[Vwdiesel] about to re-ring, scuff question

[Gary Shea]

On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, at 16:39 [-0400], Nate Wall (nwall at opei.org) wrote:

> I put Jack's Grant Rings in my '85 TD three years ago (about $35/set) . I
> got 50,000 miles out of it. Oil usage steadily increased over the three
> years the motor was in there , 'til it got to a quart every 300 miles. I
> then called it quits. My reason for re-ringing--a broken compression ring.
> The bores (and pistons?) were worn out when I began, though. Motor had
> 208,000 miles on it. That may have been part of the problem. You should be
> fine for a year. I honed w/ a 3-stone drill-powered hone and took heating
> oil (diesel works) and flooded the crank area when done to get the hone
> debris out. At 250,000 when I retired the motor, I disassembled and the
> mains and rod bearings looked great, so I got all the grit out.
>
> --Nate

Hey Nate!

Thanks for the history, that's pretty much the kind of short term
solution I'm looking for.  I drive maybe 8-10K a year typically, so the
motor won't see a lot of wear.  Incidentally, it burns a remarkably
small amount of oil right now... I need to check that again.  I have to
admit I've never even checked the valves, as I don't have the tools to
do the adjustments... yet, I guess.  I have only filled it up maybe 4
or 5 times so far, so probably 2k or fewer miles so far.

What did you do with all that heating oil after the flood?  I just don't
like messing with large amounts of solvent (i.e., diesel, heating
oil, gas, mineral spirits, etc.) 'cause then there's all this unusable
stuff I don't know what to do with, it's like instant home-made
pollution.  That's why I'm looking for alternative solutions.

I guess I could use diesel, make a pressurizable can with air fittings,
and force the diesel out through a spare oil filter I just happen to
have, but I kinda wanted to finish this project in a week or so!  :)
Not to mention all the rags and oil on the garage floor... uggh!

	Gary

> Gary Shea wrote:
>
> > Hi --
> >
> > After discovering that my Rabbit's compression ranges from 250 to 300,
> > I have decided to do something about it.  My plan is to pull the engine
> > this week and re-ring it.  I plan to do the absolute minimum -- pull off
> > the old rings, put on the new ones, and put it back together again.
> > Next year I hope to put the TD in there, but I can't afford to rebuild
> > it properly now, and I don't really want to put any money into the
> > Rabbit engine, since I will be pulling it in the spring!
> >
> > I got my rings from Jack Ewald at vwdieselparts.com, turns out they're
> > Grant rings.  In the last couple months I've heard a number of horror
> > stories about Grant rings not seating.  Just to improve my odds, I'm
> > trying to think of a way to scuff the cylinder walls to help the rings
> > seat.  I don't want to use a hone, as I'm too afraid of the metal bits
> > it'll generate.  I was thinking of using an oil-soaked Scotch-Brite pad
> > to rough up the walls a bit.  With care, I could avoid having any crap
> > drip into the engine... I hope.  What do you think?
> >
> >         Gary
> >
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>
>