MK V GTI Engine Options

[jimos1]

Just got news that my Gti MKV DSG has bent Inlet valves. Gutted to say the least.
Its a 2007 and has only 80000km on the clock with FSH. Heard no bang, car just came to a standstill and wouldn't start.
I'd appreciate any feedback regarding my options. I'm in Cork, and I'm not aware of any specialists, there are main dealers but besides cost I've heard a few stories regarding trustworthiness.
I had a similar situation with a Subaru a few years back, found a block on Ebay and had it fitted locally, the car was never right afterwards,
As this is a low mileage car, I'd like to get it right first time and try keep the cost down.
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[maxamplitude10]

If it was me I'd either rebuild the engine myself using genuine parts or source a complete replacement engine from a crash damaged low mileage car?
I see your reservations tho as i wouldn't trust 95% of so called garages to carry out any kind of engine reconditioning/ rebuild work.

Good Luck, sorry to hear you had the failure.
I had the same thing on my old A3 1.8T Sport at 81k miles years back, luckily i got away with a recon head and all was good:-)

[muff1991]

Sad times! If you're mechanically minded and have the time, it might be worth taking the head off and checking the valves yourself. if they prove to be bent as mentioned you can consider buying a new head or sourcing a second hand head and fitting it yourself. Or if you really fancy it... you could replace the valves etc and do a head rebuild. Either way you are going to need to factor in, all the gaskets, studs, cam chain, cambelt all those other jobs and parts that go with it as a whole. which will work out rather costly! in which case you could maybe look at the complete used engine option. But with that, you'll at some point or straight away need to change the cambelt, cam chain etc causing even more cost.

I suppose the main question before you do anything is.. how did it happen. Is the cambelt still intact? Was it checked to see if it was out by a few teeth or still timed up? Or did the cam chain side fail?

if it turns out to be a jumped cambelt, you could consider going for the above head replacement route, hoping and assuming when the head is take off the valves are a little bent and no damage appears to have been done to the pistons. If you're not willing to take it on.. you could maybe get a garage to fit a head. I have only mentioned used items as not sure what "keep the cost down" entails. Unfortunately, whichever route you decide to go down with this situation is going to work out expensive. Shear bad luck and im sorry to hear it.

[Ricky123]

Get the head off and have a look.

I’d be surprised if the bottom end was even damaged. Had plenty of cambelts snap on a variety of cars including a mk5 gti and it only had a couple of small marks on the tops of the pistons and was perfectly useable.

I took the head to a local engineers where they replaced a few valves and guides, pressure tested it etc, put it all back together and the car is still running fine to this day

[pudding]

Depends on budget and how quickly you want the car back on the road.

As above, valve to piston collisions are rarely severe enough to bend a con rod or crack a piston, so the bottom end should be fine still.  Just need to remove any burrs/sharp edges from the pistons as that can cause detonation from hot spots.   A new or rebuilt head should do the trick. 

[Octoparrot]

The only problem I've heard regarding pistons about when pistons and valves collide is that if it's near the edge of the piston it can bend the crown of the piston and pinch the piston ring and cause problems. This seems to happen rarely in practice from what I've read though.

[pudding]

Yeah that is true.  The piston(s) was effectively smacked with 2 hammers.  A ductile forged piston would shrug it off, but a factory cast piston.....who knows.  Only a full strip down would confirm but that increases the cost considerably.

The engine is always make or break with cars.  Can't sell it with a busted engine, but equally the investment needed for a new engine is a healthy chunk towards a new car.  Catch 22!






 

[jimos1]

Thanks for advice and replys.
Chain side failed, €1100 for belt, chain and repair.
I’ll have the car back midweek, I’ll give a detailed account when the car is back.

[jimos1]

Chain snapped. No piston damage, car is running great since I got it back. There was a tapping noise for the last year which I was told was normal and that Golfs were cammy in sound anyway! This was incorrect the chain had stretched  and eventually snapped, I was just lucky I was driving at 10mph when the car died! What a relief, I genuinely feared the worst with this and felt I’d be in for 3-5k. Out of it for just over a grand!