_snake, when's the big start up?

[spartacus 4032]

AUC tightening figures...

 

[bub2006 8791]

15 hours ago, Jikovron said:

I've met you before a few years back up near Middleton on Top, I remember it being ridiculously cold!! 

Ah yes with the vectra.

[chompy_snake 833]

11 hours ago, PhilA said:

That's really strange. I've never seen a head design on a 4 pot non-crossflow that's not mirrored down the middle (ie valves set up I E I E E I E I)

Very strange. Also VAG engines always smell funny, like caramelizing oil. So these ones retain that characteristic and fill up with nasty brownish-red resin?

Phil

I can't say I ever noticed the mirrored heads, maybe it's just down to the engines I have worked on to date?

And yes the AUC is one of VAG's finest caramelised oil makers, it seems they glaze everything just for fun so I'm guessing it's people putting the wrong oil in them that makes it worse. 

Also runs negative crank pressure which isn't something I have seen all that often.

 

4 hours ago, spartacus said:

AUC tightening figures...

 

Legend, that is going to save me so much messing around. 

I have the rest of the parts to buy which I'm hoping can be sorted before Christmas. Then it should be a steady days job if everything goes well. I am fairly interested to see what a difference it will make as it will suddenly become clear how bad it actually was.

[PhilA 12767]

Crossflow heads (think things like V engines, in particular) tend to be like yours, where it means the manifold on both sides is spaced equidistant.

That just looks like a "save money on manufacture" by VW.

[chompy_snake 833]

Decided to clean the lifters tonight and re-oil them and identify the dead one. We have everything needed now to do the job (I think).

Bath in thinners and worked through to clear dirt first.

Lots of gritty bits in the bottom of it so we strained it.

What was left shows what happens when you don't do regular oil changes.

identifued the bad lifter which will either stay in or stay extended.... No spring to it at all.

put everything sort of together so I could re oil them correctly and sit everything in an oil bath until reassembly required.

and they are all now sat in their festive oil bath until I get the last lifter out of the current engine.

work should begin within a couple of days now 👍🏻

[chompy_snake 833]

Today's update is a very happy one ..... JOB DONE!!!! 

11 Hours (showing my age now I guess) on the driveway, occasionally rained on and rather cold! 

Reworked head fully fitted, new timing belt, aux belt and all tensioners fitted along with a brand new water pump.

78k for my reference because I will only forget when I did it.

Found a couple of other minor issues. The main one was a large hole worn through the brake servo to manifold hose. Caused a huge air leak and a cylinder 3 misfire (a bit of pooh may have exited at that point).

My total costs have been around £470 for everything. Not bad to say the garage wanted £672 in labour alone. 

Was it sensible .... Probably not.

Was it worth it .... I certainly think so.

I guess I now have one of the only lupos around that hasn't got burned out valves or guides.

I am extremely uncomfortable now as my spine seems to think it doesn't bend anymore but I enjoyed myself so I don't care. 

Fault on original head seems to be an oval cylinder 1 exhaust valve head, also burned. A groove burned into the valve seat on that valve and probably mostly dead exhaust valve guides (it is a VW after all).

Off for a whiskey before bed now 👍🏻