The Project Pad

So, getting car ready and such to pass e-test and Ontario safety because I moved to Ontario 3 years ago. The car was put aside for a while since I had other stuff to do before getting her on the road.

Now she is burning oil! :( I took out the O2 sensor and anked a camera towards turbo! Leaking black substance behind turbine. Downpipe at turbo has trace of oil!

So! this week I started tearing down the exahaust system, down pipe and exhaust manifold. That manifold to down pipe has one nut that is a PITA! Well, no problemz! Helmu cutz und veldz 15mm box wrench. Photo's to come shortly.

Getting the nuts off the exhaust manifold to head! Yeah right! Got the top ones off, but couldn't reach the ones under the manifold. Screw, it, no time to mess around. I pull the head. Much easier since I'll be able to top off the nuts.

Original headgasket was in there. I read somewhere if the Victor Reinz lettering is on the top side, it's the original.

Now the fun part! Finding a turbo and which way to go? I was thinking of going back to a K24 since I would like to keep the car in the original state for reliabilty purposes. I know, slap on a big turbo! Big tuebo would be fun, BUT i know myself to well and would get myself into to much trouble. Stock it is! LOL

I fugures since the E/M s off, why not make a nice header! Why not a custom downpipe! Heck even a whole exhaust! Brain juices are flowing.

I read also on here that Marc from EFI Express can fine tune Motronic AAN chipset depending on turbo and such. It would be nice since it would cut some costs on rebuilding my baby. For now, it's all I have. Will add pics of tear down on the week end.

Here are some pics!

I had to male a special wrench for downpipe nut nicely tucked down there!



Yup, were burnin' oil!


Original head gasket? I had to pull head off to get to nuts under the exhaust manifold. It was impossible since the box wrench would strip. It was too lose from nuts shrinking over time.

I am in a dilemma! Get a rebuilt K24 and slap back on! Or go bigger!

Do the quick thing to get running now and put together a solution for more power over a period of time. Driving is better than hoarding parts haha

PRY4SNO wrote:Do the quick thing to get running now and put together a solution for more power over a period of time. Driving is better than hoarding parts haha

I haven't driven her in 2 years! :( If I go the K24 rebuild, I am still going to fabricate a turbo back SS exhaust!

A bit more progress this morning! Turbo and EM removed from head! Gut some busted studs stuck in the head! Grrrr! No worries, will drill out on milling machine! Notice valve seals are leaking too!

So, I milled broken studs and re-drilled and installed heli-coils. There is some porting that will be going on! I do believe some polishing wouldn't hurt!

I've been polishing exhaust ports! Pictures don't show justice! :( Waiting for my headgasket kit to arrive. Meanwhile we keep on polishing!

Nice work on the porting and maintenance issues - will feel great knowing things have been taken care of properly. Unless I'm mistaken, Marc has a drop in EFR 6758 solution for you... should work well with the new exhaust too

Intake side Untouched


Exhaust Side polished. Pic doesn't justify the smoothness! I am not going mirror finish.

Looks like you hardly removed any material at all, while making the port über smooth and retained the original profile.

Well done!

All_Euro wrote:Nice work on the porting and maintenance issues - will feel great knowing things have been taken care of properly. Unless I'm mistaken, Marc has a drop in EFR 6758 solution for you... should work well with the new exhaust too

Maybe next year!

PRY4SNO wrote:Looks like you hardly removed any material at all, while making the port über smooth and retained the original profile.

Well done!

Pretty smooth! Was looking at intake side. It has some imperfections and high spots. Contemplating at passing a drum wheel with coarse paper.

My home made valve spring compressor. Removing retainers, springs etc. to get to seals. I might have to make a tool to install the new ones!

Nice tool... I'm rebuilding a cylinder head right now as well. I don't have the "proper" tool to remove valves so I used a deep socket , dead blow hammer and a magnet. Was thinking of buying a valve install tool for the reassembly... but maybe I should wait and see what you come up with first

Same tool. Look in picture. I machined a slot to have access to re-install retainers! Everything was thought out!

I noticed that - what will you use to hold the valves in place for reassembly?

When I removed my valves I had the head on 2x4's so it was off the work bench... was thinking I'd need a big C-clamp or something to hold the valve shut during assembly.

Here is my seal removal pliers! I drilled some 5/8" dia rod through and opened up the bore leaving a lip on the bottom to catch seal edge. I then welded to cheap long nose pliers. Then I cut a slit with grinding disk.

old leaking and hard seal left. New right.

Better picture of buffing. I didn't like the results, so I buffed some more!

Not much has been done since me and the wifey were off for 3 weeks. Spent 2 weeks camping in Algonquin Park. Felt good, since this year has been hectik. I ordered gaskets from FCP because the stealership ones were uber expensive. Now I am awaiting ARP studs which is a 2-3week wait or maybe earlier.

Now it's flippin' 40C with humidty. Yesterday I was working on the wiring on my 2001 Jetta TDI to get some AC. This week I want AC as i will be working in a hot plant and have a 1hr commute each way. I found a break in the wire. I fixed that, but now the coil is toast. No Problemz vee feex. I took off the clutch, sandwiched in an old cleaned up o-ring from my oil filter cap. Compressor turns nicely and now i have air. I know it's MacGyverish, but when desperate anything goes.

Ready to by slapped on the block! Waiting impatiently for my ARP head studs!