[raulrs]

Pictures are better than thousand words

Before

After Cleaning

 

[ZoomALH]

jaw drops Still going strong here, knock on wood. How hard was it?

 

[raulrs]

Hi, it is quite time consuming 4 to 5 days or more, specially the cleaning part and a good good set of milimetric tools, the locking mechanism for the camshaft (you can build one), a good camera and from time to time the help of a second person, and myturbodisel faq pages, etc.

Unfortunatly previous owner never had any maintenance in 10 years you you can imagine how much dirt I found everywhere. I decided to remove the complete head and clean excess of piston and valve shoot along with the turbo, timing belt replacement and water pump and vacuum hoses filters etc.

I have spend around 500 usd so far, and a lot of time, about 30 working hours. I am just waiting for the timing belt to arrive, from USA (funny but there are not diesel timing belts in the whole country of Mexico, even though the car was made in Puebla Mexico VW plant)

I would estimate a work like this at your friendly mechanic shop woud end up costing between at least 1500 to 2000 usd, so there is good savings here.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Great work! What was the reason for removing? Sticking valves? Would you suggest any improvement or correction to the FAQ articles if it was not clear anywhere? Any tips you would add to improve the articles?

 

[Roberto]

You're right about how funny it is that you can't find any parts for these cars in Mexico when they are built there. Looks like you had a lot of fun.

 

[raulrs]

Hi chittychittybangbang,

Fortunatly no bent or sticky valves made me open the head, just to much dirt (and to be honest curiosity how much carbon build up maybe inside).

Thanks to the FAQ pages in this forum I did not need anything else to consult.

About the maintenance shores, It all was straight forward but looong to disasamble, only one good goooood advice, have the bottom of the car and engine comparment BIG TIME CLEANED before you start (Note that the total gasoline to clean parts and everything else was about 10 gallons !! ).

And Again !! clean the car as much as possible or be warned that this days your wife would not want you near her at bed time and there would not be enough soap in the world to clean yourself.

A miner coming out of work may look dressed in tuxedo compared to you and your garments.

 

[stroud2010]

i'm in the process of doing the same exact thing to my '98!
except i'm doing some serp. belt stuff as well.
took the head off, sent the injectors out
its almost all done, but i'm waiting on a turbo oil feed line to get in from MA. I live in Indiana. USA
I also need a number two cylinder fuel line because i might have to cut the one thats on it now to get it off... I can't, however, find a place that sells the fuel lines for my engine...

 

[raulrs]

Hi Stroud2010,

I tried on ebay searching with "VW TDI FUEL INJECTOR LINES" and found whole used set at 99 usd.