[Vwdiesel] aaz, thermostat, bolts, long block engine

[Travis Gottschalk]

My $.02 on a few things. One thing you should always do on a thermostat is test it. The part is cheap but getting to it is hard (i.e. coolant going everywhere). Put water in a pan with it in there and bring to a boil with a temp reader in the water. Then cool the water back down to make sure it works both ways correctly. 

I think my AAZ is the eco version. My injection pump isn't ran off of any vacuum or boost things. It is very similar to the 1.6 NA pump. The car does have more power then the 1.6 NA but as stated it really doesn't get any better MPG like I had hoped it would. I think I will settle for a Giles pump in my truck so I can just keep the simple 1.6 NA in that and gain some HP that way. 

With the rod bolts, some will tell you to replace every-time. I would say inspect. The rod bolts in theory shouldn't have much stretch force to them because of the compression on the cylinder pushing down on it. I haven't ever replaced the rod bolts

The 11mm head bolts. Only had one engine with them in there. I made the mistake of putting a "new" head on there from Parts Place and there was a blocked off oil port (same casting used for the hydro heads I think). Nothing wrong with the old head but guess who got the old head. I was younger and dumber then. Well I also used there bolts but don't know if they were the diesel stretch or what. I actually put about 10K miles on it and the only issue I had was I had to attempt to plug that extra port several times. And the overheating-but I found out that was my "new" radiator from carquest. The baffle to direct the flow across the rad was missing so it wasn't cooling enough. I thought it was the head as well but turns out it wasn't. I had to much faith in new parts. Turns out the second rad from a different maker and place had the same issue as well. But I already had the AAZ in at that time thinking it was the engine and wanting more HP anyways. My truck has the 12mm so I should be good with that. 

I would try to start the engine as is if you can. Might have to bolt into a car to pull start it but that way you can see if just running it would get the ring seated good enough. Do a compression test then. If you want cheap and easy that is the route I would go. 

Travis