Bhw issues after cam replacement

PickleRick

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Location
Greenville sc
TDI
05 GLS BHW sedan 5 speed conversion. BHW Carver SantaCruz in progress
It's pretty easy to temporarily remove your EGR and put in some block off plates. Make a temporary bypass for your coolant hoses. You'll throw a cel. If you need an EGR that is leak free let me know, I have one left. No inspections here so it's the first thing to go on my BHW motors. So much more room for activities under the hood without that weird scuba tank with tentacles all over the exhaust manifold.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Update:

looks like the issue is with 2 injectors cyl 1 and cyl4. On cold start they are out of spec at 2.99, when fully warmed up they return to spec but are still on the high side. This explains the smoke and rpm jumping on start.

the previous shop did the injector seals, when I spoke with this shop they said they don’t see any way at all how the shop could of messed up the injectors but it was not like that at all before.

since it’s only 2 injectors would it be ok to replace them with 2 good used? Or as a set? I only need to get a few more months or a year at most of this car.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
So got the injectors replaced with 2 used injectors, the injectors were cleaned ,re sealed and tested before installation and met all specs.

The car seems like it may have improved a little but I haven’t road tested it yet to confirm, they said it still has a lag. They will be letting the car sit over night to see what the iq is on real cold start.

Unfortunately this car has turned into a endless money pit due to incompetent mechanics and has burned through my savings, which isn’t much since I’m a broke college student.

Anyone have any ideas what it could be if it’s not the injectors? I’m guessing bent rods maybe, possible the last shop didn’t remove the fuel from cyl when they re sealed it.

I’ll update what the iq is on cold start. Once the car is warmed from a few mins of driving it drives much better but still not like a normal Bhw.
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
They're the new VW "flex" rods.

Low compression when you don't need all that power...
 

MEgearhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
B5.5, 4L, 4G
Log group 011 while trying to accelerate from a stop, and post.

Also what is the difference in actual intake pressure when doing the boost control test? It should be around 400 mbar.
 

MEgearhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
B5.5, 4L, 4G
Just noticed the intake flap error. Have you verified the intake flap is not hung up partially closed? Normally the actuator motor gears fail and the flap opens all the way by spring pressure, but I'd rule that out.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Alright just stopped by the shop and spoke with them. All the iq’s are well within spec now way below 2.00 they said. I have not drove the vehicle but they said it drives better for sure but is definitely not 100 percent what it should be. There gonna push the car into the shop tomorrow and do a cold compression test, they also are gonna check the seals on the other 2 injectors to make sure they aren’t cut. They are also suspecting bent rods. They will not be charging for any of these diagnostic times luckily.

If compression comes back with differences they are gonna pull all the injectors and measure the piston height with a rod I believe through the injector holes.

Not looking good so far, I’ve already started contacting scrap yards for used engines.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Update:

Compression came back good with all cylinders being around 350 psi on a fully cold engine, no more then 10 psi diffrence in 1 cylinder. They measured piston height with a rod through the injector hole and all 4 where the same.

The shop is gonna change the other 2 injectors seals and go from there.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
So I went down to the shop, they actually said all cyl were around 350 and 1 was at 300, that one cylinder had a 1mm difference in piston height but they said it was all still in spec and would not cause the lag from a stop. They are gonna pull the o2 sensor and check if the cat is clogged.
 

Windex

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Location
Cambridge
TDI
05 B5V 01E FRF
Spec is around 350-450psi. I would be concerned. Do you know if there was any runaway event in the engine's history?
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Not that I know of, I still have my suspicion the last shop hydrolocked the engine. I thought the spec was 276? Or was that for alh
 

CantWrite

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Location
Placerville CO
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon (BHW/5-spd conv, 03T). I keep in touch with the (2) ALH's I sold.
Did you replace the cam preemptively, or were you showing symptoms?

if you need a rebuild, is the first shop (15 years + in business) accepting any fault? Or have they washed their hands of you? As a consumer do you have any options, or are you out thousands to a shop that made your car worse?

I’m sorry for your troubles. Know some of us are silently following along as the pros have stepped in to help.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Did you replace the cam preemptively, or were you showing symptoms?

if you need a rebuild, is the first shop (15 years + in business) accepting any fault? Or have they washed their hands of you? As a consumer do you have any options, or are you out thousands to a shop that made your car worse?

I’m sorry for your troubles. Know some of us are silently following along as the pros have stepped in to help.
Yes I replaced it as a pre caution before a lifter blew. It ran perfectly fine before with very minimal to no smoke and great power, the only symptom it had was a slight misfire or stumble every now and then. It never presented any codes and still got less then 6l per 100km on the highway.

The first shop is not aware yet of what is happening besides that 2 injectors got messed up which they denied any wrong doing. They most definitely will deny any fault if something major was to come about and it will probably not even be worth it to take them to court the amount of money it would cost for a lawyer, although I definitely will be looking into legal action if they don’t own up to any fault they caused.

I appreciate the help from everyone, the forums and it’s members have been of more help and relief then anyone else and I am also in contact with Franko6 who is super helpful and kind.

It just blows my mind how 2 shops 1 of which only works on VW and TDI’s cant figure out what’s wrong and how the shop has messed up a cam job which they have done multiple times before and we’re well aware of all the procedures. What’s even more frustrating is the fact they did the seals without telling me anything or asking.
 

CantWrite

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Location
Placerville CO
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon (BHW/5-spd conv, 03T). I keep in touch with the (2) ALH's I sold.
I wonder if the seals were done cause they realized they messed something up, and tried to play it off as a nicety when really they were hunting their mistake.

And yes when 2 for profit specialty shops are “stumped” it blows my mind and starts to smell as cover-up.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
I wonder if the seals were done cause they realized they messed something up, and tried to play it off as a nicety when really they were hunting their mistake.

And yes when 2 for profit specialty shops are “stumped” it blows my mind and starts to smell as cover-up.
Funny I was actually thinking the same thing. At this point I just wanna get the car back and take it to another specialist.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Once I get the car back and drive it myself I will let everyone know what it feels like compared to before.
 

MEgearhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
B5.5, 4L, 4G
No one should be "stumped". If the 1mm difference in piston height is correct, 3 cylinders are operating at 18.25 CR while one is at 15.61. The 350 and 300 psi compression test pressures agree with the CR variation above. Sounds like a bent rod to me.
 

CantWrite

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Location
Placerville CO
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon (BHW/5-spd conv, 03T). I keep in touch with the (2) ALH's I sold.
So shop #1 seemingly toof’ed an engine via a botched cam job, and is claiming innocence

Shop #2 didn’t go deep enough for a proper diagnosis.

and Shop #3 (TDI guru) has found the smoking gun.

I never did a search, and forgive the ignorance of this question, but could a rod/piston be replaced with the engine in the car? Assuming the crank journal mic’d good and the cylinder bore needs only a slight honing.

Could couple it with a BSM delete if not already done....

maybe a salvaged engine is the cheaper option. If you are fixing it, I would plan on driving it longer than a few months or year. Is the car a pile of rust?
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
So shop #1 seemingly toof’ed an engine via a botched cam job, and is claiming innocence

Shop #2 didn’t go deep enough for a proper diagnosis.

and Shop #3 (TDI guru) has found the smoking gun.

I never did a search, and forgive the ignorance of this question, but could a rod/piston be replaced with the engine in the car? Assuming the crank journal mic’d good and the cylinder bore needs only a slight honing.

Could couple it with a BSM delete if not already done....

maybe a salvaged engine is the cheaper option. If you are fixing it, I would plan on driving it longer than a few months or year. Is the car a pile of rust?
It’s only been to 2 the shops so far the one that messed it up and now a vw specialist shop. Car is pretty clean only a few little rust spots I’m gonna take care of this summer. It does still need a bsm delete done and I’m wondering if that’s possible as well to do everything in car.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
So I just spoke with the shop, it was less then 1mm diffeence in piston height they said it was slightly less then half a mm like .4mm. They also did a leak down test and found no more then 5 percent leak down. There was a whole list of other stuff they went through but they are running out of ideas and are wondering if the shop possibly put the cam from a bew or brm in so we will be looking into that now.
 

MEgearhead

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Location
Virginia
TDI
B5.5, 4L, 4G
There are several BEW cams running in BHW engines. Users of these report anything from hardly perceptible to noticable reduction of power. I have a BEW grind in mine but it's not a good example as it is also a higher lift cam, and received a turbo upgrade and custom tune at the same time.

There were three different head gasket thickness available. They each are 0.08 mm different. When fitting a head gasket you measure the piston height and use the appropriate gasket to correspond with the piston height. This is to give the correct clearance volume and compression ratio. I have not had any experience with an engine with one piston low but it seems like it should make decent power, but might run a little rough. Hopefully one of the real experts will weigh in.

A leak down test tests rings, valves, and the head gasket. It's of no use for a slightly bent rod.

How bad is it actually running?
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
There are several BEW cams running in BHW engines. Users of these report anything from hardly perceptible to noticable reduction of power. I have a BEW grind in mine but it's not a good example as it is also a higher lift cam, and received a turbo upgrade and custom tune at the same time.

There were three different head gasket thickness available. They each are 0.08 mm different. When fitting a head gasket you measure the piston height and use the appropriate gasket to correspond with the piston height. This is to give the correct clearance volume and compression ratio. I have not had any experience with an engine with one piston low but it seems like it should make decent power, but might run a little rough. Hopefully one of the real experts will weigh in.

A leak down test tests rings, valves, and the head gasket. It's of no use for a slightly bent rod.

How bad is it actually running?
So the car would smoke pure diesel on start and jump around for a few seconds then it would settle out and idle fine with no smoke. I beleive this was from the 2 injectors being out of spec. They are now in spec but I forgot to ask if it still smokes on start. I also need to change to glow plugs to the 7v.

Right now the car is very laggy with it not making much power or boost until 1500 or 1800 rpm, after that is makes requested boost and drives decently. It’s basically very laggy with lower power.
 

CantWrite

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Location
Placerville CO
TDI
2005 Passat Wagon (BHW/5-spd conv, 03T). I keep in touch with the (2) ALH's I sold.
Do you have a frost heater installed on your car? My cold starts are as you describe unless I plug it in, even 30 minutes makes all the difference. My current “band-aid” approach

I have slight air intrusion due to rock-fall, so I keep it parked nose down and cycle key 3 times. I still have 5v GP’s (Bosch steel ones)

I need to diagnose this come summer. But something is causing the cylinder(s) not to fire on cold start-up, air intrusion, weak GP’s, Seals/O-rings, TP.......? Must be something that was touched.

mine: G62 (37.8c) IQ: -0.07, 0.09, 0.02, -0.02.
I bought mine 5-spd swapped (EEN) and it’s gutless below 1500, picks up at 1800-3200 then falls flat.

sorry for the long post and potentially off topic, just noticed the startup similarities.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Do you have a frost heater installed on your car? My cold starts are as you describe unless I plug it in, even 30 minutes makes all the difference. My current “band-aid” approach

I have slight air intrusion due to rock-fall, so I keep it parked nose down and cycle key 3 times. I still have 5v GP’s (Bosch steel ones)

I need to diagnose this come summer. But something is causing the cylinder(s) not to fire on cold start-up, air intrusion, weak GP’s, Seals/O-rings, TP.......? Must be something that was touched.

mine: G62 (37.8c) IQ: -0.07, 0.09, 0.02, -0.02.
I bought mine 5-spd swapped (EEN) and it’s gutless below 1500, picks up at 1800-3200 then falls flat.

sorry for the long post and potentially off topic, just noticed the startup similarities.
I don’t have a frost heater. Your symptoms sound similar to mine especially the no pick until 1800 rpm and falling flat after. The car would fire up decently before the cam swap of course with a little stumbling for a sec or so which I attributed to the glow plugs just being weak. Summer time or any weather that’s not to cold it starts right up.
 

PickleRick

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2017
Location
Greenville sc
TDI
05 GLS BHW sedan 5 speed conversion. BHW Carver SantaCruz in progress
Below about 1900 rpms the BHW is gutless. It's a diesel, it does make V8 gas engine torque (with tune) but only for a very narrow rpm range.
 

Nathan_og

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Location
Ontario
TDI
2002 vw jetta 1.9 alh 5 spd
Below 1800 the engine doesn’t even want to rev up, but the warmer the car gets the better it drives to the point where it is almost like before.

On cold start I can put the pedal down to the ground for 10 seconds nothing happens the engine does not want to rev, it will rev so slowly as if something is holding it back, after that 1 slow rev it starts to pick up and doesn’t seem to do it again.
 

Mozambiquer

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Mar 21, 2015
Location
Versailles Missouri
TDI
2004 VW Touareg V10 TDI, 2012 Audi Q7 V6 TDI, 1998 VW Jetta TDI. 1982 VW Rabbit pickup, 2001 VW Jetta TDI, 2005 VW Passat wagon TDI X3, 2001 VW golf TDI, 1980 VW rabbit pickup,
Below 1800 the engine doesn’t even want to rev up, but the warmer the car gets the better it drives to the point where it is almost like before.

On cold start I can put the pedal down to the ground for 10 seconds nothing happens the engine does not want to rev, it will rev so slowly as if something is holding it back, after that 1 slow rev it starts to pick up and doesn’t seem to do it again.
Check where your torsion value is at? Sometimes that will happen when it's too far retarded. Also can be if the vanes are too much closed.
 
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