Howdy All, I've been doing some maintenance to my VR6 recently. I have flushed the engine, drained the oil & coolant. Thus far I have just finished cleaning the sump, oil pump and put a new sump gasket on ! All nice & clean ! Bottom of the VR looking ok after 75k ! With nicely cleaned (& primed) oil pump back on ! Actually it was not that dirty But might as well if I was changing the sump gasket ! I will be cleaning the Oil Cooler next & have just done the filter housing. Then a quick engine & transmission clean, plus sort the thermostat housing & crack pipe ! More pics to come ! (I will get round to changing that Inner CV Joint ... honest !)
good skill. done some useful jobs there was there any muck in there at all? ive been meaning to do it to mine (163k miles)
Well surprisingly the sump was as clean as a whistle ! ... .I was thinking i'd find a lot of gunk in there as you said Matt ! Mind you the front of the engine is a mess .... a leaky Rocker Cover gasket has seen to that ... been a few years of gunk depositing ... so that'll be a nasty job I replaced the Rocker gasket back in September with a VW one ... and still leaking (even with 50-60Nm on the bolts ?). So I've got some VW gasket silicone sealant (pinkish stuff) and will clean it up & re-seal it with silicone. Hope that does the trick !
is the breather system in good nick? the crank case vacuum should help keep some oil in... also, are you certain that its not your oil filler cap leaking (seeing as youve done the rocker cover)
I cleaned the Crank Case Breather Valve & pipe, plus the Throttle back in March ... there was some oil in there but all connections are tight and no leaks since. The Oil filler cap is fine ... the leak is coming from around the front of the whole Rocker Cover so I'll take it off give it a clean again & re-seal with silicone as well (just to make sure). I've got a split Inner CV boot so that has thrown CV grease over the transmission etc.... yuk ..... that'll take some cleaning ... hmmm do I buy a JML steam cleaner to get going with ? being careful of course. I have also just changed the gear box oil with VW stuff ... now that was an easy job (with a piece of garden hose !). What is strange though is that the Transmission holds 2litres, so I put both bottles in and I guess 300ml ran out of the inspection hole until it levelled out > ? Oh well
possibly did the ATF trick which is pretty popular round here. do a search for the atf trick on the engines board Ezy D... was it much of a job getting the bolts out for the sump? did the subframe get in the way at all?
Always remember to keep your VR’s full to the max with oil, sounds stupid but I’ve done a few where they have run low on oil and knocked the bottom end out, and they weren’t really low
Well it was really easy to get the sump bolts off ... they're set at about 25Nm so about hand-tight ! For mine I had to take off the flywheel cover (2 bolts) which was really easy again. As for the engine flush I usually put a can of Wynn's Engine Flush in and fast idle for about 20mins (1500rpm ... no more that 2000rpm!). I've yet to try the ATF trick, but having a look and the bottom of the engine I guess it actually doesn't need it. http://www.wynnoil.co.uk/retail.htm (Normally about 5.00) I also flushed the coolant system with some cleaner (drove to work & back with it in). So hopefully that has sorted a thing or two. I'll get some more pics of me sorting the cooling system. I am putting a new crack pipe in (it broke ) plus a new Aux Water Pump as well.
Sure i heard somewhere that its not a good idea to overtighten rocker covers, sumps etc as they have a tendancy to leak even more....... might be wrong
I was thinking about one of them cunning JML steam cleaners myself actually, nice and precise so chance of breaking stuff is more limited
Update time. Got my replacement parts today (after a 14 mile bike ride, phew .. hehe the rain stayed off long enough). The dreaded coolant pipe (it'll do for the moment and get a metal one next year!) > Here is the Thermostat housing ... Old vs. New ! More of the fatigue > I'll start putting these on Wednesday and Thursday. Think I'll be buying one of these to clean the engine (it should do the trick !) > http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/n...refview=search&ts=1182798123283&isSearch=true I'll let you know how I get on
Update Time I've taken the inlet manifold and bits off to get cleaning and sort the leak from the rocker cover ! There is some oil in the intake & crankcase breather valve. Also the inlet manifold has some oil inside of it . I was expecting a little but it is slightly more than anticipated ! Hmmm have cleaned that up. Below you can see where the leak from the 'new' rocker cover gasket is happening . Mainly to the right-hand side. So I've started cleaning this and will take the rocker cover off tomorrow and silicone it back together with correct Nm on the bolts. There is one problem though, where the oil has leaked it has collected in the spark plug wells Some of the HT lead ends where covered in it Somehow I have to get that oil out <grrrrrr >. More pics tomorrow when I get to the bottom of it. I've also bought a Steamer and will try to get cleaning the exterior of the engine & transmission tomorrow too . Hopefully that'll get rid of some of the muck it has accumulated.
We are now onto the home straight. After a long day yesterday of cleaning here are some pics for you all - Cleaned the fuel supply bits and front of the engine, plus the rocker cover gasket. Lets hope it doesn't leak. I think I didn't perhaps tighten the front bolts enough .... the rear ones were tight but the front ones were relatively loose . The chains look good to me Well after about 2 hours cleaning here is how the transmission & side of the engine look . Great I'm happy ... almost I cleaned the hole for the coolant pipe ready for fitting. After this I cleaned the front of the engine (as best I could while fitted!) still a bit messy in this pic ! Also cleaned the transmission mount & CV joint .... has come up trumps ! Hurrah ! ..... we're getting there slowly. Well I found the best thing to use for cleaning oil & CV grease from the engine/transmission was Brillo pads AutoGlym Engine Cleaner Clean Cloths Stiff Bristle Brushes Elbow grease I did use a steam cleaner but to be fair it really didn't do that much. It helped a little, I was expecting more though. So almost there. The oil cooler & filter housing are back on. Plus Rocker Cover & Intake Manifold. Today I refit the cooling system (new Aux Pump, Sensor Housing, Crack/Coolant Pipe, expansion tank, plus new O-rings all round), then the battery, clean the air filter and put the HT leads back on. Then check I have put everything back together and its connected properly, after that it's fingers crossed. Fill with oil & coolant .... reconnect the battery and game on ! I haven't driven the car for about 2 weeks and I'm itching to get stuck in. More pics later !
Getting there at last. Started putting everything back together yesterday, phew New Thermostat New Aux. Water Pump Ready to roll with new o-rings all round ! Cleaned up the sensors with wire wool ..... clean vs dirty ! Almost there Just a few bits left to do
Your absolutely right Carl, happened to mine a few years back. Had to put it in to a well known garage, because I was too busy with being self-employed. Bloody sump spewed oil out everywhere not long after I left the garage.
