Barn Find Laser Green 1.9 Gti.

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Well done for getting to the bottom of it.

[Leslie green 97]

Head bolt spacers taken from another engine and sent for plating as the originals cannot be found . Decided id push on with one thing I was dreading the sunroof frame , I managed to buy a couple of new genuine rivets just to find the correct size , these are listed for the rubber strip at the back of the sunroof and do not use the tophat spacers the rest of the sunroof uses. (Phase 2 cars and some earlier cars use the rivets instead of the torx screws used till 1989 approx . The genuine Rivets are 4.8mm wide  by 14mm deep , I suspect the top had one might be longer but I struggled to get the proper blind rivets any longer than 14.5mm  ,can get open ones ok but you need sealed ones for this job . The tophats cannot be bought and as mine were all manged by careless removal I had to get new ones machined up which was a pain but no way round it .

        Put them all in first after fitted the tape , the Peugeot museum sells the tape cheap if you are getting other stuff  , its only sticky on one side and one roll is just enough there won't be any spare so be careful or get 2 rolls , I cut 2 little triangle pieces to help the front sealing behind the tape it might help might not  ,  and overlapped the joins as this is the way mine was when i removed it . I think if you don't overlap it may leak if the tape shrinks. 

      The rivet gun I used was far too light duty and could one cope with 4.8mm max and the  amount of force needed was crazy and with 33 rivets I was wrecked after , get a long handle one as some of them I thought id not get them snapped off .

 

20240723_144718 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240723_141859 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240723_141912 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240723_150658 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240723_161030 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited July 23 by Leslie green

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

I'm not surprised you struggled, those are machine blind rivets and need a powered riveter to set them usually!

[Leslie green 97]

I think a long arm rivet gun would be perfect ,ordered one now 18 inch as its handy to have and cheap enough if too late this time ,didn't plan this job for now so wasn't fully prepared and once I started it was getting it done in one go.

Edited July 25 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

Glass for the sunroof is in , The little lug for the sunroof handle that pulls the cable was broken of removing it so trying to fix that . I bought another handle but it was split on the rear part and the button and spring had fallen out which I didn't realise and one rubber bumpstop for the left side runner on the roof was missing so may have to try and make one., the metal bit was there . The bases of the rear seats ,both zips were broken before I got it and totally siezed so I cut them out and sewed new zips in , its an ok repair for now but the cloth underneath is a bit fragile with old age and sewing leather by hand isn't much fun for such a long run .about 3 metres in total ! The cost of new seats is a bit too much for now . Dark spots are my faulty camera .

 

20240804_174742 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited August 4 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

Got a bit more done , fitted the cylinder head , tighten studs  to 60 Nm , slacken , tighten to 20 Nm then angle tighten to 300 degrees which is a lot and felt a lot , I did the angle bit 90/90 /120 to give the block an easier time instead of all in one go. I had oiled and ran the studs up and down the holes a few times to make sure then ran freely and it paid off everything went fine, don't forget the 23 mm extra spacer above water pump . I dunno what the nm torque of the last bit would be  but it seems a lot !  I did put a Sharpy mark on every stud after doing the 20 Nm bit before the angle sequence so I would see they are all pointing roughly the same was as the final stages were done as it would be easy to mess up. The Headgasket can only go one way as the dowel holes are bigger .

      Timing belt and pulleys and covers fitted ,had to make a rough tool to hold the  cam pulley to torque to 40 Nm . Finding all the right screws was a pain and 2 engine mount bolts still are missing but will turn up sometime . After taking the head spacers off another engine and getting them plated I found the originals , id used them to hold the liners in but the engine was sump up so walked past then a 100 times and didn't see them . Got the stat housing cleaned up a bit and fitted too I've had to tap to clean quite a few threads as bolts were tight . Bits of the head really need painting as it looks a bit shabby compared to the block . I got a very decent set of timing covers of a spare 1.6 engine and that engine really has paid for itself as I've robbed loads of it including  that nice crank belt pulley which is unchipped  and the dipstick as I stepped on mine moving stuff a long time ago and split it .  You have to fit the dipstick before the exhaust manifold otherwise it won't fit as I found out before .

Unfortunately the camcover powdercoating isn't great and has quite a few pock marks in the finish, I didn't notice till today as it was wrapped up but will do for now .

 

 

20240809_130402 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240814_170449 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited August 14 by Leslie green

[welshpug 1,644]

looks great, Autodoc have the dipsticks, possibly the museum too.

[Leslie green 97]

Thanks Mei, its actually the dipstick tube I split as it fell out of a box in storage and got stepped on luckily the 1.6 one is the same length as I though it might be different.I might get it welded  later but could be tricky  ,there is a little hole where it goes inside the block and its cracked across that . I may get a new dipstick later but they seem to be  listed as fitting all and I doubt they do .

[Leslie green 97]

Was removing the exhaust manifold nuts and nearly had a disaster , one flipped out of my fingers and into the port , I turned the engine upside down on the stand and shook it about a bit and luckily it fell back out again..phew !  Ports were blanked with rags after that . 

     I had 2  grommet holes behind the master cylinder and tried for about an hour to fit the sunroof vacuum hose grommet in the upper smaller one , checking pics later it goes in the lower one ,strangely only the top one has a hole in the sound deadening behind it which threw me off a bit . Inlet manifold had been agua blasted but had got very dirty over a winter so cleaned it up and fitted the fuel rail etc , will change the o rings on the injectors when new ones arrive  although they look fine . gave the black bit of injectors a spray paint .

         The crank seal I fitted but its only 7mm thick and the original was 10mm so it sits further in , I was going to buy an original but hope this is ok as without bottoming it out its difficult to keep it flat , I had a chip on the block here anyway where the seal goes that a previous owner did  so it had to be  in past that . Flywheel fitted and bolts locktited  and clutch on.

     Tried to fit a new clutch cable but can't decide how it goes on behind the pedal  as there doesn't seem to be a guide to run on so will need more research and its been years since it came out .

      I got the little flywheel locking tool and its been brilliant for torguing the flywheel bolts to 49nm  and crank pulley to 109nm ,made it a doddle .

 I'm waiting on a gasket for the gearbox input shaft , I only found out earlier cars with machined seal housings need one so waiting in that . My car had yellow bushes on the release arm but I was going to fit a new arm and it came with white bushes I think and the new  release bearing doesn't seem to fit securely with the yellow ones  so I guess bushes depend on the arm fitted not the year etc . I got a topran arm and lever and the pin goes right though the lever the cable goes on with no resistance at all , surely this isn't right ???? and the release arm is so tight you would never get the pin through it . Bought a few things topran for other cars and I think some of their stuff is very poor fit .

 

 

20240826_151654 by Leslie, on Flickr

 

20240826_162501 by Leslie, on Flickr

Edited August 26 by Leslie green

[Leslie green 97]

Got the gearbox sealed up The older style input shaft housing needed a gasket , torqued the new gearbox shaft nuts to 54 nm the earlier haynes gives  a spec, later one doesn't and had some fun fitting the pin in the clutch arm, the pin was new and could not be fitted and started to mushroom the end so I took the shaft back of and in to the vice and press the splinned  pin in with a socket on the other side then pressed it back out again , it was then possible to fit it in situ without too much trouble using a Nailbar and a hammer . I have fitted the yellow bushes and the original shaft as it had minimal wear . Waiting some engine mount bolts to come back before I can try fitting the engine.Made an adaptor to bring the load leveller closer to the engine as it was too wide on the pickup points so used a piece of scrap angle with 2 end plates ,works good so far.Had to give the cam cap I had welded a run with the powerfile as it wasn't letting the oil spraybar sit flat on that cap .Engine and gearbox reunited after being apart last 7 years lol

 

20240828_171250 by Leslie, on Flickr

     

Edited August 28 by Leslie green

[DamirGTI 340]

22 hours ago, Leslie green said:

torqued the new gearbox shaft nuts to 54 nm    

 

Do them up to at least 80Nm , even 100/120Nm ..

 

4 out of 5 gearboxes i've taken apart had loose shaft nuts - specifically input shaft ones , they are notorious for loosening off on older BE1 and BE3 boxes .

 

D

[Leslie green 97]

The nuts are  staked now Damir so they shouldn't really be able to undo but I understand what you are saying and you are right one was loose when I first opened the box which is why I bought new nuts  although I don't know if someone was in there before or not . 

On a separate note does anyone know if the dipstick tube has an o ring where it goes in the block as I suspect it should have something to seal it  ??

Edited August 29 by Leslie green