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If it really is just a cooling seal and no damage was done to the housings or plates, you could get another closing kit and some better apex seals for like $400-500 and rebuild it yourself (assuming all other components are in good shape).. I rebuilt mine by watching two jobbers from Australia on YouTube. Motor came out fine.
SC95GT, Appreciate it..., and the suggestion. The better part of valor is often objectively assessing your resources for a task...not only $$, but experience, skill, and most importantly time. And of course, in situations as these you don't know what you don't know. That said... I believe it is above my comfort level to "plan" to pop open my engine, diagnose and correct it. So, I'm investigating established, reliable builders in the hopes of getting a quality engine rebuild. I'll talk w/ them... and garner reviews from experienced SMEs w/in our community, and proceed from there...
Well, as committed... the good, bad, this is the ugly. I took the car out Mon. evening ...simple cruise...think I hit 1 psi. After driving ~ 5 mi I stopped for gas. After filling up she wouldn't start. Multiple attempts...cranked strong, but would not start. Thought to let the engine cool. After some time while waiting I looked underneath and saw a pool of coolant generally...under manifold area (recall I still have the ex mani leak). So, popped the coolant cap and was topping it up. As I continued to periodically crank the engine I could see wafs of smoke emanating from the coolant overfill bottle coinciding w/ when the engine was being cranked. After ~an hr of cranking, waiting, and getting jumps...finally got her started... white smoke billowing everywhere, and was able to drive directly home. Since...she starts, but has rough idle and fair amount of white smoke. So, I'm reasonably confident, unfortunately, that whatever happened last Sat ruptured the coolant o-ring in the rotor 2 housing. I was logging last Sat when the initial "event" happened and AFRs repeatedly drove to ~10.6 in boost, coolant and oil temps were ~205F and 190F, respectively. After the event coolant climbed past my alarm threshold (215F) to 220F before dropping back to normal range. So, given that data my presumption is this was simply the product of boosting a 65k mile reman'd non-built engine, which btw I expected to "go"..., but not so soon.
So, currently considering options, cost, and time frames for next steps...
if it helps, and i know it doesnt. i am in the same boat, but i managed to do it without boost..
If it really is just a cooling seal and no damage was done to the housings or plates, you could get another closing kit and some better apex seals for like $400-500 and rebuild it yourself (assuming all other components are in good shape).. I rebuilt mine by watching two jobbers from Australia on YouTube. Motor came out fine.
SC95GT, ...I m/h spoken too quickly. All options are on table. Thx. Curt
"You take the blue pill the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes" - Morpheus
"You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes" - Morpheus
Have you tried any sealant? Probably will not work ( although I have seen it work) but at this point you have nothing to loose?
very nice write up and clean install.
dont forget if your coolant temp becomes a problem a secondary radiator works wonders.
Have you tried any sealant? Probably will not work ( although I have seen it work) but at this point you have nothing to loose?
very nice write up and clean install.
dont forget if your coolant temp becomes a problem a secondary radiator works wonders.
OD, Appreciate it... and thanks for the suggestion. No, I haven't tried a sealant. I would have zero confidence a sealant would hold on a boosted engine, and wouldn't want to introduce a sealant essentially to the combustion chamber, or chance clogging coolant passages.
Conversely, hopefully w/ no or minimal damage to housings and plates this is a good opportunity to learn and sufficiently "harden" the engine to handle the power the "Rock's cooking" Ideally, I intend to rebuild this engine w/ all new seals, a street port, dowells, a stud kit, and likely softer apex seals. THEN, FINALLY get my ex mani sealed. We'll see how it goes... more to come...
Have you tried any sealant? Probably will not work ( although I have seen it work) but at this point you have nothing to loose?
very nice write up and clean install.
dont forget if your coolant temp becomes a problem a secondary radiator works wonders.
OD, Appreciate it... and thanks for the suggestion. No, I haven't tried a sealant. I would have zero confidence a sealant would hold on a boosted engine, and wouldn't want to introduce a sealant essentially to the combustion chamber, or chance clogging coolant passages.
Conversely, hopefully w/ no or minimal damage to housings and plates this is a good opportunity to learn and sufficiently "harden" the engine to handle the power the "Rock's cooking" Ideally, I intend to rebuild this engine w/ all new seals, a street port, dowells, a stud kit, and likely softer apex seals. THEN, FINALLY get my ex mani sealed. We'll see how it goes... more to come...
not sure where you are going with sealant. but dont bother. just went down that road with cam, i can tell you what he used... stopped the issue for a while. but failed in long run.. and this was bonus! locked solid.
Whoa.....! That’s nasty.
sorry to derail the thread.
i did have an engine that was having air bubbles in the coolant...( wasn’t blowing the usual white smoke... yet) and I called cam. he suggested a particular sealant. It worked for me and he told me if it didn’t then no harm done...engine had to be torn down anyway. So I gave it a shot.
The op is going to really enjoy a properly built engine for FI. enjoy your adventure...you will learn a lot. Will follow...great thread.
Pulled my engine out this weekend as well . Are you going REW or just a refresh?
SC95GT, I'm rebuilding my 13B rene, not doing a REW swap. I've not investigated it much personally, but understand that a REW swap is significantly more costly.
Whoa.....! That’s nasty.
sorry to derail the thread.
i did have an engine that was having air bubbles in the coolant...( wasn’t blowing the usual white smoke... yet) and I called cam. he suggested a particular sealant. It worked for me and he told me if it didn’t then no harm done...engine had to be torn down anyway. So I gave it a shot.
The op is going to really enjoy a properly built engine for FI. enjoy your adventure...you will learn a lot. Will follow...great thread.
think most of the damage was in the overheat, the coolant sealant finished it off. you would have recognized a lot of faces at RR. did a 1:28.31 in a stock 17gti with pads and 200 tires. it was a hoot.
SC95GT, I'm rebuilding my 13B rene, not doing a REW swap. I've not investigated it much personally, but understand that a REW swap is significantly more costly.
All the best to you. What's your time frame?
Bolting on the new counterweight, flywheel, twin disc clutch tomorrow then resealing the front cover and oil pan, etc. I'll be dropping the motor back in this weekend. Good luck on the rebuild.
Bolting on the new counterweight, flywheel, twin disc clutch tomorrow then resealing the front cover and oil pan, etc. I'll be dropping the motor back in this weekend. Good luck on the rebuild.
SC95GT, Congrats on your progress! All the best going forward... auxiliaries install, re-install, etc.
Thanks! I've been covered w/ work. Expecting to make some progress during time off over Thanksgiving. Next up...stripping auxiliary items, and cracking the block.
Looks good. I know some people will say you need all new housings etc., but I would just verify everything is in spec and not damaged, buy a new closing kit and get it back together. Chances are something else will blow well before anything else is truly unusable... If your are iffy on that, you may look into resurfacing those housings. I got mine done at Freelance and they came back looking brand new for like $300.
I was logging last Sat when the initial "event" happened and AFRs repeatedly drove to ~10.6 in boost, coolant and oil temps were ~205F and 190F, respectively. After the event coolant climbed past my alarm threshold (215F) to 220F before dropping back to normal range. So, given that data my presumption is this was simply the product of boosting a 65k mile reman'd non-built engine, which btw I expected to "go"..., but not so soon.
i am in the same boat, but i managed to do it without boost.. 
All options are on table. Thx. Curt
We'll see how it goes... more to come...
