The idea of using a ridge reamer is to prevent the new rings from striking the wear-ridge - but I never did like these things, as cylinders invariably wear oval and the ridge reamer tends to cut cylindrical, you can in fact finish up with a hollowed out section on one side of the bore OR all of the ridge not being removed.

My favoured method of getting rid of the ridge, is to do it by hand with the use of an engineers curved scraper - You can make one of these out of an old half-round file, just heat up the end, put a curve on it and re harden it. You then need to grind off all of the file teeth, finishing it off on an oil stone - or you could buy one from your local engineers stockist.

Regards.

Finally under way with this - now my neighbours have finished with wall demolition and gravel drive laying- but rain stopped play.

Got an engineer's scraper - a Faithfull ES/HR

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23115241379.

Alternator was only putting out 12.15volts - the oil leak from front of block got through my temporary tin foil shield.

And with hardly charged battery coimpression test was 8.4 bar at cylinder #1, and dipped below 8 once reached cyl #4.

Wet test at cyl#1 was then 3 bar as battery so dead so inconclusive.

So far, I've

• disconnected battery earth,
• brought engine to TDC and checked
• labelled and disconnected all sparkplug cables, carb cables, fuel hose(s), brake servo pipe, wires and tubes (biro on duck tape)
• disconnected bottom radiator hose
• drained coolant
• drained oil, removed filter
• removed oil breather pipe and breather
• removed air filter box and thermo vacuum tube
• 2 coolant pipes that connect from water pipe to inlet manifold or what was once the carb autochoke housing
• removed sparkplugs
• removed rocker cover
• discarded the cork gasket
• disconnected top water hose from thermostat housing
• transferred sensors, dizzy, thermostat housing to spare head
• cambelt cover
• water pump - which I cracked. Alway remember it's not a bolt - insert a big old screwdriver deep in the notch & it's clockwise top towards front of car to loosen.
• cambelt - which is oil damaged - tell tale teeth and fibrous oily waste
• demounted carb
• took off exhaust manifold and flexi joint
• removed cylinder head and inlet manifold with camshaft and pulley in place
• drained carb of petrol and remounted carb for safe keeping
• set the battery charging
• removed long driveshaft at gearbox flange - took a combination of jacks and ramp to move right road-wheel further out involving arb nut and bottom balljoint an one TCA Finally took the wheel off but not touched the hubnut.
• moved alternator to starter cable out of the way
• degunked some of the oily crud from outside block
• Loosened most of the sump bolts.

Measured the bores - they appear to be 74.96mm - no glaringly obvious ovality - but a tiny ridge at top where rings don't touch.

Just measured an old piston from an HK as 74.70mm.

Edited 26 July, 201511 yr by dvderlm

Don't scrap the alternator if it's only problem is oil contamination.

If it is the oil causing the problem, it will be because it has got between the brushes and slip-rings.

Just cleaning it up (and curing the oil leak!) may be all that is required, but you could fit new brushes/ voltage regulator if everything else is OK.

It might pay to check that the rectifier diodes only conduct in one direction before you make a decision on it.

Regards

Thanks, yeah regulator/brush pack is only 6 months old so should clean up fine.

Worth changing the slip rings after 20+ years?

Alternator to starter motor cable has seen better days. Is £42+VAT and on backorder at VW.

Wonder what amperage/diameter cable I need? There's two thick strands from Lucas style plug and sensor wire.

get some audio or welding cable , the fattest you can that will fit in the plug

mine is 4 gauge

Gone for 20mm2 welding cable that claims to be oil resistant and a new Lucas connector.

Optimistically alaternator creates 65Amps at 14volts is 910Watts.

And starter motor might be rated 0.8kW so maybe 72 amps at 11volts.

Surprised the charging cable goes to starter motor then battery...

Edited 28 July, 201511 yr by dvderlm

That sounds a bit expensive for that cable, try downloading the catalogue from www.vehicleproducts.co.uk you will find all that you need in there.

Welding cable is Ok, but, as it is intended to be moved about, it is more flexible, being made up of many thin strands, whereas battery cable has fewer, thicker strands.

It's quite common to connect the alternator output lead to the starter motor main terminal - The 'technical' reason given for this, is that there is less chance of corrosion at the s/motor than at the battery, it also saves on weight. Being a bit cynical, I think that it also saves a penny or two in construction.

Regards

All sorts of brilliant stuff in that catalogue at good prices.Ta.

Was going to use convoluted tubing around the welding cable for strengthening.

Still waiting for the vital wobble bar, it's raining AGAIN, and now Balfour Beatty are going to start replacing street lights.

And I'll need at leats one N01021612 bolt for the dizzy plate when it all goes back together. M8x20, but they have a really small head.

On backorder with VW.

Edited 29 July, 201511 yr by dvderlm

GK pistons, piston number is loops of green cable tie.

Here's pics of the dark side of the pistons, light side have no scratches.

Number #3 is worst.

And here's the used "G40" pistons that I think are HK so you can see the wear. The order is a guess

Edited 1 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm

Crimped and soldered one flag terminal from Lucas alternator plug to big fat welding cable using an oven ring as the soldering iron!

Refitted one piston. The ring compressor needs to be absolutely square to the block, really tight on the rings. Even though the compressor has a ratchet it feels like the job requires three hands.

gonna have it running tonight?

decided on what run in method to use yet?

Running in is a bit of an old fashioned concept, and dates back to the days of hand scraped bearings - way before Polo's were even thought of!

That is not to say that you should thresh the poor old thing to death when you first run it, keeping the revs down 'till you have oil pressure (all the rattles have stopped.)

The important thing, is to not give it too much hard work to start with - Don't change up gears too early and don't let it labour up hills in too high gear.

Gradually over the coming days, allow it to work harder.

You can actually do more harm than good by 'taking it too easy' - What happens if the engine only works lightly, is that the cylinder walls tend to glaze and the rings fail to form a decent seal, resulting in high oil consumption - Sound familiar?

Hope that it runs well, without any leaks!

Regards

It's not going to be running tonight - more to do.

Want to sort starter motor lead before put head back on.

De-gunked yet more of the engine bay and the sump.

Bores flex-honed using a reversible rechargeable LiIon drill - what a fantastic tool - feels like a 1960s ray-gun. Protected crank journals with plastic bags and newspaper and oil-proof packing paper. Post hone (6 quick thrusts at 500rpm) wiped bores with J-cloths until cloth clean. Vacuumed out the smaal bits of grit. Washed with soapy water, took out packing, then re-oiled. The cross-hatch pattern meant the oil only descended slowly. Cleaned and re-oiled journals just in case of any dirt.

All pistons back in, new shells and conrod bolts and nuts torqued to 30Nm +1/4 turn.

Oil pickup strainer and sump back on with new gasket (but for one bolt I'm waiting for).

Turned the flywheel by quarter turns - no sign of any cut-outs, that must be Mk2F flywheel.

Have to say turning the engine by hand is a lot harder than it used to be - this is with no head on, compared to old state with spark plugs removed.

Heater matrix replaced and heater blower correctly mounted (I found the "ping! where did that go?" clip I lost years ago)

and sealed - polyfilla lol). Engine block heater replumbed.

Fit replacement water pump and put the TDC camshaft plate back

Edited 2 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm

Should I be using special oil for the first few hundred miles?

was just gonna use Castrol GTX or Halfors 10W40 semi-synth, the change it an filter after a week's driving.

books and internet suggest non sysnthetic for first few hundred

Because it's cheap and you are going to throw it away, or for any particular property of the mineral oil?

High-zinc, low leak down ?

http://www.millersoils.co.uk/automotive/tds-automotive.asp?prodsegmentID=240&sector=Classics

http://www.scparts.co.uk/sc_en/running-in-oil-15287.html

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-77268-castrol-running-in-oil-number-2-for-new-and-reconditioned-engines.aspx

Non synthetic could be first pressing olive oil.

I'm only speaking from what i read so decide for your self...

synthetic and semi oils can be too good at what they do and prevent the rings from seating , you only have a short window of time to seat the rings

theres many opinions on running in ranging from baby it to drive it like a nutter , myself i plan to warm the engine to operating temp and drive it fairly briskly using most of the rev range but avoid any unnecessary loads , maybe dump the oil a couple of times over a few hundred miles then change to a decent semi oil

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

think the high zinc is helpfull to new cams ? again only from what I've read

Edited 3 August, 201511 yr by steveo3002

My driving instructor Mr Donaldson bought two identical Mazda 323 in the 80s. Neither were 'run-in'. One did school, shop, commute and summer holiday runs. The other - right from delivery day - was alternately rushed between lessons then driven gently by learners. After several years the driving school car had done maybe 150,000 miles and the other one had done 25,000 miles. Both were serviced according Mazda schedule by miles or months. The driving school car had the more flexible economical engine and they switched to using it for summer holidays.

Tonight I removed the remains of the old exhaust flexitube.

Compared gasket thicknesses - old 1.75mm, new 1.85mm.

All the same holes - well a few are pair of large hole next to small hole rather than wedge of cheese orifice - but sadly no legible markings on the old gasket.

Either the gasket will be squashed a bit when head screwed tight, or compression ratio drops a fraction from nominal 11:1.

Just checked and new one is an Elring 630.590 labelled for a GK so all should be good.

Edited 3 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm

Driveshaft and offside suspension back.

Doing the battery to starter motor cable.Trying to use a Shark +ve terminal, meant for audio installs.

I will take 2 x 4AWG cables and 2 x 8AWG and has an M8 bolt.

It was Maplin part MX03D about a decade ago, but looks like stuff on eBay. It has a -ve sign, so I've scribed that to say + instead. And it will have plenty of red cables off it.

Mostly I've got 6mm ring lugs dishing out +ve, so I've been drilling those out to 8mm.

Pretty sure it's for audio installs in Japanese cars, because the hole for the battery pole is not tapered.

Been using a bastard round file and then a cylinder head porting stone to taper it.

Edited 7 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm

As the starter motor M8 stud is a bit short, there's not a lot of space for the 3 cables I want to fit (40mm² battery to stareter and 2x 20mm² from alternator Lucas plug) using 3x8mm copper trube ends.

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/product.php/556/copper-tube-terminals

Wwondering whether to route one of the 20mm² alternator cables to starter motor, and other through a big new bulkhead grommet to battery +ve going straight as I can while avoiding any running gear fouling.

Edited 7 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm

Have you thought about a heavy duty junction box? (as on page 19 of your catalogue)

You could even fuse one of those leads with a mega fuse if you so wished (page 41)

Regards

Now that's a sensible idea.

I've made the new alternator cable... 2x 20mm² and the sense wire encased in PVC sheathing, and heatshrink where I soldered/spliced the new sense wire (from an old electric oven!) to the old loom plug.

Shorter one uses copper tube terminal , the other a flag terminal which has a bit thinner lug so both cann connect to

starter. One strand is over long - so I can change my mind.

Didn't fancy cutting a 19mm hole for the grommet in the biulkheadt - I've got a 12.5mm cutter and a 21mm cutter and a 16mm HSS drill - especially so near the battery and my fuel pump.

Not cut the battery to starter motor cable just yet. I'll browse the catalogue while I have a cuppa tea.

This is the old versus new plug.

This is the two cables to compare.

Edited 8 August, 201511 yr by dvderlm