very bad news -was cambelt/lifter noise

[<isham-research.freeserve.co.uk@pop.pol.net.uk>]

> However on torqueing up the bearing caps he
> couldn't get the necesary torque the he felt the ratchet slipping and
> didn't stopped short of the specified torque- this occured on say 4/5
> nuts. - basically this is due to me overtorquing them and to put it
> simply the head is now knackered - it would need to be sent of to an
> engineering firm to be sorted out at massive expense...talk about me
> being an amateur or what.

Depends on your definition of 'massive expense'.  The light engineering
firm we use (Rugby Motor Engineering Services) charges about GBP8 per
helicoiled hole.  If you've stripped the lot (best assumption) it'd be
GBP64 plus VAT.

Only things you can't recover from:  a cracked cap (the head and cam
bearing caps are a set - bored together at the plant), a serious crack,
or a split cam bearing stud post.  Any threaded hole can be drilled and
helicoiled in minutes by a competent shop and the result is stronger
than a threaded hole in alloy.

These trade suppliers (certainly in the Midlands) are extremely cheap -
the markup garages put on their work is 100s of %.  I had an alternator
with oval mounting holes recently - I took it to one of these companies
and asked for the holes to be drilled out to round and sleeved with
phosphor bronze.  I gave them a 'good' alternator to jig up from, and
they did a beautiful job for GBP5 ($8).

> That's not the all  though. he got it
> running and on idle that loud tapping noise disappeared but when he
> reved it the noise that i initially heard appeared again. My mechanic
> reckons this is major and definately not a tappet.

It reappears when it's revved?  One of the cam caps has lifted.  Fix
the head first.  If the 'mechanic' can't get torque, the hole is
pretty far gone.

> He also thinks that the oil I used could have played a big part
> saying that the warranty on a 400bhp ford turbo engine costing over
> GBP4000 was void if mobil 1 was used. This engine knock occurred only
> several days after filling up with the coma synthetic 5w 40. Another
> thing I noticed is that the oil was very thick and very black when I
> drained it yesterday after only several hundred miles.

There's nothing wrong with Comma oils - they're made by one of the major
names and they're quite reputable.  They have a fairly high detergent
content, so it's not surprising that the first change to them would
bring out some crap.

--
 Phil Payne
 UK Audi quattro Owners Club
 Phone +44 7785 302803  Fax +44 870 0883933