LC5F's Graphite Blue GTI - Pilgrimage to Caffeine & Machine

[LC5F]

Finally got my hands on some proper degreaser to clean up the engine internals I still have while I wait for the head to be re-built, this is the varnish build up I have:

Reminds me of this guy:


I tried brake cleaner, spray degreaser, but it just wasn't shifting - decided I needed something stronger and a way to soak the cams.
Made up a trough out of rainwater gutter & 2 end caps, add Screwfix no nonsense degreaser -reviews compare it to Swarfegga Jizer, but only 1/4 of the price:

and 30 minutes later the exhaust cam was clean:

Rinse off with water, dry and spray down with wd40

Lifters and followers were next:

and after a soak and rinse:

Now soaking in motor oil

Also cleaned and re-sealed the vacuum pump - got a Mr.Oring kit of ebay, arrived next day and was really easy to install:

[Mekaniko]

What a rebuild now! All the best to this work! hope that the GTI is back stronger than ever.

good mod the oil cap with the lower position.

[LC5F]

What a rebuild now! All the best to this work! hope that the GTI is back stronger than ever.

good mod the oil cap with the lower position.

Thanks fella - that's the hope
I'm really missing the Golf, fingers crossed the head will be refreshed for the end of the week

[den77]

Fantastic build really enjoying write up keep up the great work

[LC5F]

Fantastic build really enjoying write up keep up the great work

Cheers for the kind words Fella

Had 2 phone calls today:
Injectors have been serviced - they were down on flow and now are back to expected volume.
The head is ready to be picked up, it seems my weekend is planned out.

However - I had not mentioned before but the turbo shaft had play, suspect oil would take up a lot of slack, I was nearly ready to just shove it back on, but with about 1mm play from centre side to side.
But as everything is off and despite trying to avoid falling into "whilst I'm in there" trap, I am going to rebuild the turbo with an uprated seal/bearing kit, won't make any more power, but should be able to take more abuse.

[Stupots]

@LC5F I'm trying to work out if your car or mine is more of a "Trigger's Broom" than mine... probably a lot of cars on here are.

I've replaced:
Front bumper/grill
Engine/Turbo
Battery
Seats/Door cards
Tailgate
Cluster
Steering Wheel
CAN Gateway
Head Unit
AC Controls
Glove compartment
Wheels
Shocks/Springs
Front and rear brakes (disks and calipers)

Still have in stock and ready to replace
Fuel filter + housing
Intercooler
Front alloy wishbones + Hubs
Anti-rollbars
Uprated turbo

I do think the Mk5 is hard to beat. I've owned mine 6 years and have no intention of replacing it... Well maybe bit by bit 

I always look forward to your updates, keep us updated 

[LC5F]

@LC5F I'm trying to work out if your car or mine is more of a "Trigger's Broom" than mine... probably a lot of cars on here are.

LOL - yeah I think we are close, but I've not done much body or interior, so you are winning there!

Managed to get my injectors and head back today:

Injectors all serviced and cleaned, I provided the VW service kits and the fitted it all together, provided a report on before and after flow rates, all 4 came up on the dynamic flow, static one stayed the same, 2 had a 0.85% increase and last one 1.69% increase - not much but good to know they are healthy:


Head has been rebuilt -
I tried buying a used head on ebay, but judging by the smashed plastic in the intake and 3 cam journals galled - the engine it came from must have been in an accident and got starved of oil. I was offered a replacement, but decided to rebuild my original head using the valves off the ebay one:

The engine builder really enjoys cleaning stuff:

[LC5F]

Hopefully got the last parts required this morning from TPS, arriving home I got stuck into assembling the head:

It went well everything went together, used Graphogen assembly lube on all the moving bits and the cam cage sealed up with the Victor Reinz sealant.
Installing the new ceramic seals for the VVT hydraulics was not hard at all.
Cam chain was a bit tricky needing both cams turning - watched a lot of YT films, really don't understand why people reach for grips when an 18mm spanner will turn the cams.

The hope of installing the head this weekend has been scuppered by the weather and the realisation the polydrive bit I got for the cam bolt is too big to clear the cams or even fit inside the head casting - so yet another special tool has been ordered - 3 days postage so fingers crossed for next weekend.

This is the current state of the assembled head:


Close up on the open valves with 3 angle ground valves:

[LC5F]

The rain finally stopped, it took till early afternoon before it dried out enough to get under the Golf.
As I am waiting on the head bolt tool + I have sent the turbo turbine away for balancing too - I have to try to get ahead on the tasks while I wait.
So today it was the sump and oil pick-up -
Currently the engine is in a state ready for head & timing belt to be installed - so the engine mount if off and the block supported by a spare rear spring under the sump, so I had throw the engine mount back on finger tight and sump unbolted - the bolts hidden up next to the flywheel are a PITA!
My driveway has an incline + Golf is on axle stands under the subframe, despite this I was surprised how much oil was still in the sump:

550ml - no wonder my oil goes black so quickly with that much still in the sump, probably a 1/4 of a litre in the vacuum pump too:

Crud and varnish build up all around - black sealant around the bolt holes suggests someone non-VW has been in there, I wonder what they were doing?:

After a lot of scrubbing with the degreaser it was clean:


Pick up had the usual build up:

Soaking in degreaser:
All clean:

New O-ring, thread lock and back on:


I have to say I really don't enjoy RVT gasketting - I stress about putting too little or too much and then when it comes to assembly it always seems 50/50 for something going wrong  -  the cam cage yesterday was fine, but this time I managed to catch a little of the sealant on the plastic oil guide thing next to the oil pump at the front of the block... lets just hope its sealed.

[G-olf]

Looking good, bet you can't wait to be up and running again 

Sump and pick up pipe clean is also on my list. Had much sealant squeezed out on the inside when you took it apart?
Did the pick up gauze clean up fairly easy?
At least it will have chance to set nicely as you don't have to run the engine straight after.

[LC5F]

Looking good, bet you can't wait to be up and running again 

Sump and pick up pipe clean is also on my list. Had much sealant squeezed out on the inside when you took it apart?
Did the pick up gauze clean up fairly easy?
At least it will have chance to set nicely as you don't have to run the engine straight after.

Yes - I've had itchy feet for a few weeks now - really intrigued how it will drive with all these many improvements.

Pick up is really easy to clean - I can't understand why some people buying a new one, that is unless there has been some failure they are fixing - I understand they are over £40!

It is stainless, I just dunked it in the £9 Screw-fix no-nonsense de-greaser and left it there for 30 minutes, then picked it up scooping fluid and allowing it to drain through the mesh few times and then back in to soak for another 30. Then took it out rubbed the mesh with a paint brush and then reverse rinse under cold tap and I could see the flow improve with each rinse.

How I messed up the sealant - On the front of the block there are 2 brackets that hang down at the side of the sump - one carries the secondary coolant pump - if possible I would recommend unbolting them and pulling them away from the sump - it would have made cleaning the block easier + easier to fit the sump.
And I should have practiced placing the sump into position a few times without sealant...

In other news-
The Turbo shaft and impellers should be back from balancing with me by Friday. Shaft was inspected when they received -  the shaft and the oil seal were scored... new shaft required, so more monies!
The head stud tool is on its way (Yay!), but it's being delivered by Hermes (Boo!)
- So I will be pleasantly surprised if it arrives on time.

[Mekaniko]

  nice work in progess!

Reagrding the pick-up, on a workshop is cheaper for them to just change as it if they need to charge the labour of cleaning the part it will be the same same price maybe...but I take note for mine!

[LC5F]

Well, I'm pleasantly surprised - hermes showed with the tool this afternoon.
This evening I installed the head, cam sprocket, vacuum pump, coolant flange and injectors - only issue was lining up the locating studs took a few goes, but everything else was good and the result is:

In the head gasket kit I have a 3 mystery O-rings - I can only assume these are for the vacuum pump??


The remaining work will be split into smaller chunks of:
Timing belt, covers, engine mount & drive belt
Re-install intake
Rebuild turbo and re-install

Reagrding the pick-up, on a workshop is cheaper for them to just change as it if they need to charge the labour of cleaning the part it will be the same same price maybe...but I take note for mine!

Thanks - I would say my actual physical contact with the pickup was less than 5 minutes - an hour just soaking by itself.

[LC5F]

Thursday - added the timing belt and engine mount
Friday - installed the intake manifold, the rather dramatically named satan bolt was easy to do up with the dip stick tube removed:

lost a 1/4 drive T30 bit out of my set while installing the throttle - hopefully it will extract itself and get caught by the undertray.

Balanced turbo turbines were delivered - just need to line up the markings:

Saturday - turbo rebuild, kept finding it jamming once the nut bolted up, worked out it the issue was I was using the original oil deflector and the diameter was different, once the new deflector shape was adjusted it all went together.

After going to so much trouble it seemed silly putting some 22 month old spark plugs in + I needed G13... so another trip to TPS, surprised the VW have moved to pre-mix - more packaging / more volume /  more weight / more transport cost / more cost to end user - bit of a non-environmental richard head move VW.
Bit surprised to see NGK's have been dropped for Bosch:

Got everything installed, filled up oil and coolant and spun the engine over with coil packs disconnected.
Connected up the coil packs and went for first fire - after a long clank it started to splutter and fired up - complete raket - huge manifold leak, I had not seated the turbo correctly! - I shut it off after a couple of minutes.

Sunday - Did a check for leaks in all the joints, pleased to say everything was dry.
Re-seated the turbo required all the manifold bolts loosened - for anyone following me, the key is undo the driveshaft at the box and then gives a lot more room.
All back together again, fired up and it was quiet, no strange noises apart from a ticking from the injectors and chatter from the drive belt tensioner - ran it up to 90 and everything was good.

Never heard the secondary coolant pump running after shut down, inspecting I found a pin-hole leak in the coolant hose next to the pump

Box of leftover bolts - the big 18mm ones are from the turbo heat shield - that I really can't be arsed to fit! I have no idea where the other T30 bolt comes from:


How does it drive - well I had done so much to it just before it ate the drive belt, it does feel very strange.
But it has lost its urgency, I suspect I may be a tooth out in timing - at this stage after 5 weeks I am just relieved it's all back together

[pudding]

Wow, what an epic transformation and a complete battle of the crusties.  Epic work 

That T30 bolt kind of looks like the lower vacuum pump to me, just above the inline stat, which also holds a wiring harness bracket in place.

Thanks for confirming the Rocco hubs cause rubbage. I'm not going to bother fitting mine now 

It should be proper peppy with head and turbo refreshes.  A tooth out on the timing ought to be fairly evident in VCDS looking at measuring blocks 91-93.  Cam phase position should be around 0-4KW and the actual and requested phasing angles should mirror each other quickly.  Maybe it needs more time to get oil everywhere.  When I replaced my VVT phaser and chain etc, it did take a while of idling and revving/ECU adapting for the numbers to all come good.

Keep at it, you've done some sterling work there