if its elring or reinz the stem seals are good stuff. if its cheaper to buy bits seperately then go ahead, but ptobably find cheaper to buy a full kit. heres a good place to start, lots of info around here as well http://www.charlie-ward.co.uk/-car-mk2-golf/GE01/ch4.9.6.html pro-tip, use google rather than the built in search. add site:clubgti.com to your google search and it'll only look on clubgti
Reinz head gasket kit ordered! hopefully I'll start stripping the vales over the weekend, that's the plan anyway.
so is that's the wrong one for me then? TBH, I wasn't going to change the rocker gasket as the one I have looks new anyway Will everything else be ok?
everything else will be ok, think you needed a 50mm inlet gasket as well but apart from that it'll be fine. the inlet gasket to head is the same for both its just the one between the 2 halves
Quick update ..... Camshaft and valve springs out. So I've noticed that the valve guides have some play, a few of them and not all. I did this test where by I pull the valve out quickly with my finger over the other side and you should hear an air suction sound. The louder the sound the less play you have. Would I need to replace these guides? I have around 8 I need to replace. Also I managed to snap the 3 hex bolts on the coolant flange any tips on how I should remove these
Here’s a couple of shots from two years ago when I tidied up my KR. Black paint is POR15, got nuts and bolts blasted then re-plated by a local company, manifolds and cam cover were vapour blasted which gives a softer satin finish, got the original alternator reconditioned and then just lots of elbow grease and cleaning. Still looks as good as this now but only cos I don’t drive it in the rain. Well worth doing though and v. Satisfying. Should have seen it before.
in that bag you have, exhaust manifold seals, coolant flange seals, rocker cover half moon pieces the correct way to check for valve play is check deflection if you wiggle valves side to side: http://www.charlie-ward.co.uk/-car-mk2-golf/GE01/ch4.9.6.html
just thinking about it, considering how much oil I'm burning, could the oil be coming via the play in the guides? Just spoke to a guy at a local machine shop and he reckons it's the piston rings! I'm confused now The compression test showed that the values were within range but would the worn stem seals allow this much oil in? Any tell tale signs on the piston or bores that would indicate worn rings?
thing is while the heads off might be worth just getting the guides done anyway but the machine shop will know how to test them first. or as above its not hard to do so yourself generally if its stem seals and/or guides you'll get a good puff of oil on a cold start where oil has dripped past the seals and sits in the combustion chamber plus sometimes on over-run. if your guides are worn the new stem seals will fail pretty quick as the valve will be wobbling around too much. rings will usually show smoke at higher rpm https://www.clubgti.com/forums/index.php?threads/mk2-16v-valve-stem-seals-easy-job.90335/
@rubjonny, can you point me to the valve guide replacement instructions? I must be going blind! My car was smoking ALL the time
So I brought the car back in Jan this year ..... from the moment she was started, she was smoking. The drive back was around 100miles and she consumed around 3L of oil. On the way back the oil light came on and I had to buy some oil and fill her up - dip stick showed no oil. Let's assume the rings need changing, do I have to get the bores enlarged and honed? Can I not just replace the rings?