Right, bit of a back-story,

on the way to work on the 4th and the oil buzzer and light went off, so i pulled over on the motorway and saw a oil based bukkakefest in the engine by the breather pod

see this thread

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?...=177373&hl=

anyway took off the oil breather pod, cleaned it out and refitted it with a new breather hose, catch tank and filter.

drained the existing oil and fitted a new filter and 5w/40 fully sythetic oil and got every back up together.

heres the end result =/

bottom end is knocking badly! I'm still an amateur mechanic and engine internals are a bit of a dark art for myself, I'm wondering if it sounds like the big end bearings? if so can i refit these in situ if i drop the sump, or it is just new bottom end time?

also what kind of damage could i expect from driving the car about 60 miles to my unit from where the car is now, i can deal with the bottom end going as long as two things are ok.

my cams as they are worth twice as much as the engine

the conrod doesnt fly out the engine and cause damage to my bodywork.

advice, opinions, suggestions, comments are welcome, thank you!

ps. some things I've eliminated.

timing is set to 6 degrees advance currently, so its not pinking

new HT leads

good working coil

good working dizzy

good working ignition amp

cambelt and tensioner replaced 1.5k ago, no teeth are stripped, missing etc

inlet manifold and carbs are free of vacuum leaks

other little problems :-

sparks are black on 1 & 4 white on 2 & 3

possible downpipe leak where manifold meets downpipe, was loud, but never tapped, knocked or ticked prior to the oil starvation issue in the previous thread, and hasnt been removed since

Edited 27 February, 201016 yr by grungeisdead

Sorry to hear that the new engine's ill mate. I took a look and listen to the vid and I would put my money on a big end bearing. It's always a bit risky driving with the bottom end knocking, I would personally pull the sump and remove all the big end bearing caps for a good look. Be a shame for it to throw a rod after all the work you've done. I have driven on with knocking big ends, but the oil pressure tends to fall and it can wreck the main bearings plus the cams will suffer if they are starved of oil. If you do have to drive it, then I would treat it with total respect, keeping the revs very low and keeping high loads off the engine.

Nevertheless, as long as the mains are not goosed and the crank's not scored, then try replacing the shells. Really gutted mate, I was looking forward to having a razz in this

the bloke next door drove his bora around for months sounding like that, it used to take a little to start in the morning so when it did fire up he'd just sit there revving the shit out of it for five mins then puttle off up the road as if nothing was amiss

it died eventually mind but took a right fucking kicking in the months leading to it's death.

we had an Orion once that we bought from cov iirc, that was knocking like that too when we bought it (we couldn't find any thing else in our 100 pound budget lol), 20 mins driving it back from cov, stopped at a mates then went back out in it, got just out of Nuneaton and the piston exited the engine through the side of the block. we pushed it in to a field and burnt it out.

what i'm trying to say is once a bottom end starts knocking it can go at any time, it might last 60 miles, it might last 6. is it really worth the risk after all the work you've done?

have you listened to it through a screw driver? my mate had a G60 that started sounding like the bottom end had gone. some one he knew came around and used a big screwdriver like a stethoscope to listen to were the noise was coming from and it turned out it wasn't the big end, can't remember exactly what it was now though, maybe the oil pump?

proper gutted for you mate, i was looking forward to seeing this

Cheers guy I did try the screwdriver trick but to no avail. Car starts on the button too no need to rev it or owt. I'll get hold of a compression tester and poss oil pressure tester. Is the oil pump on polos similar to golfs? Drop sump,two bolts and pump comes out?

Can I inspect and replace the shells in situ from underneath? I might just split the lupo lump this week and use the bottom end.i have to do some reading up as i'm sure jez and mitch just used the standard gti bottom end afh head,afh tensioner,not sure which belt will have to measure the bottom ends up,and 8v headbolts from a 6n.theres info buried on clublupo

The oil pump is a chain driven affair that can be removed after taking the sump off first. You can definately get at the big end shells after removing the sump. Remove the bearing caps one at a time and make sure you mark them (1,2,3,4) before taking them off, and also make sure you mark which way round they fitted in the conrod (I normally mark an arrow pointing toward the front of the engine).

Once you've got the caps off the four conrods, then you can start inspecting the crank and bearings - they just fit tightly on to the upper conrod and the lower bearing shell. Definately put new ones on (use plenty of clean oil, and cleanliness is paramount). Each bearing has a little key that sits in a corresponding cut out on the bearing caps and the conrod.

You'll also have to use a torque wrench when putting the caps back on, sure someone on here can give you the figures.

that sounds like one of the big end bearings have gone not a big job though if its just big ends that have gone you shouldnt need to drop the crank but if you do the the main bearing cap bolts are stretch bolts so you will need another set of them they arnt too expensive though

from vw for a gt the gearings are around £60 shouldnt think they will be too much more for the afh lump

Serious risk of a thrown rod. A thrown rod can cause instant death - and I'm not joking. My beige Escort threw a rod,locking the engine/gearbox and the diff was left with the decision to let one wheel continue turning whilst stopping the other. As i was travelling at 55mph at the time,this pulled the car into a spin,whilst on a bridge,but i was just forward enough to reach the crash barrier and stayed alive in a wrecked car instead of dead in half a wrecked car.

I dropped the oil from my first bike carbed AEE,and the result was melted big end shells - which i replaced with the engine in situ (having to remove only one end of the driveshaft,the sump and half the oil pump). Make sure you put the shells back on the same order and way around as they came off.

As above, wouldnt drive it....my old cossie got about 5 miles after it started knocking before it totally gave up and the crank was a right off.

My e36 did a little better at 10 miles before it died after starting to knock.

no point trying to guess, drop the sump and have a look at the mains & big ends.

Nightmare mate, if it was me I would look for another bottom end unless you have the funds to get genuine parts for the repair.

Nightmare mate, if it was me I would look for another bottom end unless you have the funds to get genuine parts for the repair.

the parts are probley cheaper than a new engine

not a hard job to do if you can drop the sump you may be able to use a screw driver to wiggle the con rods if one wiggles that the shagged bearind worked with my mates pinto lump last week not sure if it will work on your engine it depends how much room there is

i wouldnt advise driving it as MikeyMK said if it throws a piston your car is fwd so more than likley it would throw it through the bulk head

i was nearly killed like this when my mates gear box shot a bearing through the bulk head and missed my head by cm's not nice when you find out how close you were to been shot in the head by a ball bearing lol

Car got recovered back to the unit.going to build a hybrid and examine the afh bottom end in the house.if the block is still all ok ill get hold of a 1.6 crank and pistons and stick them in there for the lupolo. Cheers guys. And yep recovery dude said big end bearing straight away

Car got recovered back to the unit.going to build a hybrid and examine the afh bottom end in the house.if the block is still all ok ill get hold of a 1.6 crank and pistons and stick them in there for the lupolo. Cheers guys. And yep recovery dude said big end bearing straight away

The real question - still on for the rr day?

hopefully will make an appearance, but after building a new engine, it'll need a run in period so wont be able to make any power runs unfortunatly =[ unless i get it rocking by wednesday and i can do some epic mileage up until the RR day to get it ready!

edit: whoops wrong login, this be the saf

Edited 18 January, 201016 yr by Charlie

Well at least you'll make an appearance :)

Get cracking and aim for some mileage!

ad lent me his crane and his house is off the cat and fiddle, first time i'd driven it, epic and only 15 mins from my unit = win.

anyhoo, the afh is ou tof the peril now and I've whipped the head's off both engines, headgasket was fine on the afh, and no melted pistons, bore's dont look glazed. the gti head is well wierd, cam in covver design with loads of wierd rockers, funky little thing that was.

headgaskets look pretty interchangable, the valver only has one section thats open where the gti's is closed, but these are both waterways so should be ok.

will get the afh sump off later in the week to inspect what was going on there, hopefully my new headgasket and headbolts will arrive tomorrow.

question - how do you lock the crank in the place to be able to get the crankshaft pulley off either of the two engines. it needs to come off to get the lower timing cover and belt off and replaced

Sounds like your making good progress, for locking the crank - try a large flat bladed screwdriver in the starter ring gear, bear it against a gearbox to block bolt. Worked for me on numerous occasions.

cheers Vic mate, will have another go tonight at getting it off, as I'm waiting for the headbolts and headgasket to arrive, but doubt it will until tomorrow.

gives me time to fit the GT steering damper, lower strut brace and a few other goodies while i'm there as well as cleaning up the engine bay a bit, something i didnt bother with when i did it the first time round.

i also need to check whether the polo's gearbox is going to mate up with the lupo block, as if it doesn't then its a fail in the making!

yay headbolts and headgasket arrived.

bit of info for anyone interested :-

Note, 6n 1.0 AER & Non AVY GTI lumps have the correct length headbolts

6n Polo 1 Litre

036103384B

bolt, with multi-spilne socket head

M9X1,25X138 / AER,ALL

Lupo GTI

036103384B

bolt, with multi-spilne socket head

M9X1,25X138 / AHW,AKQ,APE, AUA,BBY,AFK, ANM,AQQ,AUB

Polo GTI

036103384E

bolt, with multi-spilne socket head

M9X1,25X97 / AVY

The correct part from GSF is

01163

CYLINDER HEAD BOLT

PO 1.4 AFK/AHW/APE/AUA/AUB Engines 99> & PO 1.0 AER Engine 96>99

£2.00 each and you need 10.

got a few more bits done,

The AFH head is on the Lupo bottom end now, using the headbolts listed in the above post,

Using the Lupo Thermostat housing on the AFH as it has ports for the oil cooler,

For the block, I've gone for the standard crank sprocket and pulley, and tensioner from the lupo bottom end, and used the AFH waterpump.

only snag is the little runner wheel which runs from the exhaust cam to the crank pulleys thread is a size bigger on the lupo block. so I'm going to do a little etka search to see if i can find one with the lupo thread but wide enough for the AFH cambelt.

Exhaust Manifold is Std Lupo GTI - which is a stock SS 4 branch.

no pics atm, but doesnt look much different from before.

tomorrows job is get the gearbox, starter motor, engine mount and alternator fitted, along with timing the engine up if i can get the correct runner wheel jobbie.

credit goes to softscoop for the upload - downloadable PDF

Timing Belt Guide - 1.6 16v

Edited 20 January, 201016 yr by grungeisdead

Link just takes me to forum homepage?

Good updates Saf, all the best for the rebuild.

sorry man, ill sort the link out later.

relay roller has been dropped off to my local metal shop to get drilled out on a pillar drill, its hardended steel and twists as its on a roller bearing so it would have been nigh on impossible to do it at home,

they are also making me up the engine plate to sit behind the engine mount, as i was rolling without one before.

should be done for home-time woop.

Got to pick up a 9 sided 9mm clutch socket too, so i can swap off for the mk4 flywheel and clutch. (or the mk3 fly, i have both)

one minor problem with the lupo block is the addition of an extra lug and some webbing on the block, which will allow a 6 speeder to bolt on, but gets in the way of me using the AFH or Mk3 starter

so I'm just going to cut the motherbitch off =D

pikeytech ftw

Bye bye lupolo :lol:

hahaha too true!

the guys couldnt drill through the steel, its hardened but they got me a bit of steel rod with the correct thread for the block and turned it down to fit the roller relay which means when it comes round to needing changing i can just pick another straight up off the shelf and jobs a good un.

reeto food time and then a trip to halfrauds and to the unit batman