I cracked my B4 engine at 393K and this is what I found:

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I had an intermittent coolant loss from the system being pressurized, and the small amount of soot in the reservoir bottle told the tale despite ruling out the other avenues first. So, after putting it off until the pain-in-the-rear factor overrode my procrastination, I decided to jump in. I was going to have it done by one of the guru's, but limited funds and timing interceded instead. I think we all know how that goes.

Since it was a head gasket but the car did have almost 400K on it, I thought: why put the same head back on the car when I have a spare engine in the barn? So I sent the spare AHU head to Franko6 for a refresh and a reprofiled cam, cleaned a spare intake spotlessly, and drilled/tapped the exhaust manifold for a future EGT sensor, and painted it with ceramic high temperature paint. I cleaned everything else and made sure it would not be a problem so I could install new or freshly cleaned parts and start the mileage clock over again, since I want the car to last as long as it can.



I admit I was a bit nervous since the engine had never been apart and it had 393,150K on it, in New England where there is less salt in the ocean than on the roads.

The only issue I ran into was the turbo bolts, which broke despite trying to be easy with them. Even after they broke and we removed the head, they didn't want to come out with 1cm of protrusion above the deck. We got one out with the blue wrench after about an hour, but the other, while moving, did not want to be evicted from its place of residency. We had to remove the turbo to finally get it out, so I decided to take some pictures. Kroil, PB Blaster, and even the old candlewax trick didn't work. The threads stripped off the bolts and were jamming it from coming out. We chased the turbo threads with a tap afterward and they suffered no damage.



The intake vanes look weird to me, like they have been wearing on the housing, but there is no apparent wear on the housing. Do these look normal? You can see where the ends are scalloped slightly. The shaft has maybe 1mm of axial movement and would produce fine boost to 18 psi with no issues. I do note some erosion on the leading edge and religiously change my air filter, so I'm not sure what that's from. Still works fine for now with little to no oil blowby, but I don't lug the car either.




The exhaust side looked untouched and I noticed less movement on this side, not that there was much on the intake.




We could find no apparent breach on the head gasket, but it was pretty messy.

I dry wiped the top of the pistons since a tiny bit of coolant got on them, and some debris from the head removal. I did not clean them otherwise and was surprised to still be able to read the writing on them!





There was no lip at the top of the cylinders like I expected to see, and everything was much cleaner than I thought it would be. I guess my elixir of 1 oz TC-W3 2-cycle oil and 1/2 oz Power Service per gallon diesel is working just fine. HermTDI told me he recommended adding it to every tank and I have done so for many years, but I never knew what effects it was having on my engine. Now I know, and I will keep adding it. The injection pump and turbo are still original as well.

I was also surprised at how clean the old intake was, but 94x did swap a clean one on at a GTG a few years ago. Just goes to how you what having your EGR disabled will do.

I'll update with more pictures when we finish the install today, we had to leave it due to the lateness of the hour and the fact we ran out of beer.
 
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GTiTDi

TDIClub Enthusiast, Macht Schnell! Vendor , w/Busi
Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Location
3 Spruce st Wareham, gateway to Cape Cod Massachus
TDI
'91 GTI CJAA swap,'02 Jetta wagon ALH swap, '03 GTI 1.8T rally car, '03 Sprinter 3500
If you didn't find any suspect areas on your old head gasket, it may not have been leaking. With the evidence you described prior to removing the head as well as the high miles, I would replace the Oil/Coolant heat ex changer block, as these are known to leak slightly and cause many an unwarranted head gasket replacement...
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
And cause a pressurization of the cooling system so it blows out? There is also no oil in the cooling system, only a slight amount of soot. No coolant in the oil either, as noted by the UOA.

I am almost positive it was the head gasket, since I could relieve the pressure on the cooling system, letting pressurized air escape, and overnight it would build a very slight amount of pressure again.
 

GTiTDi

TDIClub Enthusiast, Macht Schnell! Vendor , w/Busi
Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Location
3 Spruce st Wareham, gateway to Cape Cod Massachus
TDI
'91 GTI CJAA swap,'02 Jetta wagon ALH swap, '03 GTI 1.8T rally car, '03 Sprinter 3500
Yeah the pressurization part I did not see...Obviously the coolant heat exchanger wouldn't do that, but still something worth swapping out. It just seems odd you didn't notice anything suspicious with the old gasket. That is weird. Any cracking in the old head casting?

*how the hell did I miss the first line of the post? Reminding myself not to post first thing after waking up! I need some coffee!
 
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VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
Old head gasket could have been weak enough to allow combustion gasses into the coolant passages without showing major signs of head gasket failure. Pretty common on the 6.0 powerstrokes even if the head gasket isn't blown.
 

schultp

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2008
Location
Michigan
TDI
2010 Jetta Sportwagen, 6sp manual
I love a rebuild thread with pics!

Looks like you have everything covered.

Not to hijack the thread but you are in New England right? How is the body and undercarriage on your car holding out with 390K+ miles? The reason I ask is that I want to keep my 98 Jetta for the long haul but the effects of Michigan's road salt is starting to creep in. I have a few faint spots of surface rust on the edge of one fender, one door, and one rocker panel. I'm contemplating whether to have these properly repaired ($$$) or just keep it mechanically sound and hope the rust deamons don't take over too quickly.

I envy certain VW owners in Arizona that don't have this issue!...(you know who you are! :p)
 

tdidieselbobny

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
Stafford,NY (WNY)
TDI
'03 Galactic Blue Jetta TDI, '15 Silk Blue Golf Sportwagen TDI
I love a rebuild thread with pics!

Looks like you have everything covered.

Not to hijack the thread but you are in New England right? How is the body and undercarriage on your car holding out with 390K+ miles? The reason I ask is that I want to keep my 98 Jetta for the long haul but the effects of Michigan's road salt is starting to creep in. I have a few faint spots of surface rust on the edge of one fender, one door, and one rocker panel. I'm contemplating whether to have these properly repaired ($$$) or just keep it mechanically sound and hope the rust deamons don't take over too quickly.

I envy certain VW owners in Arizona that don't have this issue!...(you know who you are! :p)
Get the rust fixed! Once it starts on the A3's, it will QUICKLY take over,especially rockers and the floor pans where those rubber plugs are. It took about 3 years for my A3 to disintegrate here in NY once it took hold:(..... great thread and pictures,Abacus!
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
Not to hijack the thread but you are in New England right? How is the body and undercarriage on your car holding out with 390K+ miles? The reason I ask is that I want to keep my 98 Jetta for the long haul but the effects of Michigan's road salt is starting to creep in. I have a few faint spots of surface rust on the edge of one fender, one door, and one rocker panel. I'm contemplating whether to have these properly repaired ($$$) or just keep it mechanically sound and hope the rust deamons don't take over too quickly.
Thanks. I do have some rust starting to creep in, but keep the underside washed more than the top side. I also use something called Fluid Film to keep the rust at bay, and it seems to work fine. The main rust I had was on the driver's side, so I had that redone last year by a professional garage, and it looks great. I had about 12 small rust bubbles and 2 perforations.

Definitely get to it since it does not take long.

Dieseljunky: I decided not to re-ring since I saw no need and didn't want to open that can of worms. With 460-500 psi in all cylinders, I didn't want to mess with it if I didn't have to. I considered it, but after reading some of the posts on here about re-ring remorse, I decided against it.
 
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Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
Well, it's all together and fired up flawlessly. The only issue is something I didn't consider, which is all the stock injector fuel return lines leaking because I touched them. They're not that old, maybe a year, and worked fine until I unhooked them from the injectors. So I'm using the Mrs' B4 today while I can get some new lines to avoid having diesel run down the front of the block.

Revkev had a spare coolant bottle, so he gave it to me, and what a difference between the old and new.



Here is a picture of the old intake 94x installed a few years ago at a GTG, which has 57K miles on it. This is the reason all EGR's should be disabled.



Because this is just plain WRONG!!! This one has 144K on it.




Aside from the broken bolts, everything else went smoothly and we encountered no other problems. The job, with thermostat replacement, took us about 11 hours to complete, but we took our time and double checked everything. I am also amazed at how dry the exhaust bolts were, despite being less than 2 years old and covered with 2000°F Anti-Seize when installed. They squeaked when backed out like they were never lubed.

I'll report back when I have the road test complete to give my impression of the reprofiled Franko6 AHU cam.
 

BlindViper

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2010
Location
maryland
TDI
97 A3
You can clean that gunk out of the res bottle with some water and some sand. It wont be white like the new one but you will be able to see the levels. I replaced my buddies headgasket about 3 weeks ago. There was no apparent "blown" spot in the gasket either. Make sure to save 2 of the old head bolts and cut the heads off and use them for wheel installation!
 

BlindViper

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2010
Location
maryland
TDI
97 A3
Ya the head bolts are the same thread as the lug bolts. If you cut the head off you can screw one in the hubs to line up the holes on the wheel.
 

TonyJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 15, 2005
Location
Tucson, Az
TDI
'15 Jetta TDI SE / '06 Jetta TDI DSG Pkg0 / '96 Passat TDI
Nice work!

I remember when I had to replace the head on my Passat. Took me 2-3 weekends, but I had to use 'club pics to put everything back together, as mine was a basket case.

Congrat's!

Tony
 

vwmttek

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Location
MT
TDI
06 jetta tdi
You can probably fix your leaky injector lines. I had that issue with mine after taking off one. Take some fine grit sandpaper to the "rounded" end part (part that seats into the injector), if you look closely there will be a small groove worn into it. Sand it smooth and evenly (Carefully). Then I buffed it even smoother with some finer grit.
Rinse it out really well and when you reinstall - make sure its centered tightly while you tighten the nut.
I'd take a picture and show you better, but I don't dare take them off again lol.
 

luceberg

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Location
UK
TDI
1996 Passat Estate
I think he means the fuel return lines, which are braided rubber originally and can be replaced with viton tubing.
 

mech644

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Location
Blue Hill, Maine
TDI
'00 Golf, '14 Touareg
Looks and sounds good Abacus. I installed a new Kolbenschimdt head on my ALH about 5weeks ago. Had same symptoms as your B4, car could sit overnight in 0*F and pressure cap would still release pressure from the coolant bubble, not sign that I could see that the hg was leaking. You'll be pleased with the results, valve job, clean head, and intake; it will run nice.
The pic of that turbo is the PERFECT reason to find a VNT 15, DP, and N75 from someones MKIV, notch your rear engine mount, and rock on.
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I don't want to get too outrageous going VNT, and how much will a 15 gain me over the stock turbo, or the K03/04 hybrid I was thinking of when mine pooches? After spending a cool $1k on the head + install, there isn't a ton of money left over.

Luceberg is correct, they were the rubber return lines and they've been replaced.

Thanks BlindViper, I did not know that.

Silver box: thanks, it actually surprised the hell out of me, too, as did the condition of the piston tops. It has never felt sluggish and always pulled hard whenever called upon. Now the Mrs' B4...that needs to have some updates. It may get slightly better mileage, but it feels like I'm driving a moped by comparison.

Car runs flawlessly and the power gain is noticeable, even though I'm on the break-in oil and being somewhat easy on it. The mild smoke under acceleration is also gone, which I'll miss for those tailgaters. Guess I'll just have to live with it. :cool:
 
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Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
It does start a little hard when cold, not sure of what that's about. I may run a diesel purge through the injectors in case we disturbed something them on removal, but the balance looks great. I had the tops covered while they were out of the car to avoid any contamination.

I also have the timing set at exactly mid graph and before it was at the upper range. I'll adjust it back, but really wanted to get the car running again since I needed it for work.

The IQ remains unchanged at 3.8, I am wondering if I should adjust it? I get a little smoke around 3K, but almost nothing before that.
 

reddtekk

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Location
Waterbury, CT
TDI
1996 Passat TDI
Nice work Abacus! You have kept her up quite well! Glad to hear that you've got it running again, and thanks for the suggestion with regards to additives - I've been adding clean motor oil and some Diesel Kleen at each fill of fuel but have no longevity results to share - I just obtained my first TDI a couple weeks ago.

Thanks for the pictures and for sharing!
 

moterhead855

New member
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Location
raleigh NC
TDI
1999 1/2 tdi jetta
@abacus, could you describe in detail the cooling system issues you were having? im fighting a cooling system demon on my mk4 alh jetta and kinda leaning towards head gasket at this point. the engine runs great though and i thought that a blown head gasket would show performance issues, but like i said it runs great. im building pressure and blowing out the over heat port. ive replaced the thermostat, coolant reservoir/cap and verified good flow through radiator and engine. the bottom hose stays cool and top hose is hot. any ideas? ive pretty much exhausted all of my diag abilities and that of my vw mechanic friends and we're all stumped/frustrated at this point and open to any advice/recomendations. thanks!
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
My car was weird. It always ran flawlessly, had great power, got great mileage, and had no related issues.

Occasionally it would pressurize the coolant bottle, which would dump coolant out the overflow. But, occasionally it would not as well. There were days when I had to top it off (just a few ounces) every time I started the car, and times when I could run a few months without adding coolant. The car would come up to temperature fine and be rock solid at 190 degrees in all weather, unless I was pulling a big hill and then it would heat up and the temp gauge would go over 190, but it never got to over 240 degrees on the gauge. Around town it was fine and it did not get better or worse. I went to the ARP2000 head studs, but these did not help. I replaced the thermostat and this didn't seem to help, but I did notice the upper coolant hose would be hot and the bottom not, even after the thermostat change. For awhile I suspected the radiator, but now I think it's fine. I had since learned that you can get a bad thermostat right from the box, even from a reputable vendor on this board (ie: no Chinese junk).

If I let the car sit overnight, it would dump most of the reservoir bottle overnight. I found that if I released the pressure slowly from the cap (so it didn't blow off), it may or may not be pressurized the next morning, but it would not dump the coolant. I did the test with the Block Tester and it showed negative for exhaust gases and the oil showed no signs of coolant on the Used Oil Analysis. The thing that gave it away was the very slight accumulation and minor discoloration in the coolant bottle, indicating exhaust gases had to be getting into it despite what the NAPA Block Tester showed.

I think I was pressurizing the coolant bottle only on one cylinder, which is why it would not do it all the time, but only when that one cylinder had a lot of pressure in it. When I replaced the head, I saw no indications of a breach, but it's perfect now.

I went through a lot of G12 coolant, more than I car to mention here. The ease of adding coolant once and awhile coupled with my natural procrastination let me to put it off for a long time, but I finally got tired of it and did the work. I am not sorry and wish I hadn't waited.
 

mech644

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Location
Blue Hill, Maine
TDI
'00 Golf, '14 Touareg
I don't want to get too outrageous going VNT, and how much will a 15 gain me over the stock turbo, or the K03/04 hybrid I was thinking of when mine pooches? After spending a cool $1k on the head + install, there isn't a ton of money left over.

Luceberg is correct, they were the rubber return lines and they've been replaced.

Thanks BlindViper, I did not know that.

Silver box: thanks, it actually surprised the hell out of me, too, as did the condition of the piston tops. It has never felt sluggish and always pulled hard whenever called upon. Now the Mrs' B4...that needs to have some updates. It may get slightly better mileage, but it feels like I'm driving a moped by comparison.

Car runs flawlessly and the power gain is noticeable, even though I'm on the break-in oil and being somewhat easy on it. The mild smoke under acceleration is also gone, which I'll miss for those tailgaters. Guess I'll just have to live with it. :cool:
Nothing outrageous at all about a VNT15. When I was researching the idea for mine Peter N remarked that a VNT15 in a B4 would be an ideal match. The 15 has very quick response. I reckon you would have boost sooner and it would last further up the RPM's; VNT makes the turbo more efficient vs a WG type. MPG gains, pure speculation but I'd hazzard a guess of 2-4. This thread is a good resource if you want to go that route http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=314761.
But I'm totally sympathetic to "enough is enough", if the money tree in your back yard is anything like the one in mine then it's slim pickings.
 

BlindViper

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2010
Location
maryland
TDI
97 A3
@abacus, could you describe in detail the cooling system issues you were having? im fighting a cooling system demon on my mk4 alh jetta and kinda leaning towards head gasket at this point. the engine runs great though and i thought that a blown head gasket would show performance issues, but like i said it runs great. im building pressure and blowing out the over heat port. ive replaced the thermostat, coolant reservoir/cap and verified good flow through radiator and engine. the bottom hose stays cool and top hose is hot. any ideas? ive pretty much exhausted all of my diag abilities and that of my vw mechanic friends and we're all stumped/frustrated at this point and open to any advice/recomendations. thanks!
Do you have low or no heat at idle on a warmed up car? If so you have a very small head gasket leak. One thing you can try is to drive the car one day and act like you have a 200 deg cup of coffee between your legs make no boost at. If you don't loose any coolant its the head gasket
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I just stripped the original head for cleaning, and thought I'd post some pics of the cam. The cam is original and the lifters have 98K on them (please don't deride me, they were replaced by a guru).

(click on picture to enlarge)



And here is why I prefer the teflon seal to the stock OEM black one. Note the two grooves which were worn into the cam from the seal, which was leaking a little. Since it needed a new head gasket and a cam, and the rest of the head had 393K on it, I thought it was time for a complete swap. I have always run Shell Rotella-T or Mobil-1 TDT oil, so I would say it was time that wore it in.

(click on picture to enlarge)



Hard to believe I have over 2K on the new head already and the car runs like a champ.
 

The Turtle

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Location
rural Maryland
TDI
1996 B4 Passat wagon, SpeedTuning chip, 360,000+ miles, 1996 B4V, 306,000 miles on original engine
I was hoping to see what the old head looked like when you pulled it! Or was that IT?
 

Abacus

That helpful B4 guy
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Location
Relocated from Maine to Dewey, AZ
TDI
Only the B4V left
I stripped it already and scraped the old gasket off in preparation for a dip cleaning. It looked like any other head that is taken off though, nothing spectacular and no buildup. I did not touch the valves in it, so I can post a pic if you'd like.
 
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