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Update: My 2.0 16v Engine Saga



Well, things have gone from bad to worse for my first engine rebuild...

During the engine break-in driving session I began to notice a knocking sound
that was occuring above 3k rpm.  The sound progressively got worse as I
drove.  Once the car was home, I dropped the oil pan and turned the crank
over by hand only to discover the worst possible problem...
The #3 rod bearing had spun.  And what makes this story even more interesting
is that this is the same rod bearing that had spun on this engine when I
bought the engine from the junkyard... the machine shop resized the rod
and the crank was re-ground.  All bearing clearances were PlastiGage checked
and the engine was assembled...  only for that same rod bearing to spin again!

My BIG suspicion at this point is that the machine shop did not properly
resize the rod.  They may have not resized the locating groove for the bearing,
which may have put the bearing clearance out of tolerance at that
point on the bearing... just not at the point where I checked it...

The sad realization here is that the engine that I spent all Winter building
is now dead... but not for long of corse...

Today Josh Conner and myself located a parts 2.0 block which had a decent
crank and rods in place.  My plan is to use this new crank and rods and install
them into my "good" block.  I also plan to use my "good" pistons which have
new rings that are still breaking in... 
I will use the main bearing caps from my good block, and again check all
my clearances.  Just this time I will have a factory crank and rods that
have never spun or been touched by a shop... which will hopefully give
me a running engine again soon.

Tonight I already have removed the engine from my mk1... by myself... which
isn't all that fun.  Now comes the complete dissasembly of the block
one more time to install the new crank and rods.

The only issue that I may face would be possible wrist pin clearance
mating my good pistons to these used rods... besides obvious play, should
I be concerned doing this?

With new parts on the way, I am hopeful to have the engine together again
by the weekend... and possibly install it one more time into my car by
next week.

Of all possible engine problems, this has to be the extreme worst.  When
a crank is ruined, the engine simply must come out of the car...
what a day!

Well, I suppose I'd better get some more work done before I call it a
night tonight... I mean, it's only 1am now... hehe

Hope everyone else has had a better weekend and week so far!

But no worries... my hopes are high that I will be on the road again soon!


=====
Benjamin Harder
86 Scirocco 16v
80 Scirocco 16v (2.0 is being rebuilt *again*)
93 Passat GLX

http://www.geocities.com/vwtype53/

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