26/08/17 *post 262* Toyotec's 'JENVEE'. The 6 speed era

great thread

 

Post Snetterton. Teardown and restoration April 2014

We continue with this saga from over a year ago.

That day April 10th 2014 was not a good one for the old ABF engine.

We had two problems:

• An engine that was pressurising the crankcase
• Slipping clutch once again.

Regardless, after retiring to the pits, the car did get me home, some 80 miles away, where the postmortem work could start on the weekend.

I was almost certain the engine was damaged so before starting to strip down, 3 days later I found one...

Under here lol



Hiding under that heap was a ABF engine. So we literally dug it out.



The head on this replacement engine was from a KR engine. As I was convinced there would be nothing wrong with my ABF cylinder head, it was negotiated to just purchase the bottom end.



It was now the weekend. An with Apex festival coming up in a few weeks, where I had booked track sessions, it was time to start the teardown and analysis of the damaged lump.



Front off.



About a half litre of oil was pushed into the temporary catch tank on the way home from the track.



Head removed and nothing looked untoward at first glance.





However on closer inspection of the cylinder head, chamber # 1 looked as if the carbon build up was more glazed and the exhaust valves were not the usual light brown colour. Burning oil perhaps and the source of the troubles?



Cylinder chamber # 2 for comparison.



The engine and gearbox were removed and the flywheel assembly and gearbox bell housing were inspected for oil ingress.





Nothing untoward on the outside of the flywheel except for traces of Coca Cola in my attempt to degrease. Maybe a tad bit shiner?

Gearbox bellhousing was decreased with the Coca Cola, but there were traces of oil ingress.



With the flywheel removed it was noted oil had contaminated the pressure plate.



In addition a film of oil was already on the clutch.



On closer inspection of the flywheel friction surface, an oil film was also observed as well as mock build up in the corners of the flywheel.



In fact oil was actually everywhere on the fly wheel


Good news was the clutch components were not damaged but where was the oil coming from to get in the bellhousing and input shaft in the first place! More on that later.

Back to the engine and determining the excessive oil pull over. With the engine stripped, the piston of that cylinder # 1 was found to have suffered ring breakage. All other pistons were fine.




I was puzzled for a while what caused this, as this engine had covered many miles as a daily via JORAN and in JENVEE as a track hack/daily with no issues.
The ring had been spilt into two, opposite to the ring gap but there were no det marks on the piston as well as no ring land damage. Later on, some investigations as to why that happened determined the root cause of what seemed to drive a spike in cylinder pressure to break the ring. More on that later.

Attention was shifted to cleaning the components before reassembly of the replacement engine.



All the oil and gunk that had accumulated on the flywheel face was degreased and sanded down as was the clutch face to break off the oil film the same was done to the pressure plate.





JENVEE was originally an 8v. As a result when the ABF conversion was done, the original 8v powertrain mounts were used. I was keen to reduce engine movement from standard and as the opportunity presented itself, the 8v engine mount was renewed with a 16v item.





Some time ago, I requested Kim at HRP to make a fount Autocavan mount that used polybushes. This was to differ from the standard Ford Escort leaf spring bush, his mounts are made with. After warning me of increased NVH, I went to Burton Power in Romford and ordered the polybush equivalent.
Kim then made the mount with custom inserts to suit the bushes and I had a front engine mount that was was fitted to the car replacing the original VW item.
As I was interested in reducing engine rock on tip-in and tip-out, I renewed the bushes to compliment the new 16v engine mount.

Old parts








New bushes on assembled and fitted mount.



The wife decides to lend a hand and brings the gearbox over to the car on the sack barrow.



I then go to collect the short engine in a similar manner and position from under the car, get the wife to slide the jack under the sump as I heft the short engine, then simply use the jack to raise into place and secure on the 16v engine mount.



The gearbox was then fitted.



And eventually all that was left to fit was the top end.



We will continue with this in the next segment.

 

Are you still using the camber bolts with the modified strut?

 

I am indeed because I already had them. However if the modification warrants what was done you may not require them.

 

So the camber bolts don't offer too much extra, I thought you could get -1.5 with standard bolts?

Also what make are those discs? The ones on my car at the moment are the same and they may need refreshing soon.

Cheers

Paul

 

Nice little write up. I thought my garage was bad! lol

What was the reason for the ring breaking?

 

With the BC racing jobs, I was getting +ve camber. The camber bolts gave me the measurement that was posted earlier in the thread -1.8 deg.
Because I do end up pushing on a bit on track, the chassis is optimised way beyond my talent to allow me to concentrate on driving. Therefore the camber achieved with the bolts was not enough, hence the modifications.

The discs are by Brake Engineering and the part numbers and subjective durability were quoted in this >>post<<.

 

I made a **** up in one of the calibration tables prior to the trackday in April. Found this out during the investigation for the ring breakage.
Despite mapping quite a few of these things mistakes do happen and this case it was for my own car!

 

It doesnt matter how good we are at what we do, we all make mistakes my friend. Best we can do, is learn from them.

 

So true!

 

Eddie, which particular 16V item is that ? I don`t seem to be able to find one like that, ebay etc throws up the 8V version. ?

Also, is that mount on backwards ? the 2 holes at the front on the 8V one but at the back on the 16V one ? I`m sure you`d have noticed when bolting it up, but just for clarification incase anyone is reading

 

The new mount fitted is a replacement part for the original Golf 2 with a KR motor.

The base, like some of the GTI gearbox mounts is oil filled.

In hindsight though, it made no difference to my engine movement issue and there was no change in NVH in my opinion. I was happy to update nevertheless, in the hope of shortlisting possible engine movement sources.

Yes when the picture was taken the mount was fitted incorrectly or rotated 180 degs. So well spotted. I do remember my wife helping to balance the engine on the jack, while I attempted to catch one of the 3 bolts only discover... followed by some choice words and so on...Calmed down and rotated 180 degs to the right position eventually.

 

In our last major posting at # 243, the short engine and gearbox were fitted to the car.

I did draw a few scuff marks from that job, which is standard for any car nut.



Did not even know I was scratched up...could be worse...

Inside the house, some bits had arrived by the post.





These 4011 RC6 CL jobs finally came from Paul Chance even though I had already purchased a set of DS3000s. The first time I would get to lean on them would be at Apex festival 9th and 10th '14 and I could not wait.

G60 air deflectors were fitted to the calipers as well, but it is debatable if they do anything at all for brake disc cooling.



There was one minor snag.

To use the BBS RA wheels on a G60 4 lug 280mm Lucas/Girling front brake setup, STD Golf 2 16v brake pads were used.

Here are new Golf 2 16v pads compared to used Golf 3 16v pads that do not work in the 280mm brake set up with RAs



With the Golf 2 16v pads fitted to the caliper,



The 10 mm thickness of the standard pad, ensures the inside of the RA wheel just clears the caliper.



To run the Ferodo DS3000 pads which are at least 13 mm thick, I resorted to heavy Estoril wheels with track tyres I had at the time. As the CL RC6s came in a lesser thickness, I would have thought I could get away with using the lighter RAs,



However it turns out, the thickness of the Carbon Lorrain 4011 pads are 11 mm, which means, if RA wheels are used, the inside of the rim will foul the caliper. I was not prepared to hack bits off the caliper and wanted a more modular solution.

At the time, I had 3 sets of tyres. Road going Uniroyal RainSport 2 on BBS RA wheels, Toyo R888s on Estoril wheels and Dunlop Direzza DZ03g on another set of RA wheels.

As I had quite a lot of experience about brake pad/disc wear, dust, and noise, running my VR6 on race type pads as a daily, I had planned to swap to the aggressive pads for use on track days only and use different tyres to suit the track conditions. See my problem?

To make like easy on the tyre swapping and brake clearance issues, I bought these.



Eibach Pro Spacer S90-1-08-003. They are 8mm thick.



With bolts to match the OE VW wheel collection.

That was a bit of future proofing for the time being regarding my tyres and wheels.

The front of the car, including the oil cooler rad and slam panel etc was put together and JENVEE had face once again.



But what about the cylinder head and the rest...??

Well... I still had not found any root cause of leaks that were causing oil contamination of the clutch. I was sure it was coming from above but could not work out where.

I was about to wash up the outside of the head and for a moment I thought the rear was stained black, when I spotted to source of the slik.



The half moon seal was leaking and over time, dirt had mixed with the oil to create a black grit that was had to detect running oil looking into the engine bay. This bugged me during the tear down and I was glad to find and put an end to that irritating problem. The head was cleaned up on the outside in readiness for refitment.

I also had a pre cleaned head as well. One that I used in CC chamber test, but I had other plans for that which we will get to in later posts



I went out and got some sundries at the local ECP, in preparation to refit the original head to the replacement bottom end.




Victor Reinz MLS head gasket part number for 1984cc 82.5mm bore engines



Later ABF cam cover gasket set from Elring



NGK '7' type plugs



Elring exhaust header flange gaskets



Contitech 151 Teeth Timing belt ( my tensioner was all good)



The head and all the rest of bits were all cleaned and to the next step was getting it all mounted to the short engine.



With the MLS gasket in place.



The head was hefted to the car.





Torqued up and timed.





You will notice the intake manifold is missing



One more trick...



That is better...





It is back in the game!!!



It was a few weeks it was off road and this was one 4 cylinder sound that I was glad to hear.

In the next segment, we take JENVEE for an epic shake down through Wales. Well hang on! That would be around most of Wales!

Stay tuned Stay optimised!

 

Just to confirm (because I'm doing this) : using 16v pads on G60 calipers/carriers gives enough clearance to fit 15" BBS RAs? Without having to hack off some of the slider pin or having to use spacers? I was told otherwise, but if that's what you've done it obviously works! And I'd rather not have to grind down the heads on my slider pins.

When you moved to the CL pads, what thickness of spacer did you use?

 

The pictures shared in post 254, show an early MK3 Golf GTI/16v/VR6 Lucas/Girling caliper and carrier/slider bolts, mounted on a daily driven Golf Mk2 with 16v hubs fitted using new Golf 2 16v pads.

Contrary to what has been written on the internet, there were no mods or tricks to any of the components. And the RA wheels fit with about 1.5 mm of clearance with the new Golf 2 16v pads.

In case, I attend a track day and it is wet, which has happened, the Rainsport tyres/RAs remain on the car however I do not use the standard brake pads. Which can be CLs or DS3000s or whatever.
So that there is no limit to pad compound and the thickness they are supplied as, the Eibach 8 mm spacer is used with the RAs on the track only.

So with the pair CL RC6 jobs adding 2mm of width and pushing the caliper to the rim, the 8 mm spacer solves that problem.

I do not use the spacers on the road though as the wheels tend not to sit true and cause vibration.

 

Excellent information again, thanks. You've just saved me a load a grief hacking my calipers about. Brilliant.

 

No problem. Happy to hear the thread is useful

 

Wales 2014 pre Apex festival shakedown

With the engine fired up and running sweet again, the car was prepared for a series of shake down drives. Remember this car is not just about hooning around the track or tackling the daily commute. It is a more door after all and so was put to good use.

First the car had a bit of a tidy up.





Then taken to the get some groceries.



Clutch bite was improving with miles.

First shake down trip was fairly local in London's Battersea Park. The family all jumped in and we went to Central London for a day out piling up the boot with supplies.



No issues with the engine, although there was still some slight slip coming from the clutch. The hope was the miles would improve this condition.

The next day, we all got up early and set off for Snowdonia. Plan was to drive around Wales in one day, with a stop in North Cornelly to give Mart feedback on how his gearbox rebuild was doing.

Here are some of the sights.








Of course a trip to Wales would not be complete without spotting these...





Brief stop at Coedi Cae Fali, to take in the Flora.





On the twisty A496 next to Afon Dwyryd (River), towards the Llandanwg sea side. Interesting little road this was.





After the twists and turns of the A496/A470 we arrive at Llandanwg.



Another stop between the mountains towards Llyn Mwyngil on the A487



The next stop was at Mart. After leaving Mart, JENEVEE was fired up and was pointed back to London, some 140 miles away. The M4 was quickly devoured back to West London using many of the ABF furies. Once home our almost 12 hour journey was complete.

563 miles later the clutch was fine and the engine was happy to take what ever punishment was throw at it.






Daily commute resumed until Apex festival on the 9th and 10th.

The story continues with Apex Festival May 2014 next.

 

That's some road trip!! I'm still amazed how fast you can pull an engine apart and put it back together

 

Pulling apart the engine is usually the easy part. It is the post mortem work that takes place after a failure, the documentation and the planning to get the parts fitted in sequence is what takes the time.

As shown above, the modifications done to JENVEE up to this point, does not restrict it from regular daily use or very long road trips. I am hoping to retain most of this 'GTness' and practicality as the car develops.

We will see how it all unravels as the story carries on