Have they found what caused the damage yet, before they start rebuilding?
Not directly, but at the moment the state of the oil that came out of it are a clue.. It looked more like tar! I just think that the car has been ran most probably on cheap fuel, never been serviced since I sold it and this is the result..
Update..Engine is all apart now and the true extent of the damage to the piston can be seen, pretty shocking really! Amazing that the damage to the bore was so so light, I mean, you could hardly even feel it.. 0.5mm bore out will remove that no problem and I should be good to go with the 83mm bore pistons..
Damaged piston.. (Not for the faint hearted!!)
Strange thing is that the crown of the piston is ok, this leads me to believe that it was more a lack of oil / sh*tty oil problem rather than pre ignition as surely there would be damage to the crown if this was the case?
Head off..
Engine out ready to be stripped down..
Old pistons and rods.. (All the rods look in top condition, amazingly the bearings are all in perfect condition too)
Crank.. (Again, no damage..)
Valve train..
Intake valve.. (all of them look like this, because of the recirculating PCV system, just shows how important it is to run a catch can with this engine)
Block and head ready for machining..
Lots of bits..
The engine should be back from the machine shop Thursday and be fully built up with the new parts by the end of the week.. So thats good news..
One thing that was pretty amazing was the weight difference between the Supertech valves and the standard items.. Huge difference, ill get a figure to compare but a lightweight valve train can only be a good thing..
Also the new rods and pistons are a lot lighter than the old items, this should make the engine really free revving.. Combined with the new lightweight clutch and flywheel im estimating around 8kg off rotating mass to be saved..
Im hoping that the parts from the US should be with me within a week but you can never tell with customs!
Anyways im feeling a lot better about it all now, before it was all doom and gloom, everything that was discovered seemed to be a big negative but now its on the way to recovery..
While the car has been up in the air we have also had a chance to plan some nice chassis bits that should really help out the some what wooly handling of the S3 compared to the Golf.. Everything is on the way so fingers crossed the bits get to me from BSH and I can get the car back on the road soon..
Jonny