Passat update

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

Well, the Passat (which is a recovering victim of black sludge disease)
broke into a lumpy idle last night, at which point I finished my beer
and went to bed.

What started as: "I'll just whip the head off and fix that oil leak
at the back of the engine" turned into a marathon - _pounds_ of cooked
black sludge were removed from the cam cover and head.  Someone hadn't
change the oil very often ...

The injectors were a little tough to shift.  Heard of British
understatement?  The last two were shifted by bolting the head to
a large plank of wood and clamping _that_ to the workbench.  I held
everything down and my 18-year-old (swimmer) son heaved on a three-foot
pry bar.  With new seals, they pop into place with a medium push from
a large screwdriver.

Several surprises.  No nut on the top #5 exhaust stud.  Not a problem
on the bottom, though - simply no stud!  Nothing holding #5 exhaust
port to the head.  The top stud was too short - wound it out.  The
bottom one was sheared off - drilled and extracted it.  Went to Autohaus
for new studs - get them home, and they're too short.  Check length
against microfiche - studs correct, head wrong.

This is a 1986 JS engine - the head casting (034 103 373) is the same
as the MB ur-quattro!  MB studs we have in stock - and they fit!

Went out and bought a _proper_ valve spring compressor with a deep
reach so I could do the valve stem oil seals.

So all along (through my MB head troubles with the cam bearing cap)
I had a spare head sitting in the driveway and didn't know it.  One
mystery is solved - the huge threaded hole that is empty when an
exchange MB head arrives has a two-pin temperature sensor in it in
the Passat application.

Got a set of new gaskets - started reassembly but top #1 exhaust stud
snaps.  So does the stud extractor (E-Z-Out).  Off to the local
engineering shop ...

They do the job - but degrease the fully assembled head in the process.
So I strip out the cam again, to pull out the lifters and smear some
liquid gold everywhere.  I don't like the idea of a fully dry cam
rotating even a few times during startup.

Reassembly is uneventful, except I can't get the fuel system to
pressurise.  It takes _ages_ to get the thing to start, and because I've
messed around with _everything_ (injector seals, valves, plugs) it's
set up all wrong, running much too rich.  Nonetheless, it runs.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
 (The contents of this post will _NOT_ appear in the UK Newsletter.)