VW Golf Mk2 Owners Club

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #255 – February 18, 2022, 01:40:43 PM

Glad to see you back mate.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #256 – February 18, 2022, 01:55:13 PM

Cheers - Bill was in touch, plus the spamming has stopped so thought I'd tempt fate and sign up again.

Nothing much to report on the MK2 front however, other than the bonnet / door are back from paint. Door's on and built back up, bonnet'll stay off 'til the engines done.

The block went away when those came back, though that's due to be home anytime now (hopefully).

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #257 – February 18, 2022, 03:27:07 PM

welcome back lets hope you stay spam free
scs

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #258 – February 18, 2022, 04:49:55 PM

Glad you are back Martin

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #259 – February 21, 2022, 12:50:26 PM

For want of something to post up, riveting stuff!

Door has since been built back up, in itself a straight forward job but took two days of fiddling about.

Bonnet's in a spare room, out of harms way... Not long off the phone to the engine shop and will be collecting the block Wednesday AM. so it might be making a reappearance sometime soon when that's in and running (who am I kidding!)

Booked the car in for an MOT early June. You shouldn't be able to book them so far in advance, but for some reason they've allowed it.

Suits me fine, likely take at least that long to sort the 'inevitable' issues out.




 

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #260 – February 26, 2022, 10:07:21 AM

Block's back... part of the work was new pistons, over sized by +0.5mm.

Below is one of the originals that he gave away with me and it was only after a clean back home that the marks you see became so obvious to me. Upshot was I hadn't thought at the time to ask him what in his professional opinion had caused them.

There's identical damage on the opposite side you can't see in the photo.

Seems to be a theme with the outfits I use, excellent work, but they're nigh on impossible to get on the phone.

Impatience has got the better of me and thought I'd stick up an image for opinions.

When I do get to talk to him I'll let you know.





 

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #261 – February 26, 2022, 10:40:03 AM

Looks like your engine had bore scoring.  I didn't think VW engines suffered from that. 

Were there any marks on the bores before machining?

Edit, just now googled piston bore scoring.  There are images of pistons damaged just like yours.  Google Porsche bore scoring and there are images of badly damaged bores.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #262 – March 02, 2022, 10:10:01 AM

Finally caught up with the machine shop, plus had shown them to the local mechanic I use.

Both say it's just regular wear that's nothing more than to be expected and not indicative of a problem with the engine.

The image does make the marks look more dramatic than they really are, if you were to feel the piston without looking you'd struggle to notice anything.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #263 – March 02, 2022, 10:35:19 AM

I was wondering if photography was highlighting the issue.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #264 – March 02, 2022, 10:54:34 AM

I'd imagine you could work with engines for a life time and still keep learning, I'm just scratching the surface trying to get enough knowledge to tackle the Mickey Mouse jobs.

No surprise I suppose I wasn't expecting to see the marks and read too much into them.

Car's an indicated 75K on it and while you can never be 100% sure with something you haven't owned from new, other things about it make me confident it's true.

Still, it's a bit of an eye opener to the novice of what's going on inside an engine.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #265 – April 24, 2022, 09:50:07 PM

Son passed his test just over a month ago... been occupied sorting him out with a car (read that as also getting it 100% reliable / serviced / safe), plus the 205 has just been given a thorough going over for it's MOT next week.

MK2 has now finally come back to the fore... it's MOT is less than 7 weeks away - really going to have to get the finger out if it's going to make it in time. Not convinced it will, just too much needs doing and most of it's things way beyond my skill set / will likely need farming out and involve all the obligatory delays that seems to entail these days.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #266 – April 25, 2022, 09:18:07 AM

Always a little unnerving when you have a MOT deadline and have the bare block in front of you!
Though, it does look bloody lovely.

If you haven't already, I recommend sending a tap through some of those threaded holes, just to make re-assembly easier.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #267 – April 27, 2022, 01:57:50 PM

If one was needed, got a bit of a prompt today to try and make this work out. If I miss the deadline it could cause all sorts of issues getting a retest anytime soon.

Daughters car (Citigo) is due its MOT 27 July.

The earliest you can book here in N. Ireland is 3 x months in advance of that date, with the earliest test date itself being no more than 1 x month from the expiry of the previous certificate.

Went online to do it today and the earliest available test anywhere in N. Ireland (not just the centers nearest to me) was 27 September!

That's 2 x months after expiry and 5 x months from today!

The last actual test her car did was in Feb. 2020... must've been one of the few done before covid restrictions halted them.

It's had several official temporary extensions from expiry in Feb 2021... so by the time it's next physically seen by a tester again 31 months will have passed!

I look after her car, it's probably over serviced and things checked / changed more often than needed... but it's scary to think there's probably owners out there in a similar position who don't lift a finger to their car until it breaks / fails an MOT.

Spent yesterday trying to find stuff and phase 1 is double checking I've got every nut / bolt / washer before assembly in ernest... it's all just loosely fitted in place.

Phase 2 will be getting the courage up to commit to buttoning it up. 

Doesn't look like a day's non-stop work, brings it home to you the amount of work still needed!



Just on a side note... seeing the engine number, I realised I've never cross referenced it to the registration book. Glad to say it matches, but something to consider doing if you haven't already / don't assume anything.

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #268 – April 27, 2022, 09:08:55 PM

Been a long day and tired so likely not seeing the obvious / made some school-boy error.

First piccie is the PAS pump at it's most fully open resting position.

The second is with the belt on and as you can see it's pulley is touching that of the water pump.

Belt is brand new, but even allowing for it being 'tight' I don't see it being this close is any where near correct.

With the belt on the PAS pump is resting at its fully closed position, I also had to take both pulleys off inorder to fit the thing otherwise it would've been impossible.

The eagle eyed will notice the PAS adjustment screw isn't fitted... it makes no odds as there's not further travel available from it when the belt's on - even it could be tightened, it would be bringing the pulleys closer still.

The belt's correct according to 7Zap at 730mm  - BOSCH 026 145 271, which is listed as equivalent to VW 026 145 271.

Other brands are also listed as 730mm for PB's (there's mention of 735mm belts but they're toothed)

The water pump (Mahle) and PAS pump (Meyle) are new, but I've double checked and are correct for the car, they both fitted straight on with no issues... the tightness of the belt seems to be the cause, a longer belt would solve it but as far as I can see It's the correct one - unless you know otherwise!






 

Re: Isaac - 1992 Alpine White GTI 8v...

Reply #269 – April 27, 2022, 09:12:35 PM

Should've said all the pulleys are the original VW's / dimensions etc., just the pumps were changed...