ME Rebuild

[Patrick_Henry]

Just got my 1.6 that's in an 86 Golf torn down the other day and need some advice. I've attached a pic of one of the pistons. May be hard to tell from it but there is some deformation on the same edge of every one of them. This one is the worst out of the 4 though. Doesn't look good to me. What do you guys think?

[theman53]

Love your sig.

Looks like a leaking injector caused it, but it doesn't look that bad. If all the bores are good enough to run those pistons then I would not have an issue running them. The pic is a little big when blown up but from what I can see it doesn't even go down the crown.

[Patrick_Henry]

Love your sig.

Looks like a leaking injector caused it, but it doesn't look that bad. If all the bores are good enough to run those pistons then I would not have an issue running them. The pic is a little big when blown up but from what I can see it doesn't even go down the crown.

Thanks, it's not just a slogan. It's a way of life for me. I was thinking oil, it was using a lot of it. They got awful hot to do that it would seem to me. It doesn't go over the crown, but it's all the way to the edge. I want to put it back together and drive it another 3 or 400K. Hopefully the next time it needs to be done I'll be dead and gone and it'll be someone else's problem or crushed up for scrap. There was hardly any ridge at the top. I pushed all of them out by hand. Bores are good and slick. The plan is to just put standard pistons back in it and get one size over on the rings. Then just file the rings down until I get the ring gap I need and put it back together. Also, there was some black plastic guard of some sort around the oil pickup tube at the screen. I bumped and broke some of the little clips that was holding it on. Is that really super important to have on the end of the pickup tube?

[Dakotakid]

You can live without the oil stabilizer in the pan. They used to sell those on germanautoparts for like $5.
 
I hope you are at least planning on using a dingleberry hone on those cylinder walls. These engines produce a lot of glaze. They also oval the bores a lot as well.

Goetze brand rings are the best (overall) and can be purchased from autohausaz.com for about $13 a hole.

[Patrick_Henry]

You can live without the oil stabilizer in the pan. They used to sell those on germanautoparts for like $5.
 
I hope you are at least planning on using a dingleberry hone on those cylinder walls. These engines produce a lot of glaze. They also oval the bores a lot as well.

Goetze brand rings are the best (overall) and can be purchased from autohausaz.com for about $13 a hole.

Oh yeah, I'm going to hit it lightly with a hone. The bores are in excellent condition for the amount of miles it has on it. It probably didn't help that the ring gap on the rings I took off was at least .060, someone sold the last owner that did it the wrong rings me thinks.

[air-cooled or diesel]

i threw in some meyle pistons for around $150/set, not the best but can get you a few 100ks of work. since you have head off maybe time to do some work on it, new valves/springs,etc, machine work on head, i consider like exh valve guides, machine seats for new valves. new lifters, dont forget them,,and since you  have rods apart theres some more things you can do.

[Patrick_Henry]

i threw in some meyle pistons for around $150/set, not the best but can get you a few 100ks of work. since you have head off maybe time to do some work on it, new valves/springs,etc, machine work on head, i consider like exh valve guides, machine seats for new valves. new lifters, dont forget them,,and since you  have rods apart theres some more things you can do.

You bought a whole set of Mahle pistons for $150.00? Where at? But yes, the head is going to go to the machine shop. I actually bought a head off a guy that had it sitting in his shop since he retired probably 20 years ago that had already been machined. Only problem with it is that he couldn't find the camshaft caps for it. So I'm going to bring both of them up to the machine shop and tell them to fix the one that's going to be the cheapest to fix. I already know that if they use my caps on the other head it'll cost me $185.00 to line bore it.

[air-cooled or diesel]

look up vw diesel parts on browser, shopped for them a few yrs ago, forgot from who by now, just dont buy from hans/prothe, i got trw valves from someone to, like $30 a pop for exh,cheaper for int. got a good few miles on them by now, got 2 sets. 1 hasnt broken in yet. just sits there, have to get the vac pump o-ring i swapped out into my good1, figure i can charge batt and she'll start right up
oh, and valve springs for ~$25 each,etc.

[Patrick_Henry]

look up vw diesel parts on browser, shopped for them a few yrs ago, forgot from who by now, just dont buy from hans/prothe, i got trw valves from someone to, like $30 a pop for exh,cheaper for int. got a good few miles on them by now, got 2 sets. 1 hasnt broken in yet. just sits there, have to get the vac pump o-ring i swapped out into my good1, figure i can charge batt and she'll start right up
oh, and valve springs for ~$25 each,etc.

Know VWdieselparts.com well. His name is Jack Ewald. He's hardly ever there anymore to answer the phone. He has someone checking emails. I sent them one yesterday and he's out of town. But they quoted me $399.00 for aftermarket pistons and $499.00 for OEM and they didn't have them in stock. He used to sell long blocks for 1495.00 shipped to your door. Not anymore, he's building them for PPI and for a forklift company exclusively now. He doesn't sell to the general public anymore. That was the original plan anyway, sure did bum me out when he told me that.

[air-cooled or diesel]

i was afraid youd make that assumption, google "vw diesel parts", you can , if you want used vw parts, type in "used vw --"etc. a number of hits i get, jack being 1, if you dont want to buy from jack, oh well, co's like autohaus come up.

[Dakotakid]

Partsgeek.com has Mahle pistons (minus the rings....which is good, actually.....go Goetze brand) for roughly $140 (depending on the size needed) and some freight. I put a set of the pistons in an ME non-turbo block with Goetze rings and was/is very happy with the job. THAT was with new bores.

Listen, if you have not used a bore gauge on those cylinders, you really don't know what you have got. Take the block to someone with a dial bore gauge and it is quick and painless. I sure as he77 would not put a new set of pistons into a set of cylinders which "look good."

To measure is to know.
I would also avoid Jack Ewaldo like the plague.....and wish I had know THAT about 7 years ago. Live and learn. I'll send you photos of the clapped-out head this guy sent me back after sending him one which looked good. Of course, it was "rebuilt."

[air-cooled or diesel]

when i was shopping, partsgeek had intake valves, they claimed as trw for about $7 a pop. exh were of course more,,
i never shopped vwdieselparts yet, i called once or twice, but went to parts place 1st, my fav for a lot of parts is autohaus for one.but i do look around for different parts depending, im done with mk2 parts until i do the front-end of mine, i ll need some new shocks i love when tire rack has me a set bilsteins.