Rebuild or Replace

[1990_Jetta_IDI]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum, but have had my Jetta for about 5 years now.

Here's the back story.  The Jetta and I were on a trip and when I checked the oil I noticed that there was nothing registering on the dip stick :evil: .  Two litres of oil later it is filled up and I am off home to find out where the oil went.  I have a look and it appears the turbo seal is done (oil puked out all over the place)and there is leak by the oil gallery and the head...find a new turbo and have the head gasket changed.  Oil consumption is better...but I am still going through a litre every 600-700 KM (about a tank of fuel...that's worse than normal as well). There is a lot of blow-by (can see when I take off the oil cap while running), and I get a fair bit of smoke at start-up.

I figure I have lost the rings?  Dealership is not very helpful and no one wants to touch the diesel.   What are my options?  I've done engine work before, but is a simple re-ring complicated on this car or not?

I need help.

[jtanguay]

you should at least try doing a ring job.   Always try to restore the old diesels

[chrissev]

My jetta's 1.6TD was rebuilt by a diesel truck mechanic and has done 50,000km since then without any problems.  They are really nice when they are rebuilt.  They start at -20 degrees without a block heater and they are very peppy.  So they are worth rebuilding.  But it will be expensive.  To do it right you should take the engine out and do all the bearings because if you just buff up the cylinders and replace the main bearings and the rings then a bit later the intermediate shaft bearings might go bad and you will lose oil pressure (I had this happen to me on a rabbit diesel).  So to do it right you are looking at taking the block to a machine shop to get them to hone out the cylinders for you and also having the crank and intermediate shaft done and replacing all the bearings.  Depending on the condition of the cylinders you may or may not need to fit oversize pistons.  You would normally budget around $1000 bucks to do it right if you are going to be assembling it yourself and getting a machine shop to do all the metal finishing work (I personally would not hone a cylinder myself because if the cross pattern is wrong it can cause oil consumption) including buying the new parts.  If you have a bit more money it also might be a good time to replace some parts on the cylinder head, or send it to a head shop to get it rebuilt.  My valve stem seals are leaking right now and I wish I had had the head rebuilt when I had it off to have the engine rebuilt.  Would have been a lot easier then.

[Northboundtrain]

If you do the rebuild yourself, and this is your first time rebuilding an engine, plan on taking a long time.  Don't give yourself any deadlines, because then you will be tempted to cut corners.  If you dissassemble the engine yourself, label everything -- like which pistons went in which cylinder and what it's orientation was in the cylinder.  Keep the rods attatched to the pistons.  Bring it all to the machine shop along with the crank, intermediate shaft, and the head.  

Also, it's worth it to ask around and find the best machine shop you can.  If you have the shop mic everything for you, the only special tool you'll need to reassemble the engine is a ring compressor (and a ring expander if you use your old pistons and don't get new ones with the rings already in place).

[Rat407]

Rebuild it. I had a shop do the machine work on mine and assemblied the short block. I did the head and set the timing all up. Piece of cake. Nice to have it running so well. Make sure you do your home work and check out all the possible machine shops. Also if you do have it done, take your Bentley to the shop doing the work, not to insult them or anything but that is the book to go by. If you live in an area like myself, nobody has a clue when it comes to rebuilding this perticular engine. When the shop redid my head they didn't do it correctly because they thought it was just like any other over head cam head.  Wrong answer. I finally took them my Bentley and they redid the head per it's spec's and all is well now. To me these engines are well worth keeping alive.