2litre Orange mk1, The 7 year saga continues, wiring help needed!

Sorry chaps, rarely on here! Thanks for the comments. Will be uploading more soon. 2 litre engine went bang!

Sad news mate. Hope you can get it sorted. What engine is going in?

Not sure if that's a joke smudger? I spoke to you in the week, I'm coming to buy the engine you have for sale on saturday haha.

I'm switching back to a 1.8 8v gti, with a 4 branch and a larger throttle body/ WUR from a 16v mk2 golf/ audi. Personally I never got the 2 litre to run quite right no matter what i tried. For the future ease of ordering parts/ originality and reliability I'll be going back to the 1.8. Gonna have the head skimmed, new head gasket, cam belt, new piston rings and shells, new gaskets all round and hope that does the trick!

much lower compression on the standard GTI, I would hope it makes it a touch more reliable so hopefully I don't have to be rebuilding another engine again in the near future! This one only lasted 25,000 after a full rebuild!

         

Just testing

Long time no update, I've been busy sorting out the 2l engine in the golf. It's taken me a LONG time because I'm trying to work in conditions such as this (yes i have been laying under the car in this):


Dodging weather like this (click for video):



To take this out:


Turns out, the horrible noise it was making wasn't in fact the bottom end bearing, but instead it had blown the headgasket between cylinder 1 and two. Also piston rings were knackered So, engine has been lifted out and had the bores rehoned, fitted with new piston rings, new valve stem oil seals, skimmed the head, new gaskets throughout the engine, new febi engine mounts pressed in as well as the addition of this little gem from classic-vw:



Which is categorically one of the best purchases i've ever made! makes the car SOOOO much nicer to drive, a lot less slop in the engine.

Had a snag when refitting the engine, went to tighten up an exhaust stud the *SNAP* I could have cried, the thought of having to pull the engine out again was too much! Luckily after removing the manifold I could unscrew the remaining part with a set of mole grips, PHEW. panic over on that front! The reason it snapped was because of the hex-end on the stud. to avoid this, I wen't back to the fixings shop, and once again all they had were hex-end studs, so I bought a set that were much longer so when the nut was tightened, it was way past the hex-insertion bit, and on to a solid shank of steel. I bought a new deep set 6 sided socket to ensure no slippage and this did the job nicely!






Now, the engine is back in the car and running:



However, it is not without problems…electrical problems.
Turns out the fuesebox has some corrosion, could well be the patch of gaffer tape that was covering up a missing grommet that's come off, and worked it's way in there, i'm really hoping it's not the windscreen. I had it replaced only a couple of years ago with no visible rust then.

I've got another fuse box spare so i'll try fitting that tommorrow and see if I dont have more joy. At the moment it runs but if I turn the lights on, the fuel relay goes crazy and blows. Also reverse lights stay on permanently and dash lights flicker so she's obviously not well.

I was wondering if anybody might be able to help identify these two stray wires and where they go:


This one is attached to the dash loom, the only pure black wire I can think of is for the coil, it is a female spade, any idea where this goes?

Also this brown and white wire coming from the engine loom, now there's a brown and white wire on the side of the head i believe, any idea where this ought to go?


Any help is most welcome
Thanks for looking

Good work and fair play to you for braving the weather  

Can't help with the wiring I'm afraid though, not my strong point!

black wire looks to be the ignition live feed for the handbrake warning light, black wires almost always ignition live but check carefully to see ifthe black is an over-sheath on the real wire or is the actual colour of the insulation. if it is an ignition live then it goes to one of the 'G' spades on the rear of the fusebox, opposite side to the massive red wire spades. best check the spades first thoguh as nort all of them are ignition live some are lights on etc:
http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?219775

brown wire is an earth of some kind, it may be the dash earth and if so you are correct there is a male white/brown spade coming out of the engine loom hole for this to go to. otherwise its just a random earth for something in the dash and can be earthed to one of the earth claws above the fusebox

Sure I've seen this knocking around southwater and billingshurst a while ago, such a nice colour! Bit random but I don't suppose you know Joe Burman or Matt Murray do you?

As ever, thanks for that info Rubjonny, very helpful.

and 'connor1992' Thanks mate! I do know Joe and Matt yes haha. in fact, there's parts of this car that used to belong to Matt's caddy sport!

Now, I gave that brown and white wire an earth by fitting it to the earth claws, i replaced the fuse box with another un-corroded item. Still not got to the bottom of the fuel relay issues though. The fuel pump relay keeps 'ticking' quite loudly if it's anything under 1500rpm, and eventually stops working. This is the second fuel pump relay that's done the same thing, I can only imagine it's under too much load/ fuel pump drawing too much current?

I've replaced the fuel pump relay with the number 18 relay and it starts and runs just fine, I can turn on the lights without it going haywire so there's progress on that front at least, I can attribute that to the corroded fuesebox probably! Now the heavens have opened so there isn't anything else I can do right now.

To clarify, this used to be a 1.3 and i fitted a lift pump/ swirl pot from a polo mk3 breadvan rather than changing the tank for a GTI one. I've got a standard GTI pump and accumulator. I took the lift pump/ fuel sender out the tank through the access panel under the rear bench, and ran a magnet around, nothing to pick up, a tiny tiny bit of muck but this didn't seem enough to cause any problems, and wasn't magnetic so can't have been from a rusty filler neck.

Next course of action is to take a look at the fuel pump, see that the wiring connectors are nice and clean, and try and take out the little gauze filter within the pump, see if there's a blockage? Is there anything else to look for that could be causing these relays to blow? could it be that the fuel pump is simply knackered (i did buy it second hand, i dont know how old it is), does the accumulator have a filter in that too? or of course, is it a wiring fault hmmmm problems problems…

ps i am aware that fitting the number 18 relay is only a temporary solution and is a hazard if taken out on the road (wont cut out fuel delivery in the event of the crash) but i've fitted it just to get the engine running, try and diagnose this fault, I don't want to keep fitting relays @ £30 a time!

yeah check out the main pump next, gauze on the inlet and whatever. also make sure the lifter pump is actually working, if you unplug the main pump first that'll stop the sound drowning out the lifter.

i assume the rev counter is working ok, as thats what triggers the kjet relay?

Awesome thread  so upsetting seeing it burntout after all that work ,but to take back to an even better stage  brilliant work !!!!!!!!!

Right, a few updates. Disconnected fuel pump to hear the sound of the lift pump - that seems to be pumping away just fine.

Also took apart the fuel pump under the car, but couldn't find a gauze, i'm assuming this is where it's meant to be?


measuring the feed and earth its 11.5 volts across the terminals when the car is idling, this is normal right? I believe this fuel pump and earth are also shared by the lift pump too, I could be wrong on that one but im pretty sure thats how it worked out.

I dont know what to do next, I remember reading a post and someone said their blowing relays was eventually down to a knackered old fuel pump, at £80 a go, i'd rather avoid that if possible but I can't see what else it could be?

no the mesh basket is in the other end

I checked that end too, couldnt see any mesh whatsoever. new pump time then maybe, it is a bit noisey but then it's always been that way?

It worked just fine before the engine came out but then as they say, assumption is the mother of all f-ups! Can't see what else would be causing it…hmmm

*the pump was second hand to me about 2 years ago, I don't know the history of it so it could well be on its way out?

the terminals look a bit grotty, maybe they could do with a good buff up and fresh rings crimped on?

Yeah I've cleaned them up so it's nice and clean, put new connectors on the ends, I'll get ANOTHER relay, fit it and if it's still clicking like mad then I'll remove it before it blows, and purchase a fuel pump as well. See if I can't get to the bottom of it!

Thanks for your help as always rubjonny!