Head gasket, engine mount, alternator and everything else :-

Hi All!

 Right, where to start…

 I posted a disheartened story in march about the car overheating and generally having problems every five seconds but i've finally made a huge dent in the work and will write some ramblings with associated pics in case anyone's interested.

 So, back in March the car overheated at the MOT, the previous owner had managed to push the two terminals on the back of the rad fan inside the motor so although the plug was pushed in, it wasn't connected. Cue lots of hot antifreeze over the MOT stations floor and one very rough sounding engine.

 I got her home and didn't touch her for a couple of weeks, when i did eventually take her out for a ride i managed a few miles before pulling on the drive and having it dumping its coolant everywhere.

 First i thought it was the waterpump not giving enough flow at idle hence it's ability to drive ok but dump its coolant everywhere when stopped. The temp guage never went above half way and was working so it wasn't the pump, rad cap maybe? it couldn't be the head gasket could it? A look through the service history showed me that at somepoint, someone had bought some rad weld. Bugger. The rad looked fine, i know you can get some pretty small holes in them but they usually leave a telltale sign. I wondered if maybe the head gasket had started to pressurise the system at somepoint in its past and the "fix" was radweld? The episode at the MOT station may of caused that temporary repair to blow out hence the system pressurising itself again.

 I knew i needed to do the O/S engine mount too, the main bolt had seized inside the engine mounts metal sleeve, undoing it just twisted the mount round and splayed open the mounting bracket on the chassis. Engine supported, reciprocating saw out, cut through the bolt either side of the mount, undid the front and rear engine mounts and jacked it up. Inlet manifold fouled on the bulkhead, bugger. I dropped the engine down instead as i hate removing things which don't really need removing but this time the cambelt tensioner shaft fouled on the chassis rail. What are we up to? plan C? Right, lets remove the engine mount complete with the plate which bolts to the block, seems easy enough. No chance……..Previous owner had rounded the allen bolt which holds it to the block. I tried everything i can think of to get bolts out but had to resort to sacrificing an allen key.

 

 

The plan would be to just crack the bolt, grind off the key and use a spanner to remove the remains. Worked a treat!

I took the mounting bracket and mount into work to use the press. Once that was done i realised i'd pressed it in 180 degrees out! Could i press it back out again? could i hell, there's so little metal in that bracket it's almost impossible to support it while pressing the mount out, out comes the reciprocating saw again…..

 

 I cut the mounting bracket and out she popped, just had to weld it back up again……

 

New mount fitted with stainless bolts. Right way up this time ;-)



This is where i'm going to make my excuses, as an engineer i know there is a right way, a wrong way and a temporary solution, this falls into the temporary solution bracket, but only just ;-) I have a house move going on and needed the car to at least run, once the move is over i'll do it the right way but until now can everyone keep their fingers crossed for me!

 Cheeky head gasket cheat, only unbolted the exhaust manifold, everything else is still attatched. In my defence i did use my phone to video the underside of the head to check for pitted valves, excessive head pitting etc but it all looked fine.

 

 The old gasket did SEEM ok but i've known head gaskets to have the tiniest hole in them and cause all sorts of aggro

 

 A quick scrub with detergent and then petrol cleaned up the mating faces before bolting it back up

 

 Good old Tippex :-)

 

Apparently this casting is obsolete and was the only way you could get that O ring, the O ring is without a doubt past its best so i managed to source a replacement. The casting came up a treat with a wire brush but you'll have to take my word for it :-)

 

 So far i've replaced the Water pump, the Alternator, the radiator, the radiator fan and motor (word of warning, the replacement for this covers 11 VW models and is a two speed version. The standard MK1 fan connector plug will fit but it makes the fan run BACKWARDS, you can see those rubber flaps on the cowling opening rather than being sucked shut. using a screw driver you can lever the terminals out of the plug and swap them round. I'm using the slow speed, i haven't gone through the MK1s electrics so i don't know if the relay / fuse will cope with the extra current draw if the fast speed is used. Fast speed on the two speed fan may be the same as the speed on the single fan, i've no idea) The fan switch, the thermostat, the cambelt and tensioner, the engine mount, erm, i think thats it!

  She's all bolted back together now and fired up a treat, warming up, fan kicking in (correct rotation), fan kicking out, etc etc. Tomorrow i'll be dumping the water that's in there, standard practice for me, if there's any leaks after major work then water's nice and cheap. Once it's water tight, chuck in the Antifreeze and de-ionised water from Asdas (other supermarkets are available)

 I just hope that head gasket holds!

  Cheers, Rob.

Fuse number 5 popped, fuel pump deadded. Great.

looks like you had lots of fun! fingers crossed the head isnt warped, if it didnt get over 3/4 then chances are you'll be ok. good work getting the exhaust manifold off with inlet still in place that must have been a chore!

Yeah great fun! Sorry i miswrote that bit, i left the manifold on, i just split it between that and the downpipe and managed to get a couple of inches clearance between the head / block to visually check everything. Seriously though it's starting to break me, after all that work i managed about 4 miles before the fuel pump packed up. When she overheated it just blew the rad cap, as soon as that happened i shut her down so we'll see, i didn't check but i'd imagine it did go above 3/4. :pray:

 Cheers,

   Rob.

ah that would make it easier then, i thought you were a bit of a legend getting the manifold off head