Well, my sisters car is running like a top and feels like a road sofa running 80 down I-90. It took longer than expected, and so painting dad's house has been postponed. Anything that actually needs attention right now can be reached from the ground. We did stain his deck though as it was in dire need.
When I got home, the kids were sick with summer head colds, always fun, which were passed onto momma and myself. So I had a 2-day fever and was pretty useless. My 3-sided wood shed has been shelved. I did get quite a bit of work done on the Passat, as well as playing dad and husband.
I removed the all the boost hoses, tandem pump, coolant flange, ASV module, EGR tube, EGR valve.
Boost Hoses: cleaned up well, no holes worn anywhere I could find. the lower hoses all had black o-rings which were not brittle, but were flat. The uppers were green just like the ones I ordered. I cleaned everything and covered the new o-rings in 100% silicone paste.
Tandem Pump: removal went well, I followed the procedure to suck fuel out of the return line with the supply disconnected to atmosphere. I need to post photos, but it is a LUK "BMF" with the numbers "43 ae 20004 M2" on the rear with the date code showing years 06/07. I do not know how to read the dots on the date coding though. I cleaned up and reinstalled using a new gasket. I sucked fuel through it and a new fuel filter (bosch) using the mity-vac.
Coolant Flange: Again, removal and installation went well. I drained the radiator, popped the heater core hose back to expose the vent hole, took the lid off the overflow, but when I removed one of the hoses, the one to the EGR cooler, man did coolant go everywhere. Maybe it was because the wagon was parked with its rear pretty low, but I thought after reading the procedure and a couple other posts, I would get most of the coolant out, NOPE.
Findings: The EGR valve was plum full of build-up. I removed the chunks, and set it in a high-ball of full strength simple green and it looked brand new and a little scrubbing the next morning. Very little oil in the boost tubes, maybe a tablespoon worth. Broken coolant sensor wire, I assume when they pulled the engine for the 5-speed swap they failed to unplug this, I added wire, crimped, heat-shrunk, taped, loomed, and taped again. Replaced the coolant vent line (recommended from OilHammer on a thread I read) from the back of the head around to the metal coolant pipe, its routing, was completely wrong compared to when I reinstalled the new one. Before it was routed up over top of the TP, but the new one sure wanted to go around the back of it. I re-routed the various wiring harnesses to maximize clearance to all things heat related, whatever VAG uses for sheathing is straight awesome compared to the big 3 here in the US, our plastic loom disintegrates rapidly with heat/age.
I have it all back together, cycled my lift pump through measuring blocks, group 35 a few times and the car fired. no leaks found. I still have a few things to sort out.
TO DO:
I am pretty sure my brake booster is leaking, when I started it I could hear the hissing hear the back of the booster. When the car was apart, I hooked up my mity-vac to the vacuum line I removed from the tandem pump and it would not hold vacuum whatsoever. I already need to remove the ECU box as I fought a pack rat and he decided to eat through my wires feeding the window washer squirter. I need to fix those. and I might as well take the battery out and check all those drains in the upper cowl area. As well as my sunroof drains.
I need to look into the #2 GP issue, still need to research the best way to go about diagnosing wire vs actual GP vs something else. I noticed the wire routing and had the car stripped to easily access it, but my time is not my own now that I have a young family.
I did not remove the valve cover, to check cam and replace gasket, my main oil leak up there sure appears to be someone who is blind and has never heard of a funnel. I still need to do this, but I am going to check "Torsion Value" on VAG and just drive it.
It needs CV axles, I have 1.8T manual ones given to me buy the previous owner, I need to install those and see how they last. I am sure they are knock-offs and won't be in there long.
lastly, the radio works for around 3 seconds and then shuts off....***. Except one day it worked perfectly fine. will need to investigate that but mechanicals first.
Its been POURING rain here every afternoon and I do not have a garage......yet......but I am having a structural engineer draw up a design based on my design drawings. It will be a slow process.