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81

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by Mohatanous on March 03, 2024, 04:11:54 pm »

After pulling the intake manifold off I was able to see inside a bit with a camera I have for peeking into small places like that. I was able to see all the intake valves moving freely, and all of the exhaust valves also appear to move freely and without sticking from the top when I turn the camshaft by hand. I was able to see the pistons coming up to the top of their rotations on each cylinder, but it still does not turn a full rotation. Pulling the injectors and glow plugs out and a combination of blowing air with a vacuum on the intake valves has not helped the issue, (I made sure that the intake valve for each cylinder was open while I had the vacuum on it to make sure any small crap may have been sucked out). I did not see any debris in the cylinders from my viewpoints. At this point I suppose my next step would be removing the head, although now I wonder if it could be something in the bottom end?

The saga continues!

82

IDI Engine / Re: Booster full of brake fluid

« Last post by ORCoaster on March 02, 2024, 06:11:17 pm »

Yesterday I got to tearing into an MC and proportional valve I found on Craigslist.  MC looked pretty good and once I cleaned up the little bit of rust inside the bore I was able to bench bleed it and have it hold pressure with all ports sealed off.

The proportional valve was a different story.  If you have ever had the chance to pull one apart the bottom tow caps are under heavy spring pressure and will shoot off at you if you are not prepared for that.  I back them out a bit with the wrench then throw a rag over the end and slowly remove them all the while pushing down on the cap.  I did this with the first one and sure enough right at the end it kind of sprang at me.

The other side was not pushing at me at all.  Odd I thought and once I got it out of the valve body I saw that the spring was rusted up tight and I was just waiting for it to shoot the red valve stem across the room.  I was able to pop it apart and clean it up without damage to man or valve.  But that was the tightest I have ever seen a spring all rusted up like that. 

Today I went out in the sleet and rain and checked on the booster before I tore off the old MC.  I couldn't get it to hold a vacuum at all.  I was only using a small volume hand pump and the weather got so bad I had to quit, or rather decided enough of this.  I might try the old vacuum cleaner I use for the floors in the truck and see if I can get enough volume out and have it hold with that.  The weather is not supposed to be much better for a few days so maybe next weekend. 

83

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by ORCoaster on March 02, 2024, 05:59:40 pm »

If the mice left anything in the intake and it got pulled into or fell into the cylinders then You need to pull off the intake from the back of the engine and put a shop vac on each cylinder and rotate the crank back and forth to see if you can pull anything out of there.  You might pull the glow plugs or injectors off so you can get air in from the underside of the head and suck it off the valves.

Just my thought on it.  If you have one of those chip/sawdust collectors that go between the shop vac and the end of the hose use it.  That way you will be able to tell us what and how much crap you had in there messing with your start-up.

84

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by fatmobile on March 02, 2024, 11:09:56 am »

  It might be a piece of nut shell in there, from the mice in the air filter.
 Or a dead mouse.
 A bent valve might show itself with the valve cover off, looking from the top.
Can you tell what cylinder it is? So you kinda know what valves to look at.
 1 and 4 TDC, or 2 and 3 180 from TDC, then what valves are open.

 Great idea to turn the engine by hand first.
Might want to try turning the cam too.
 Maybe pull the intake first so more stuff the mice left in there doesn't go into the engine. That won't cost anything, the intake gasket probably won't fall apart.

85

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by Mohatanous on March 01, 2024, 10:34:30 pm »

Also, I'm not sure what this may mean, but when turning the camshaft it would not turn smoothly, but rather would move in sudden bursts, sort of like hitting compression. I'm not sure how to describe it, really. Thanks!

86

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by Mohatanous on March 01, 2024, 08:49:24 pm »

Update:

Upon digging a small amount more into the issue, I managed to get the camshaft to the position it is supposed to be in, but upon trying to turn the motor to the TDC mark on the flywheel view port, it will not go to the "0" mark, as that is where it is sticking. I'm suspecting there are bent valves and that the head now needs to come off, so that is my next step. What else should I check after pulling the head off? Does anybody have suggestions for what I should do if I get the head and valve train redone? Any recommendations would be great!

Thank in advance!

87

IDI Engine / Re: Booster full of brake fluid

« Last post by Rabbit79 on March 01, 2024, 10:36:14 am »

After I exorcised the brake demons from mine they were floating around searching for their next victim and apparently you were the closest. hehe

88

IDI Engine / Re: Booster full of brake fluid

« Last post by ORCoaster on February 23, 2024, 09:42:05 pm »

I am reading this and the old posts thinking.  While I was out tooling about the town I noticed a lack of brakes and the MC doesn't seem to hold when I push down and hold the pedal.  It slowly sinks to the floor.  So, maybe a bad seal in the MC. 

Odd that my brakes act up as you update us that yours are finally fine.  There must be some yin-yang thing going out there that some number of VWs must have bad brakes all the time to keep the planets in line or something. 

89

IDI Engine / Re: 1.6IDI Not Fully Rotating/Not Starting

« Last post by fatmobile on February 23, 2024, 07:10:43 pm »

 I think it's a good sign that it stops.
 When I broke a timing belt it just kept going around.
 Timing cover off first. Check the belt.
 Turn the engine to TDC and look through the timing hole in the trany. Compare it to the marks on the injection pump sprocket.

 Upgraded rubber valve cover gasket available. Comes from a MK3 gasser like a '94 2.0.
The valve cover studs need to be changed too.

90

IDI Engine / Re: Booster full of brake fluid

« Last post by Rabbit79 on February 23, 2024, 02:23:46 pm »

So I know this is quite an old post, but it did end up being quite a saga that dragged on for a long time (mostly due to my own laziness I should interject at this point) and I thought I would show some resolution. I got the brake line situation fixed in a rather surprising fashion. I happened to be chatting with the head mechanic at, of all places, the local Ford dealership (he is a friend of mine), and the subject of my brake line came up, and he said we've got some brake line with metric ends, maybe we can make it work. So I took my old brake line to him and we measured it and it turned out be the exact same length, diameter, and have the same fittings on the ends as my VW line did. Perfect match. He loaned me his bending tools and I got that replaced quite easily. I never thought it would turn out that easy.
The booster side of the story turned out a little different. After I got everything put back together things were fine for a while and then all of sudden my vacuum pump started eating diaphragms. I never really did figure out what was causing this and if it was related in any way to the booster, but after a few years of rebuilding pumps every 3 months I got tired of that and put one of the new vane style pumps in. After this things switched to where I was getting vacuum assist only intermittently and then after a while to no vacuum assist at all. Being my somewhat lazy self I decided to just deal with it and went for like 5 years without any assist on the brakes. Here this past summer I finally decided to fix it and after checking around discovered that you can't get a new booster for a pre-80 Rabbit. Apparently they changed the way it hooks to the brake pedal in 1980 and post 80 boosters (which you can still get new by the way) won't work on a 79 or earlier version. I probably could have fabricated something if I'd had to but what I ended up doing was sending it in to Parts Place and they sent it to their rebuilder. Cost was about 275 dollars. Now.... Did getting all that brake fluid in there cause the booster to fail? I can't say on that because I had no contact with the rebuilder, so I don't know what they found when they went in there. I also have to take into account that it was 40 years old by the time it failed, so it could have been just natural wear and tear, but it did happen just not very long after it got filled full of brake fluid. It's unfortunate that I don't have a concrete conclusion on that but that's how it goes sometimes.  Anyway, it's been in and working fine for about 6 months now (yes I did actually wait for awhile to make sure everything held up before posting).
Saga complete.