[urq] WX 000454 is RIP

Thu Jan 31 22:14:40 PST 2008

I know your pain Louis-Alain!  You know, as I look back on it, over the 20
years I've had my car the weakest link on the car was that head.  It was one
of the first things that I had to work on, and even though my car is never
going to be anywhere near the top dollar for urqs, I always tried to keep it
stock.  

With that said ... I really wish I'd done the MC-2 motor swap years ago.  My
car is still running pretty well with the MC-2 engine and WX fuel injection
with the MAC-02.  Every once in a while it has a tough time firing up from a
lukewarm start, but as long as I don't let the hot start pulse relay start
clicking I can usually get it going.  The car is *so* much stronger than I
remember it ever having been ... and that was echoed by a friend of mine who
rode in the car yesterday (and who had ridden in it before).  The extra
static compression makes it jump off the line much better, and when the K-24
kicks in ... :-)**2

I'm sure some will say that if you're going to do an engine swap you might
as well go to the 20V, and perhaps someone who has done this can chime in
about the difficulty.  The thing is that sticking with the MC means that you
can tackle more or less of the complete swap, depending on your time and
budget.  I think my car was at Brasil's for about a month from tow in to
drive out ... but the plan originally was to do a head swap on the WX; a
plan that had to change once we saw the coolant leak into the block.  I was
pretty lucky in that I found a complete MC-2 that had already been pulled,
complete with all the wiring and plumbing.  If I had told John to stick with
the WX fuel distributor I probably would have gotten the car back one week
or more sooner.  

Unfortunately I did not do the swap, so I don't know all the details, but
I'll pass along what I know had to be done with the '91 MC-2 swap into my
car.  My goal is to go with the MAC-14 and dual knock sensors, so John
[Brasil] had to do a bit of machining of the bellhousing casing to match the
MC-2 block's casting.  He also had to do some work with the engine mount on
the left side of the engine (spark plug side) to mount the hydraulic
pressure accumulator.  To make this all fit he found a crankcase vent
fitting from a car that had the standard diameter hose (as opposed to that
large diameter fitting on the MC-2 block).  The only other fabrication that
had to be done was to make up oil cooler lines that allowed the WX oil
cooler to interface with the single filter flange of the MC.  For now I'm
using the WX intake tract ... of course there's now a K-24 in the loop, but
everything else came from a WX ... all the way up to the intake manifold.
John told me he transferred the caps from the MC injectors to the WX
injectors to make them work.  

Perhaps the biggest conundrum was the flywheel, with all the worry about the
reference pin position.  In the end I found that the difference is very
small, so you should be able to use a flywheel from the MC or the WX with
either the MAC-02 or the MAC-14.  Be advised that you will need to position
the sensor for the flywheel pin differently depending on MAC-14 or MAC-02,
but if you do it right you can use the MAC-02's location in the bellhousing,
or the MAC-14's position in the engine block casting.  I wish I had a
lighter flywheel to use, but to keep the project moving I went with the WX
flywheel on the MC-2.  

I think I'm about ready to try swapping the MC fuel distributor, warm up
regulator and injectors onto the car ... that will be the next test.  When I
get that done I will start preparing for the swap over to the MAC-14 (I
already have all the electrical details worked out, I just need to work out
the logistics on what will mount where ... The funny thing is that when I
get that done I'm going to work on going to an 034EFI fuel injection system
(or perhaps the latest flavor of MegaSquirt) ... 

Best of luck to you Louis-Alain, whatever path you choose!

Steve B
San José, CA (USA)

-----Original Message-----

My trusty WX had a little hiccup last Sunday, on the way to Mecaglisse ice
lapping day. The head gasket blew between cylinder 4 and 5, and the result
is a dead WX. The head, rebuilt less than 4 years ago, is shot, material is
gone between the 2 cylinders, and the #4 piston is partly melted as well. So
a new engine is in the future for my car. We also found that the turbo as a
small crack and the exhaust manifold is a little warped too. Oh well.

I would prefer to do a repair using as many stock parts as possible. There
is 2 WX for sale now, but each are far from here, and they have a lot of
miles on them too. I have not decided against any of them yet. There is also
a  WX short block pro-rebuilt available on ebay, but then, I need a head and
a turbo.  

I would too evaluate a MC swap, either with the WX CIS or the MC system. I
want the car back on the road as fast as possible, to prevent the "car that
sit too long for repair" syndrome.

So any of you has something for me ? A rebuild head (WX, KH, WK or WR) would
be fine, a good used K26 or K24 too, stock or oversized pistons, etc.

 Or a complete engine with all the surroundings, either a WX or a MC. 

Speaking of heads, there is a bunch of 2,1 liter rebuilts available for
cheap, one is 25$ now on ebay and a guy on vwvortex has many of them,( 035
103 373H is the casting number) but no one knows for sure on which engine
they fit. Are they hydraulic or solid ? If solid, then could I buy one and
transfer the cam/valves from my engine ? Links are here :
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3596751 and
http://tinyurl.com/3cnm2d 

Oh, last question: what would cause a gasket failure like this ? When I
asked Geraint and Brady this very question, they answered (collectively
laughing) : " Why bother, it's screwed, man ". Well, I want to be sure that
the failure was not caused by a clogged injector, or an air leak, or
something else that would resurface with the next engine. The shame is the
car was going very well prior to that, accelerating hard without any
hiccups. The failure happened after an half hour drive at 75 mph, then we
left the highway to take a regional road. Starting from stop, I did my usual
0-60 WOT acceleration, then kaboom ! I kept running for a few kilometers, to
find a safe spot to stop. That distance is surely responsible for the
piston/head meltdown, (my fault), but what caused the first gasket failure ?
The car was filled with fresh 94 unleaded from the day before. 

Enough for now, 

Louis-Alain

_______________________________________________
Audifans urq mailing list
Send posts to: mailto:urq at audifans.com
Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/urq
UPG2008 planning at: http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/urquattro/

You can help keep the audifans site running by shopping at
http://audifans.com/shop/