ALH Failure

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
I had a valve drop on my 03 ALH and rebuild my engine brand new head, bored out .2 over, i put DLC 764 injector nozzles in, a Borg Warner S7 turbo, and a south bend stage 2 endurance clutch. After 1200 miles my engine failed again, this time i had the piston in cylinder 4 mushroom and begin to melt. Sent my injectors off the have them gone through and everything came back great on them trying to figure out why it did this so it doesn’t happen again


 

Vince Waldon

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Edmonton AB Canada
TDI
2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Injectors were professionally calibrated, both breaking pressures, once you installed the new nozzles the first time?
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
...or something in the pump (but it does seem isolated to just #4, so maybe not.... pumps out of whack usually cause damage on all four, even if one may be a bit worse).
 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
Looks like an issue with injector #4.
This is what the injector shop sent me after i sent my injectors into them
"We got his injectors in and inspected
Prior to any cleaning we test fired all four injectors. All four fired exactly at new specifications with every orifice spraying in a uniform spray pattern.

Due to normal carbon discoloration as well as combustion deposits (usually burned oil residues) we removed all four nozzles and ultrasonic cleaned both nozzle and needle.

During removal we noted the needle tip condition, all four showed perfect sealing and no combustion ingress from clogging or internal contamination.

After cleaning all four nozzles we reinstalled them on their respective injector body and retested to determine any post cleaning changes in nozzle response. All four fired exactly as removed prior to cleaning with uniform atomization and dispersion distance from nozzles.

We noted that one nozzle had “splatter” residues on the nozzle cone. The splatter residues did not occur in a location that would have prevented the nozzle from spraying correctly. The spray pattern remained uniform and all 5 holes atomized like new with new ejection characteristics.

Although the nozzle appears to function as new, we replaced it since the splatter could cause a hot spot with continued use possibly reducing the nozzles potential life.

All four injectors are cleaned and tested, ONE nozzle (BSLA-150P-764) was replaced and verified to match the other injectors.

No changes to any settings were required, and all are within new injector tolerances.
 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
...or something in the pump (but it does seem isolated to just #4, so maybe not.... pumps out of whack usually cause damage on all four, even if one may be a bit worse).
How would a guy go about getting the pump tested?
 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
oil control ring rolled or failed on that cylinder?
That is what i was thinking but the shop hasn’t broke the engine down anymore yet to see, they keep insisting it has to be something on the fuel side. But wouldn’t you see more problems in the fuel bowl than the outer ring on the piston? Or am i not right there
 
Last edited:

Shoveltrev

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
Location
Hutchinson ks
TDI
2002 new beetle deceased, 2003 jetta . 2002 jetta , 2012 sportwagon
ive seen cummins pistons look like that after a oil control ring failure . the crome rail either was folded over during install or had failed and blew over.
 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
ive seen cummins pistons look like that after a oil control ring failure . the crome rail either was folded over during install or had failed and blew over.
It will be interesting to see when they pull that piston what the rings have to tell
 

Vince Waldon

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Edmonton AB Canada
TDI
2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Last time I saw melted aluminum like that my engine had run away via burning oil injected by turbo... looks a bit the same:





 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
Last time I saw melted aluminum like that my engine had run away via burning oil injected by turbo... looks a bit the same:





I don’t think it was a run away because as soon as i shut the key off it shut off so it couldn’t be a run away
 

Vince Waldon

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Edmonton AB Canada
TDI
2001 ALH Jetta, 2003 ALH Wagon, 2005 BEW Wagon
Not thinking runaway, thinking the high heat of oil/fuel combustion, be it from a leaky turbo or leaking rings perhaps.
 

MontanaTDI9

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2022
Location
Wyoming17!
TDI
03 Jetta 1.9L ALH TDI with 5 speed manual
Not thinking runaway, thinking the high heat of oil/fuel combustion, be it from a leaky turbo or leaking rings perhaps.
I gotcha, Being a brand new turbo i don’t think it is the problem and when i pulled the engine out of the car i didn’t find excess oil anywhere however after i got it pulled over and turned off the dip stick tube was blown off and oil was splattered in the engine bay
 
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