16V Rebuild [Long]

[Christian Els <tiAn@usi.com>]

I took a few days vacation (started out as one day, plus the weekend, go
figure) to perform a complete teardown and rebuild of my 87 Scirocco
16V.

My notes for the process:

Friday:

Cleaned the engine/bay thoroughly, took off the accessories, intake
manifold, cam cover, timing belt cover, airbox, and assorted widgets
residing in the way. Was very anal about labeling every bolt and bracket
with a description of where it came from and how it was oriented. This
paid off extremely well on Tuesday when I finally got to reassemble it
all again and didn't have to think too hard or keep pestering my buddy
to peek under the hood of his 16V.

Saturday: 

Saturday started off nice, pulled the vibration dampner, lower timing
cover, timing belt, exhaust manifold, and head. Dropped the oil pan:
NOTE -- the PO was a lifetime Pennzoil user. This motor had so much
built-up sludge everywhere inside it was disgusting. I used about four
cans of brake parts cleaner to get the film off the oilpan, more for the
block/valve cover/etc. Yuck! This car will get dinojuice for the first
thousand to seat the rings but then it's Mobil 1. I started checking out
the new(er) head I bought and decided that the exhaust manifold studs
needed replaced as one was bent, two were stripped, the rest just looked
bad. It was at about this point that things turned sour. I broke one of
the studs on cylinder #2 and spent the rest of the evening trying to
extricate it from the head. I broke an impact driver bit trying to twist
it out, and then snapped an Easy-Out off in it trying to extract it.
Those things are hard. I ruined a box of cheap drill bits just trying to
put a dent in the remnants of the Easy-Out before I gave up and cut the
stud off flush with the block. This got me past enough off the Easy-Out
that I could chisel the rest out. I gave up until I could get in touch
with a buddy at the shop.

Sunday: 

Put aside the head problems for a bit and went to work on the bottom
end. Piston #4 had a compression broken ring, the other three had about
a zillion pounds of carbon scaled on the piston, complete with
valve-shaped indents. No wonder it ran rough... The bores all looked
great, even the one with the broken ring, so they got a light hone. I
hot-dipped the pistons in solvent (don't try this in the kitchen when
the S.O. is home) to get the crud off and then re-ringed them all. New
bearings completed the bottom end so I buttoned it all up, good to go.
Now back to the head...

I finally caught up with my buddy at the shop Sunday night, brought in
the head and a sixer of Guinness. Four hours later, I had a 10 mm
TimeSert tapped at M8x1.25 and roughly perpendicular to the mating
surface. Good enough. 


So I took Monday off...

I cleaned up the head gasket mating surfaces, cleared all the crap off
the piston tops and water jacket and sealed the top-end. Since the one
stud was at a funny angle, I installed the exhaust manifold before
setting the head in the car to avoid standing on my head to get it to
fit. However, I failed to realize that the downpipe flange wasn't
actually seated on the manifold before I torqued the head bolts. Shit! I
spent the rest if Monday evening wrasslin' the exhaust system trying to
get enough freeplay to allow the downpipe to seat. Never happened. I
gave up hungry, dirty and frustrated late that evening.

And Tuesday...

With a good night's sleep and fresh perspective, I separated the
cat-back from the downtube and was able to successfully mate the exhaust
manifold flanges. Thank goodness. Wrapped up the rest of the accessories
and miscellany. I am grateful to myself for all the little labels now,
or else I would have been at this for a good while longer. At about
2:00p.m. I was ready to turn the key. 

Gingerly I inserted it into the ignition, to be greeted with that
annoying door/seatbelt warning chime -- haven't heard that since the day
I bought the car, like two months ago. Hesitantly I click the key over
to Run, and the fuel pump coughs and whirs to life. So far so good. I
take a deep breath and twist it to the start position, anticipating the
crash of pistons and valves, but no it turns over twice and sputters to
life. For about 10 seconds. Then it dies and I can't get it restarted. 

I JUST WANT TO DRIVE THIS FLIPPING CAR FINALLY!!!

Sorry.

So there is where I am now, crank-no start. 

I may have gotten the distributor flipped 180 degrees off. 

Static timing is still good. 

Car ran, albeit rough, when I bought it and any questionable bits were
replaced while it was apart. 

I have raw fuel at the tailpipe, so it is getting gas.

Any thoughts?

TIA.

tiAn
87 16v, closer...
stuff.

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