Double header combi post - Cambelt failure, missing nut

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sun May 30, 2004 7:53 am

Two little questions:

1. In reference to the "Mk2 for a fiver" - is the 1043 carb engine indeed non-interference, and easily fixed with a new belt and proper TDC alignment, or will all the valves have been smashed, with the lack of noise on starter cranking being due to them lying flat, mashed against the head and no longer making any big impact on the pistons?

2. Take a look at this pic.......

Okies..... in the red circle, we have a air filter housing fixing stud bolt that is mysteriously nut-less. The hopeful (and honestly, most likely) explanation is that it went missing on the floor at the time I was replacing my HT leads about 15 months ago. Would this be a big trouble to the engine, seeing as there's still two holding the metal ring and thereby the housing in place?
The doom and gloom explanation is that it's fallen down into the throttle body - is it small enough to have been sucked through into the cylinders and done damage (or maybe just expelled), or would it have lodged in the pipes before the valves... perhaps causing the perculiar engine problem i'm currently suffering? (which I suppose is a bit like having one cylinder where there's not enough "stuff" able to get through at lower speeds)
And, a simple query - what is the hole that the green arrow points to for? I noticed smoke puffing out of it when I was doing the Redex thing.. (and later up out of the butterfly valve....)

Cheers..

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 6:03 am

no one?

86C · Post by **86C** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 7:28 pm

If you'd dropped the nut down through the injector housing, you'd have known about the consequences by now(not good!) so I'd say it's missing, presumed dead on the floor somewhere. The green arrow, that's where the crankcase oil breather pipe connects to and hence why it "puffs" when the engine is running.
As for the Â£5 Polo, it's fair to say that the valves are knackered. Only the pre 1983 engines seem to get away with this(with the combustion chamber in the head and not flat like later 1984 on cars)
Stick a complete secondhand head on it and it'll be fine more than likely(but I would say that as I've got a mint one for sale if it has hydraulic tappets)

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Wed Jun 02, 2004 12:32 am

Well I would say, with sticking a fresh lead onto Plug 2 making a hell of a difference, that the nut is definately on the floor somewhere. Think i'll pass by Homebase (or halfords, when i return the midget leads) and just get a replacement! Its all holding together firmly ok, but seriously... it's not worth the risk of potential damage for the sake of a single nut now is it

I suspected the puffing might be the breather, once I got the housing off again (after I wrote the original post) and found a big, rather overly-soft pipe connected to the bottom of it and disappearing down towards the bottom. I'm guessing now that my car is therefore not completely breatherless as I'd suspected, and nor is the lack of camshaft breather pipe a natural phenomenon - someone must have got rid of a knackered one and then sealed up the connection further down where they all link together, otherwise the crank gases would be squirting out there instead

(which is cool - a bit more economy, less oil going missing, reduced emissions)

As for the head - how much for that, a gasket, and the loan of a suitable torque wrench? I probably have the other bits to do the job (if a bit inexpertly and probably with much losing of pieces) but a torquer is the big missing thing (I have no need of that Â£50 tool otherwise!). Would kind of destroy a day or two though

Oh yeah and the loan of a mk2 haynes, as there's probably one tiny little difference that would cock the whole thing up halfway through at a point where I can't let go of the part I'm holding without destroying the machine.
(come on... quote me a price that's more than what I could sell the Mk2 for. go on... i dare ya

)

anyone know what date the hydro tappets came in? would a C reg be covered?

(( I had a quick MSN chat with ywouldi / ben and the belt went while the car was in motion, rather than merely under the extra strain of starting.. so yeah, they're probably completely wrecked and the head would be good for making an attractive mantlepiece ornament out of ))