Barn Find Laser Green 1.9 Gti.

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

I left my endine and gearbox unpainted. The vapour blasting seems to have worked they still look good 4 years later. Shame I'm now about to send it back into a workshop again for various paint jobs. I guess time and weather really aren't friends to old cars. 

[Leslie green 92]

I'm surprised it hasn't gone all furry with corrosion Paul , I certainly wouldn't drive mine once salt is on the roads under any circumstances , it just destroys old cars . Blaster still hasn't blasted my box yet as his compressor is broke and he had lots of other jobs on  but says I should have it back before year end , no further with anything as had a few painting jobs to sort in the house which are now mostly complete. I will struggle to put the box back together now as too much time has passed  plus its damn cold in the shed now .

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

It's not gone furry at all just dulled a bit. The vapour blast guy said it wouldn't andni didn't believe him but 4 years later it still is pretty clean. I'll get a pic to show you. 

 

I'm intending to strip the engine out in the summer and do a mini few 1000 quid tidy up so it should be back to sparkling again. Maybe

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

[Leslie green 92]

Nice Paul and  that should help me with hose and wiring routing when time comes , few grand you say its easy to sink money in a project isn't it  I need to get a move on soon , gearbox casing is back now 

Edited January 1 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

I stripped the gearbox and it was away several months before getting vapour blasted so I had forgot how to put it back together last week, I had most of it assembled them realised the little short selector wasn't fitted and it all had to come out again inc diff. By the time I had 5th gear on the input shaft wouldn't turn but them I saw there is a washer under the 5th gear spacer that has a stepon one side and it was upside down clamping the bearing cage . Turned it round and spins fine now . I am buying 2 new 5th gear locknuts as when i took it apart one was already loose and despite swapping them over then still stop in same place as before so there isn't much left to peen them over. Unfortunately it appears I have lost 6 of the gearbox casing bolts , 2 for case and 4 small diff ones (all the same ) and wherever these went I don't think they ever made it to the platers which is annoying as all other pieces were in the box I put them in .  The casing had already started to corrode again after sitting in a damp shed over winter which has spoiled it a little  and the endplate was very rusty and the plating hasn't taken well to it in places but will do for now . I found the gearbox quite a struggle to put back together even with a basic guide of the internet , I checked all the bearings and them seemed perfect as were the gears as far as I could tell. Getting the pins out of the shafts was very tricky as I couldn't find the perfect sized punch to knock them out.

 

IMG_20231010_174142 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

IMG_20231213_134946 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

IMG_20240327_161155 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited April 2 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

Is this the correct way up for the bumpstops and the washers on the strut , thought id ask before the springs go on as they could go the other way as well. I was starting to build the engine but when I had the main bearings in the crank would not turn and I had them out and in several times and even moved journal 5 at the front  and swapped with 4 as 5 was always pinching . Bearing 5 was shiny where it rubbed , it hadn't come out of it seat and the tabs were fine but I wasn't happy with it so went no further yet.

    

I gave the pistons and rods to a mechanic friend to press the pins out , I didn't think it would take much pressure and had a piece of wood under with a hole drilled in it  to save damaging the pistons but he said the wood just compressed and he was scared to give it anymore pressure incase he destroyed the pistons . 2 steps forward 3 back lol.

 

Also the thin tab washer for the earth on the strut is too big to sit down in the cup fully I'm assuming its supposed to be like that  and will push in when the nut is on?

 

IMG_20240510_144104 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited May 10 by Leslie green

[Tom Fenton 1,531]

You need to heat the little end of the rod to get the pins out, they are an interference and won't come out by press alone. It doesn't take too much heat though, a plumbers gas torch will do the job.

 

[Leslie green 92]

Thanks Tom , I know you have to heat the rods to fit the pins but I hadn't heard of heating them in the piston to get them back out .

Got the shocks built back up after faffing for ages when the top of the spring was in its seat the bearing had popped out of its domed cap , there are little holes on the to plate which I then put a cable tie into to hold the spring top coil tight  till I could undo the clamps as due to the shock spring pan being at an angle the spring does not want to sit in place . You need either a 21 or 22 mm deep offset ring spanner depending on what size the new nuts are  to tighten the top nut while holder the 6mm allen key to stop the shock rod rotating , I only could find a 22 so used that . The new little earth tabs I was kindly given were pressed into the cup with a socket as its slightly too large and I suspect its off a later model as the tab on it sits too low but its fitted now and ain't coming off again. THe kyb bump stops are not like the originals so this seems the best way as the bumpstop sits on the boot holding it tight and there is a groove in the top the big washer fits into . All of the top threads (m7x1mm) had to be tapped and several pushed into line with the vice so they would fit the car . Eibach pro new springs as the ones came of the car were not the originals and finding genuine used springs is not easy .

 

IMG_20240513_162653 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

IMG_20240513_174755 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited May 13 by Leslie green

[Tom Fenton 1,531]

As you have discovered the aftermarket gaiters are often not a very good fit. They are upside down how you have them. The slighly tapered end should be a tight fit into the top mount bearing.

[jord294 89]

Best quality rod protectors I have found are either oe continental, or said do excellent fit.

 

What you have there is just wrong. The bump stops are questionable aswell

[Leslie green 92]

These are Kyb supposedly probably the biggest shock manufacturer there is though they are probably just licencing the name at best as febi has the same ones listed  , I will turn the black gaitor around and fit it above the bumpstop as Tom says and see , or else take it out altogether, Miamistu website doesn't even show a plastic boot for a gti in the pic I looked at . I had a look on the Peugeot site and I can get the bumpstops if needed but as the postage is expensive so will wait till I need other bits as I just ordered pistons recently , I see there are 2 length with 97mm for Gti and 79mm for convertible , I'm thinking the shorter one would be better for a lowered car anyway plus they are cheaper and all will be better than the ones fitted before( Ie none) so I wasn't even sure what they looked like which is probably why my strut tops were bent up lol ! Another job that needs doing twice, lol

No mention on miamistu of an earth tag either though I know these were fitted and id like to know the part number for that if anybody has it .

Edited May 14 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

Well after much head scratching I decided to make my own little jig to press out the pistons without damage , the only way to do this is press on the flat piece and support it well around the pin ,  The main plate is 20mm thick with a hole for the piston in to press down into and a thread guide bolt to allow accurate positioning so you are not pressing off centre .The base is 10mm thick to reduce bending as the 20mm thick piece with weakened a lot with the hole in the centre. The socket was a long reach one , use the small end down as you don't want it sticking in the rod (oops). Despite a lot of research there is very little into on this job out there and it seems few change their pistons and they are always scrap after .

     The jig worked perfect with a mappgas torch heading around the small end 5 secs either side for about a minute in total once it was clamped in a 20 ton press . Then they pressed out without much hassle . I had an old one to practice on first I bought of ebay . All came out without damage and from what I gather is quite rare , seen a few pics of shattered ones as the round edges are not strong enough to withstand the force ,i'm guessing maybe up to several ton needed to get the first movement even with heat and a lot more without heat as I saw some done.

    For fitting the new pistons I clamped these lightly in a vice with wood either side ,oiled the pin and first I had bought a little hotplate but it would not melt a little piece of solder I put on the small end so just wasn't getting them hot enough , I did try one but it didn't go in at all so next I just again heated the small end with the torch for about a minute or so till I saw it start to turn blue inside , no matter how quick I worked it simply wasn't possible to get the pin all the way though as as soon as it contacts the rod you have about 2 secs max to get it all the way home . After every piston I was getting further but even after 5 I still was about 5mm short, you really need 2 people one to align the rod and one to ram the pin home instantly so back to the press and heat them 1 minute push the last bit , as you are now pushing against the side with a dimple I had to put a depression in the jig to allow it so sit flat .

    All pins are a snug fit in the piston ends but with oil etc they freed up again and should be ok with use . You press the pin in until it is about 0.5 mm from the end of the flat going by the old ones with the rod all the way over to one side in its slot.  The shell groves must be to the left of the dimple side of the piston .

The jig in use never have enough spacers lol: ( not my press)

 

20240625_111935 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

All pistons removed :

20240625_114246 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

Pushing new pins onto the new pistons :

20240625_135316 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited June 25 by Leslie green

[chris 417 mi 31 2 Cars]

Good work  keep going ! 

[Leslie green 92]

Thanks Chris !

 

The block was painted with silver smootrite some time ago , I had put the crank in but it wouldn't turn with the 4 mains fitted a while back, and when the shells were removed there were rub marks on some at either end so I ordered more shells . I put less Graphogen on this time and it turned ok and I had already used Plastigauge to check the mains before.  The rear main seal hockey sticks went in not too bad but one was continually sticking out more than the other , I had it in/out about 4 times but I couldn't get them the same length so gave up , hopefully its grand .I used Graphogen down the sides of block and hockey sticks to let them slide easily with 2 thin feeler gauges but these were not a lot of help really only for starting it off with Wellseal on the bottom . Mains and big ends were torqued to 49 nm . The seat for the centre main bearing with the 2 exterior bolts into the cap has been battered at a time by someone who didn't realize why it was still stuck but it seems on after a little cleanup (replacement block)

      New liners are fitted and I got a Wiseco 83 mm piston ring fitting tool which has a taper to make fitting rings easier ,this was out of stock 3 months but its taken me so long I managed to get one in time . I still had a little bother getting them to fit in though , I did find I had broken one ring when fitting the pins in the vice and had a spare so this was changed , it hadn't fallen out so all were checked carefully . After fitted the piston pins I found one in particular was very tight but oil and working it back and forth has freed it up a lot , its not totally loose but they are all about the same now ,having to press the pins in the last 5mm or so has closed the gap up a little and there is not much can be done about that now. One was quite tight anyway ,more so than the rest before starting . I bought a set of liner clamps from Spoox but as you have to remove them to fit the pistons one at a time that is a bit annoying but they work ok and look nice lol

      Big ends were fitted and I used Plastigauge too  and then put a new oil seal in the front cover which was a looser fit than I was expecting so used sealer on it to hold it in, I could push it in by hand . The 2 short bolts went awol so some were taken from a spare engine for now , no time to wait on plating more bolts .Lost of time was lost look for the oil pump spacer , then after I found it managed to lose it again ! and I ran some kerosene through the oil pump to wash it out and cleaned the sump spacer ready for fitting soon. A decent bit of progress and have a new spring for the oil pump needs fitting  and have put a new oil pump chain and thrust washers on too.

 

IMG_20231013_130908 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240626_164531 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240629_133633 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240629_133929 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240629_150959 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

Edited June 29 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

Split the oil pump for a better clean and found a large piece of sealer in the strainer , new spring fitted (5 bar) , I had the front oil cover already and and it had to come of again as you can't fit the pump after the cover as the chain won't fit.  I also had to change the crank chain sprocket as the big 2 piece one must have been off the spare block as the chain was way to short for it. It was the one if the crank bolt wasn't tight enough the oil pump didn't turn as it relied on friction alone to drive it , the later type is keyed and will always turn no doubt after a few failures .The  later /smaller one piece unit the chain was close but with the pump spacer in its in tension and will never do so will have to do without it . The oil pump / spacer etc are all from my old engine so blocks are clearly not all the same , the chain is so tight the pump wont sit down under its own weight at the oil pickup .

     I have fitted the 1.9 sump spacer with sealer and fitted all bolts as the 2 allen bolts do not hold it down very well , there is space for a dowel too so I found and fitted one as everything else on the engine appears to be doweled. 

 

20240701_135033 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240701_144559 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240701_165433 by Leslie, on Flickr

[chris 417 mi 31 2 Cars]

Looks like more progress ! 
 

what was the block sprayed with ? “ silver smoothrite” as in smooth hammerite ? 
id painted a few bits on mine with this but didn’t think it would go on the block ? 
just taking notes for the turbo engine next year 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

Great work, looks like the pics from my long lost 8v engine build thread. 

[Telf 224 2 Cars]

@Leslie green weird when I built my engine I had pretty much the same issue with the oil pump chain. i found that once rebuilt the oil pressure at idle is quite low but sits fine when running along the road. Initally the stop light would ping on if i'd been on a spirited run. With some oil brand experimentation ive remived that issue, if i recall correctly the px switch makes at 17psi ( something like that). Mine was dipping just below when hot but with decent oil sits just above and ive had no further issues. 

 

i genuinely thought id have to strip the engine, nearly 5 years now though and all is good

[welshpug 1,637]

Low pressure warning is 1 bar, 14.5 psi!

[Leslie green 92]

Chris yes its smooth hammerite ,its official name is Smoothrite comes in Aerosols and goes on nice  , I painted any engine 12 years ago and its still on there ,engines only get to about 80c or so most of the time. 

 

Paul we mourned the loss of that thread for sure , so many pitfallls with these if like me you are using bits from different engines and have never built one before .Your engine must be ok if its still going 5 years later , I've got bits lying everywhere as the old engine was probably stripped 5 years ago but this oil pump and sprocket has to be off my 1.9 engine as nothing else fits . Did you use the same small sprocket on the crank ,did you have a pic left ? I took  the spacer out as there is no way the oil pump would last with it in and now a good bit of slack on the chain and the spacer was 0.7mm which is the thinnest you get I think. In the brief time the old engine ran oil pressure was good so hope its the same now .

5 bar is probably just the standard spring for the oil pump ,came in a pug bag but I thought a new one would be a good idea though they seemed much the same spring rate wise .

Edited July 2 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

Had just enough time this morn to get the sump fitted , I put Wellseal ( its sticky stuff lol)  on both sides of the gasket and tightened it up to 20 nm , the 2 short bolts go above the rear main bearing cap and the 4 allen ones 3 go along the front near the oil filter and one up the side , exactly why I'm not sure but that's as much as I found out , clearance I guess maybe ? Glad to get to this point as back to work tonight . Much as I tried I could not get the little washers properly straight some just wanted to spin round on the powdercoat so just gave up as I was causing more paint damage than it was worth. Silver is not the best colour to paint a sump if its pitted or has damage as its shows all the marks lol

 

20240702_125455 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

 

Edited July 2 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

OIl pump chain thread info in here from another thread ,useful when building an engine and can be hard to find when you need it 

 

Pic of the different sprockets for reference showing the issues 

20240701_145101 by Leslie, on Flickr

[Leslie green 92]

Problem solved there is a 48 link chain currently  fitted ,found the old 50 link one today ,unfortunate the one I found last time was also 48 link and thought it was the old 1.9 one . If I could get a new genuine chain could be tempted to open it up again . Correct chain for a 1.9 130 hp phase 2  is 1033.09 and has 50 links . Can find a 52 link chain but no 26 tooth sprocket to go with it typical lol

Edited July 5 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 92]

New 50 link chain and correct larger 1.9 crank sprocket 22 teeth fitted and sump refitted , spent all day looking for the 11 headbolt spacers I took of 6 years ago but cannot find them , I can find 6 of the old headbolts ! the joys of restoration lol . I have a spare 1.6 engine I can steal them off but they are rusty and would need plated . The engine had a really good crank sprocket but it was impossible to fit on my engine until I gave it a run with a small flap wheel as it was too tight.