Sorry, I have not updated in a while. I didn't have the time to update two forums at the same time, but I'll post what I've got.
I'm not running an intercooler anymore, I blew the end tank off of the old one. Not completely off, but it split the seam in the plastic. So I'm looking for another FMIC to use instead, since I hated the way the pipes were routed for that one anyway. Here's the most recent post from the Vortex:
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Well, this has probably fallen out of everyone's watched topics, and probably out of most people's memories. Time to bump this back up and give some updates.
I have some pictures not yet uploaded that I'll include a little later as well.
It's been a rough ride for this little car the past few months. But in true VW style, (and true VW ownership insanity) we have overcome and the car is really coming together.
So, the car got put into service rather quickly, there was not really any "shakedown" time before Laura needed to drive to work every day, so we had to work on things as they came, with usually a very limited time frame, plus there was the Ohio-winter weather thing to contend with.
The first order of business was the head gasket re-do back in December. I basically had a weekend allocated to do this, in a very cold garage. So Sunday rolls around, and I'm getting ready to drop the head back on. What I did when I initially assembled the engine to align the gasket and head/block, was put a small, deepwell socket in two of the head bolt locations to act as dowels, so after I got the head on and a couple of the bolts hand-threaded in, I used a magnet to pull out the sockets and bolt down the head. Simple enough, right? So I got my "alignment sockets" and dropped one in the front corner hole, and went to drop the other in the rear and- being cold and tired on Sunday night- accidentally dropped it in the oil drain hole instead. I heard it go all the way down the engine. I "assumed" that it made it all the way to the pan, I can fish it out later. I was wrong. The socket fell in to the windage tray instead. After getting it back together, I started it up, no noises, everything was fine. Took it for a test drive, and heard a loud clank. Again, everything was fine. Car was running, no smoke, all gauges were normal. Drove it about 3 miles or so, came back to the house, and popped the hood to check if the coolant leak was finally fixed and then I saw it: The end of the socket sticking out of the side of the block. It looked like a dart stuck through a piece of cardboard. Oil mist was all over the place. (though I didn't really loose that much) My heart sank. I thought it was done.
I looked at Bentley diagrams, and pictures of the block when it was apart, and I got some hope. There was a chance it didn't hit anything. So we made arrangements for Laura to get to work, and I took a day off to start tearing into it again. Pulled out the socket, drained the oil, dropped the pan, (in about 10* F high temp/snow that day!!) and had a look. There was a very small nick on one of the crank counterweights, a dent in the windage tray, and two small pieces of piston- I cracked off a piece of the bottom of the #3 skirt, about 2mm wide, 4mm long, which then broke in half. The bore in the block was fine. The socket made a near perfectly round 1/2" hole in the block. It missed the intermediate shaft and did not hit any oil galleries. I got lucky.
I cleaned the pan, (though managed to break the plastic baffle around the pump pickup- no time to replace it now!!) and contemplated how to handle the hole. I thought patch and JB weld, but then had a better idea. Drill and tap and use a plug. I had a 1/2" NPT pipe tap, and bought an iron square-head NPT plug, and borrowed a big-assed drill from my neighbor. Took the core support of the car off, moved the radiator out of the way, and carefully drilled out the hole. I then proceeded to tap, (by using a socket and ratchet instead of a proper tap wrench which would not fit in the space!!!) and carefully cleaned the hole and both sides of the block surface, and using a bit of sealant, tightened down the plug in the hole. It was perfect, almost like it was supposed to go there. Buttoned the car back up and it's holding fine.
After that incident, Laura decided to name the car "Lucky". I think it's fitting.
Cathy happened to take a pic of the repair when we saw her at Daun's a while back, but otherwise I'll have to take a few pictures of it.
Edit: Here's the pic, thanks Cathy:
Many more updates since then, but I'll leave you all with that for now. I was actually very embarrassed about it, and even thought about not posting it at all, but from the few people I've told about it, it makes a great story so why not. Plus, I have something for the "Carnage Award" this year.
Enjoy. More to come.
Brendan