Turbo Engine Rebuild

[scam75]

Couldn't it simply be the gauge itself? Did your car stay damp-ish conditions for long when it was awaiting its engine? Did you clean all the grounds below the dashboard? I bet some oxydation took place a bit everywhere whilst the car was sitting.

Yeah it lay outside for a good few months whilst without an engine. Have had a few electrical issues but mostly all ok now it's getting used again.

It's not the gauge though I don't think, as I have a full replacement binnacle which I swapped over and it gave exact same readings. And all my other gauges seem spot on, temp, fuel, voltage etc. so I'm pretty much down to sender or wiring to sender if it turns out oil pressure is ok.

Stuart

 

[scam75]

Well after all that it was the oil pressure sender that was the problem. Put a real gauge on and right away semi hot idle was 4.5 bar. Fitted the new gauge and all I have extremely good oil pressures all round. 4 bar hot idle, not thrashed but drove about 30 miles so oil would be well heated up, obviously it's subzero here today so 4 bar hot idle on a freezing day with a fresh engine and 10w 50 oil sounds a good result! Also, I now have 0 bar with the ignition switched on, was nearly 2 bar with the old sender.

Also got my control arm ball joint gaiter replaced, and can report the ball joint itself, which was rebuilt 2/3 years ago with a Hamburg Technic kit, is still perfect. Same can't be said for the gaiter that came in the kit but can't complain and all good now. Also put in a new battery, as the old Bosch one hadn't been great and lying outside for a year when the car was off the road can't have done it any favours. Went for a Yousa battery, £97. It is 71Ah compared to 70Ah on the Bosch S3 007. Another number was bigger too, 650 something or others compared to 640 with the Bosch. So, we'll see how we get on with this one. Apparently they are quite well thought of.

So now we are leak free, have proper oil pressure, no split gaiters and a new battery. A good result and a good day's work!

Stuart

 

[blade7]

The ending of the spending then. Maybe...

 

[scam75]

The ending of the spending then. Maybe...

Well, yeah, obviously, for now............

 

[Dan944t]

great news Stuart !!

[8D]

 

[TTM]

Well done, especially with the oil pressure. This is always something to worry about on a rebuilt engine.
Enjoy it now but mind slippery winter roads. Would be too sad to lose the car due an excess of enthusiasm now that everything is fixed.

 

[scam75]

Thanks guys!

Wise words, I shall not be employing full beans any time soon in this weather! Keep ticking over the miles and bed things in ready for the spring. []

Stuart

 

[scam75]

Evening chaps. Nothing posted on this thread for a while, which clearly indicates all is well! Have covered 1,400 miles now since the rebuild. Oil pressure still tip top and new sender holds a nice solid needle on the gauge, none of that jerky stuff from before! Not a drop of coolant has gone amiss other than that one time noted when it needed a top up, can only assume it was the remaining air coming out the system, which I was told would probably happen after the initial fill. Bit odd it took a few weeks to happen, but not a drop has gone since and it sits happily right at the max line now.

Not a drop of oil gone missing either and oil is still a lovely golden colour after nearly 900 miles since the first oil change and ditching the running in oil. New battery has made a big difference as well, can leave it a week and it still fires up super quick, which is also aided by the new 1.7kw starter motor. Lucky if I could leave it any more than 3 days before with the Bosch battery (more on that later). On that note, I had to send my old starter back to Germany as part of the deal for my new one, unfortunately EVRI/HERMES international made it vaporise, so after some haggling I had to send an angry German 40 Euros to get him off my case! As 28 days had elapsed since my starter vaporised and the angry German telling me nothing had arrived, EVRI issued 2 fingers to me and absolved themselves of any responsibility for said vaporisation. Bunch of crooks. Won't use them again and certainly won't purchase an exchange part from Germany again if I can help it. Gladly, bar the old starter mishap, everything is sweet as a nut. (well, I did need to replace a brake light bulb.......)

Worth noting the Yuasa battery (their equivalent of a Bosch S3 007) is miles better than said Bosch item. Never heard of them before but I am converted!

Stuart

 

[graham.webb]

Yes, bought a Yuasa from Halfords when my Bosch expired. Interestingly they are made in Ebbw Vale (probably on the old British Steel site) and the distribution centre is Swindon. The last Yuasa battery I had was on a Honda CB160...fast but feeble mechanicals a nightmare!

 

[944Turbo]

Also a Yuasa battery fan - at least of the big gel ones we use at work, usually good for at least 15 years.
Good to hear that car is behaving after all your time / effort - it is reminding me I have one sat in the unit .....
Tony

 

[scam75]

Thanks Tony! Do you not have 2 sat in the unit..................

 

[944Turbo]

One is in the garage at home!, I started to clear space for the second one at home about 2 years ago, there is a kids off road buggy, a welder and a tile cutter table in that space now! Doesn't help that my brother's mini is also lurking in my garage (on three wheels).
Tony

 

[scam75]

1,600 trouble free miles now. Opened the throttle a few times today on the way home from the golf course, very splendid indeed!

One little job today, since I had my clocks out when I had oil pressure reading issues, and cleaned up the rugby balls, the temp gauge had started to misbehave once over a quarter, essentially flicking upwards and being erratic. Anyway, cleaned up a rugby ball from my spare clock pod, transplanted it, and all is good again. Literally 5 minutes to remove the binnacle. I'll bet the wifes Seat Ateca would take somewhat longer...........[]

Stuart

 

[Eldavo]

1,600 trouble free miles now.

[] - I’ll wait for your next post then.

 

[scam75]

[/quote]

[] - I’ll wait for your next post then.

[/quote]


Indeed! Yes that's the end of the trouble free miles, loss of power this afternoon on motorway while on boost. Everything all pointed to a loose or broken boost hose, or a vacuum issue maybe.

Came to a halt half on a live lane on the motorway, no hard shoulder in sight. Car starts, but dies almost immediately, using throttle makes it die sooner.

Thankfully I've now had the car recovered and it is back home with me and I will start trying to figure it out tomorrow with a clear head and not bloody freezing on a motorway.

So, at the side of the road, I spotted a vac line had popped off, from the rubber t-piece, opposite the blue/black valve, which heads to the fuel damper. Reconnected that and it made no difference. The hose from the brake booster to manifold looks all good, as does the one to the ICV, certainly the connection to the manifold anyway, couldn't see ICV end. The hard boost pipes look fine and connected at both ends. The j-boot looks secure onto the turbo, as do all the fittings around the MAF and airbox. Nothing obvious at all.

Now, as this happened under high boost, I am focusing on air pipes and hoses. Is there anything under the car you can't see from above, that could cause this? Pipes onto the wastegate? MBC lines looked fine up top, obviously haven't been underneath the car yet.

The elephant in the room is the wiring to the MAF and SciVision module. I've had issues with this before, and it is certainly reminiscent of a previous fault, so I will investigate this. It's just the fact it happened under high boost that immediately thoughts were on boost pipes/air leaks. I did have a wiggle of the wires on the MAF/SciVision at the side of the road, didn't change anything.

So I suppose I need to check that wiring. But also where else should I check for a boost related blow-off? Could the j-boot have split and cause this? Answers on a post card please?

I hate cars.

Stuart

 

[944Turbo]

Had similar with a boost pipe failure - though it would tick over I think, just dies if pedal pressed (various times split the underneath of the pipe off the turbo, split a new intercooler to hard pipe coupler - I think Mark k did one around the same time so there may have been a bad batch - popped off the pipe to the intake manifold (wasn't refitted correctly).

I sucked the air filter out and into the corner of the standard airbox (1 airbox fixing was iffy) that did similar to your symptoms.

Could be electrical - maf - coil - rotor arm

Good luck anyway!
Tony

 

[blade7]

I had a split intercooler top hose on my old Capri injection turbo, and a friend had the same but the bottom hose on his Escort turbo. Neither were visible unless you looked closely. The Capri ran normally until it came on boost, the Escort wouldn't even idle.

 

[scam75]

Thanks lads.

Had a good look today and there was a wire on the MAF harness that had broken off, it may have broken when I poked about (if so it was hanging by a thread), but it if was what broke yesterday then that would certainly explain the issue. This is the after market harness for the SciVision. The problem this time (I hope) is at the plug that plugs into the car loom (where previously it attached to the AFM). When the car wouldn't start after the engine build, the problem was in the plug at the other end of the harness that connected to the MAF. So I've removed the after market harness and taken it round to the local garage to have it properly tidied and soldered. I'm brutal with a soldering iron so it will be worth the £20 to have it done with a level of competence! After poking about another wire snapped over and above the wire had come free from its solder. So all in all this badly needed fixed anyway. Fingers crossed it solves the problem. Still haven't found a boost leak.

Stuart

 

[944Turbo]

Sounds promising!

Thinking about it some more - with a MAF in place of the AFM it would potentially behave very differently and as soon as you release (trigger?) the throttle position switch it would be looking for airflow info to know how much fuel to add if the MAF was giving no signal you might not get any fuel or if high resistance it might try to give max fuel - not sure if it is clever enough to have an 'out of range' stop engine.

My turbo outler pipe split was on the underneath (about 15cm opening!) and the intercooler couplers split underneath too so both were hard to spot. The intercooler coupler was only opening when the engine was under load though, so didn't have much effect until boost was building.

Tony

 

[scam75]

Thanks Tony. Yes the MAF signal wire I think will cause problems if it's not connected.

So I got one end of the harness back fixed, made no difference. However the other end (that we fixed a while back) is not looking great at all. Pins moving back in the plug. So I've ordered a new plug with wires on it which I will transplant over. At least I know then that the harness should be good.

If that doesn't work I have a brand new MAF I can swap over in case it's the MAF that has died. Failing that I am back to chasing a boost leak. I haven't had the couplers off to check underneath. I will start on that if I have no luck with this new plug.

Cheers again

Stuart