It would be a good idea to mark the orientation of the big end cap against the conrod before you remove the cap. It may have been fitted the wrong way round and caused the big end bore to be out of round, resulting in the incorrect bearing clearance and it running hot. The caps should be fitted bearing tang to bearing tang. However if they are tangless bearings it is still possible to work out which way they should be fitted by carefully inspecting the align boring hone marks where the bearings sit between the rod and cap, as they leave what is almost a unique barcode with their distinct lines.
The caps are already marked by integrated engineering. Interestingly 3 of the rods are marked with the number 446 and the failed one is 935, i'm sure it's nothing but I wonder what it means? Took the cap of the offending rod this afternoon. Think i'm going to take the head off then take the block to a local engine builder and see what the says. The bottom half of the bearing practically jumped out once I moved it away from the crank. I know i'm looking at a crank regrind, just hoping the rod can be saved?? Guess I'll upgrade to ARP main bolts, at least i wont have to replace them again if the crank ever needs to come out in the future. I wonder if i can get just two ARP rod bolts if the rod can be saved? Going to sell off my duostlying gauges to try and raise the funds to fix the engine :-(
Blimey that bearing got hot! Have you plastigauged the rod bearings to check clearance once fully tight? Just wondered if it was to tight? Or maybe oil gallery got blocked so it was starved of oil on that rod? Bet you are gutted
I am beyond gutted sambo!! Not sure whats done it, it was plastigauaged, going to get the torque wrench checked this week to see if it's reading properly. May well have that crank, how much do you want for it? Thanks for the offer
Well slowly getting there. The block is at a friends engine shop, first place I went to didn't seem too interested. He's pulled the crank out but I haven't had chance to speak to him , hopefully he can tell me what went wrong. Poss a bit of sealant got into an oil way? Ordered a single rod from Integrated Engineering, it's prob gonna be 2-3 grams out, will weight it and see what needs to be done. Also got a VR6 throttle body adapter plate, new rod bolts, and one of their manual cambelt tensioner kits. I wanted to change my auto tensioner but the IE kit seems very reasonable. Thanks to Sambo I've got a crank on it's way, seems to be easier to just swap it rather than get mine reground. Trying to save as much money as I can, esp as I'm having to replace some bits that I've not long bought. Selling off my duostyling afr gauge to raise some funds, maybe a kidney as well.........
Still a mystery to be honest. Hoping to see the guy soon, keep missing him when ever I ring. Crank should be arriving tomorrow. Rod has arrived, its 2.5g lighter than the other, hope that won't cause too many issues. Cheers for asking :-)
In the real world 2.5grams isn't going to make any difference so I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you really want to get them back on. 2.5grams from which end though? If you#re going to get them the same you'll need to get them all weighed end for end. Gutted about it failing It's a ba rs tard when it happens!
Not sure to be honest. It was bang on but the rifle drilling brought the weight down. Unfortunately it's the closest rod they had.
Hello and good morning! Apologies for the lack of updates, been busy setting up a garage with a friend! Finally got the time to put the golf back together, all running sweet (touch wood!). New race spec main and big end bearings. New arp rod bolts, oem main bolts, oil pump, block hone etc. Will try and update some photos of the old bearings as I think they tell a fair story! Done over 450 miles now, breaking it in slowly. It's on it's 3rd mineral oil change now. Taken it to 4k rpm a few times but still being gentle. I've got a bigger intercooler, VR6 throttle body, wmi kit, 550cc genesis injectors, 3" turbo inlet and 3" maf to go on before/when it's mapped. Just want to get some more miles on it then find someone to map it!! Hasn't missed a beat so far, and I hope I'm not tempting fate!! Thanks for everyones help getting it fixed
Here's some pictures of the remaining big end bearings. The pair on the left had hardly any wear on them yet the outside of them has clearly got very hot. I remember that when I bought the bearings from vw they only sent 3, I had to order one set separately. Not sure if that's significant or not?
