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• 303K miles is all she's got!!!! Carnage UPDATED!! by Mikeyworks on 31 May, 2005 16:55
• x-posted from the TDIClub
  
  Well, after nearly 3 weeks of highly enjoyable driving with no indication of any troubles, my 2000 Jetta TDI with the original 303K mile engine gave up today.
  
  Let me start off with, this is never a good sight (especially on your wedding anniversary):
  
  
  The bad news went down like this; I was driving along US 1 north of Bel Air, MD when I started to hear a noise from the  engine. Having blown the engine in my '81 Caddy TD about 8 months ago, I know that such engine noise is never good.  I reached for the key and before I could get it off, it stopped for[/b] me...not good!!!
  
  I got the valve cover off to find this:
  
  
  I can see a missing tappet and a chewed up cam. Further inspection found pieces of the spring in bad places.
  
  Here's what I recovered of the tappett:
  
  
  So, it's on looking for parts:
  Head (likely bad looking underneath)
  Cam
  piston (probably the same as the head)
  
  Or maybe just a whole new longblock to start anew.
  
  Time to look for some parts.
  
  Please bow your head and think of me today...I think my wife is going to kill me!!!!
  
  Mikey
• #1 by Mikeyworks on 31 May, 2005 16:55
• Well, today I took the head off to determine how bad the damage is. I was hoping that it was confined to the head, but no such luck.
  
  See for yourself:
  
  This is the top of Piston #1...the valve is not welded in, just sitting in the piston dish
  
  
  
  The others don't look too bad, they have some of the shrapnell in them from #1, but no damage to the pistons, cylinder walls, or the head
  
  
  
  
  
  And the bad part is the head:
  The injector nozzle is toast as is the glow plug, so I will have three good injectors...just needs some work
  I think the head as a whole is toast. I don't think it's salvagable...but some of you may believe otherwise, if so, please let me know
  
  
  
  
  
  I hope you enjoyed it!!!
  
  Mikey
• #2 by lord_verminaard on 31 May, 2005 19:04
• Holy crap Mikey- you aught to know the tow truck driver by name!!!   :lol:
  
  Well, on the good side, you could probably put a whole new damn engine in that and for what you payed for the car, you'd still be ahead of the game.  
  
  Interesting that it looks like the tappet failed.  The only two instances of actual internal damage on a TDI that I witnessed while I worked for VW were both tappet failure.  I'm pretty sure that the TDI uses the same lifters that the 2.0's use, and you can beat 2.0's like stepchildren all day long and not drop one.  Wierd.
  
  Good luck, once again.    You will probably have an easier time finding a TDI head than an IDI these days.  Putting it back together all stock or are you adding any "goodies"?
  
  Brendan
  84 Scirocco 8v
  00 Camaro L36 M49
• #3 by Staley on 31 May, 2005 19:23
• UM.. thats bad.
  let me know if you need a good source for parts or engines.
  I can get REAL good prices on new VW engines from Eurospec.
• #4 by Mikeyworks on 31 May, 2005 20:17
• Yeah, I'm starting to know the tow truck drivers pretty well.
  
  I'm going to replace the engine and get this car back on the road soon enough. I can't afford not to!!!!
  
  I think the damage came from the valve head falling off the shaft.
  When I bought the car, it was not running as the cam had slipped one tooth in relation to the crank. It's not enough to toast the head right away, but enough to bend the valve. When the timing was reset, the slightly bent valve hit the seat repeatedly and straightened itself out. At the same time, it weakened the shaft and eventually led to valve failure and a plethora of broken bits in there.
  
  I can salvage most of the engine (less the one piston and likely the head is gone for good too). The piston wall looks ok and the rest of the engine seems fine. Time to sell it off and recoup some of my cost for the new replacement engine.
  
  Mikey
• #5 by Mikeyworks on 31 May, 2005 20:23
• Quote from: "Staley"

  UM.. thats bad.
  let me know if you need a good source for parts or engines.
  I can get REAL good prices on new VW engines from Eurospec.

  
  
  You have IM!!!!  Please get back to me with more info!!!!
  
  Mikey
• #6 by asau on 01 Jun, 2005 12:02
• so are you gonna but a complete engine? if so I need a tdi crank and timing gear to fix my AAZ IDI
• #7 by fspGTD on 01 Jun, 2005 12:08
• Dude, Mikey - so sorry to hear... it looked like a beautiful car.
  
  What could the chain of events that lead to the failure be?!?
• #8 by Mikeyworks on 02 Jun, 2005 16:18
• Jake, see my post above.
  
  To the best of my knowledge, a botched TB job lead to this self destruction!!!!
  
  Mikey