Hey, thanks mate.
Yeah i thought 25ft/lbs wasn't very much for the bolts to be torque to yield but they do have the "1/4 turn" making them appear to be torque to yield. The bolts just seem much to beefy to be TTY with such a low setting. i have a true TD "MF" bottom end. as far as i can tell it was made in 1990.
Looking at the old sleeve that the broken ring came out of i couldn't find any carbon or anything to bind the ring? Maybe i just effed up, twice.
Have you made any progress ed? Are you still waiting for parts?
Did you make sure you can see shiny aluminum in the bottom of each ring groove?
Hope you can get it going.......I've had projects drag out and it's no fun.

Oh yeah, put the rings in the pistons and make sure you can push each ring in past the side of the piston all the way around, if any of the rings won't go flush with the piston then there is carbon in there that has to come out. Also carbon likes to add up on the edge of the groove, inside but not in the very bottom of the groove, in other words it's hard to see the carbon but it's there and it'll break your rings. Good luck
thank you both very much for posting!
Yes, i attacked the groove with an artists knife. Should be good now (i hope) I'll go over it again. I'm waiting for that ring set to replace the broken one still.
I got exhaust valves finally last night so the new head is almost together.
Once i lap them and get the keepers in i just have to drill and tap the intake for the LDA and Gauge.
so, im waiting for a cam cover that Tyler is sending me and a sandwich plate Greg is trading me air cleaner parts for

Both of which i'm very happy and grateful for!!! Kudos to you guys!!!
Merry Christmas
Best of luck to you getting it going!

What sort of time frame are you looking at?
Have you been happy with the prothe 1.9 head so far? I'm interested in seeing your results with it as I'm thinking about doing the same.
Merry Christmas!
The head looks as good as i could expect? It looks like an allum cast turbo diesel head
the machining looks fine, there aren't any oddities. There were some shavings that came out of it when i first got it. I polished the casting marks and smoothed it out.
LOTS of material came out from dremeling the inside with sanding cylinders.
Haha, i don't want to talk about time frames. All my brothers are over for Christmas and they reckon by this time next year my mess of car parts will have spread to the ENTIRE garage (so like on the canoe and on the freezer) and all over the basement.
I'm currently using 1 table in my basement and most of the garage. But of course everyone still complains about it :roll:
and they think it will be there indefinately. My dad wants to have the jetta taken to a wrecker even after i've spent almost 1 grand on a new head + semi-rebuild.
Haha, i don't want to talk about time frames. All my brothers are over for Christmas and they reckon by this time next year my mess of car parts will have spread to the ENTIRE garage (so like on the canoe and on the freezer) and all over the basement.
I'm currently using 1 table in my basement and most of the garage. But of course everyone still complains about it :roll:
and they think it will be there indefinately. My dad wants to have the jetta taken to a wrecker even after i've spent almost 1 grand on a new head + semi-rebuild.
Hang in there pal, I've been there. You're learning the hard way, without anyone there to teach you. You're also learning many valuable lessons...ie the importance of good information (Bentley), double checking that you have the correct parts (lots of room for errors in the supply chain), and figuring out the root cause of problems before continuing (there has got to be something wrong with the piston, cylinder, or installation process where that oil ring keeps breaking).
FWIW, I don't believe that just because a bolt has a torque turn spec means that it is torque to yield and needs to be replaced. I know that many of the larger diesel engines I work with have torque turn head, rod, rocker shaft, and main bolts yet can be re-used infinitely according to the manufacturer. I bet the Bentley manual specifies whether bolt replacement is required in this case.
Anyway, merry christmas and keep at it...you'll get there
Thanks Bud
I can almost smell the burning diesel now.
About the ring thing.
I think it was just me being too careless tightening the sleeve. I used different cylinders the two times they broke.
here is the piston that is giving me troubles.

Were those pictures too large to view?
usually someone replies by now...
after i said "here is the piston that is giving me troubles"
I uploaded two very detailed pictures. Can you see them?
That piston looks fine, except for the missing oil ring. :roll:
BTW, the 77-84 diesel bentley says 33ft-lbs for rod bolts and the 85-92 gasser/diesel bentley says 22ft-lbs + 1/4 turn.
try test fitting the rings by applying some pressure from your hands to make sure they fit in. sometimes a small obstruction can go unnoticed.