cspeter8
Veteran Member
My 2004 Passat was showing elevated levels of iron in the blackstone oil reports as follows:
milage on engine iron ppm
95,500.............29
96,300.............19
101,000...........261 <- was really concerned, but it subsided somewhat
104,000..........74
106,000..........44
114,000...........80
120,000..........118
124,500..........135
128,500..........247 <-- really concerned again!
at this same time I had the car at the Ho5G gtg and Chris Hill said the engine sounded really LOUD, and I should have it looked at.
Well, I dropped the car off with Chris to have a look, and he found the cam was worn and needed replacing. I originally bought the car with 88000 miles and do not know what oil was used prior to that, but I installed the Greascar kit in it at that point, and started using Total Quartz Ineo 5w30 oil. I think I might post a thread in the oil forum inquiring about 5w30 oil experiences with cam in PD engine, since some people seem to think 5w40 is better for the cam. So, Chris saw a lot of soot coating the inside of the valve cover and figured the main issue was with cylinder 1. Upon trying to remove the ceramic glowplug, it broke, stuck tight to the glowplug bore. At that point I gave the okay to remove the head on the engine.
Once the head was removed, he discovered the walls of cylinder 1 was scored. Said I would likely start to burn alot of oil in another 5000 or 10000 miles. I didn't think it made sense to reassemble the engine without fixing that. No after-market over-size pistons are available, and no surplus bhw complete engines are available either. Anything except a used engine from another car seemed to be prohibitively expensive.
So the car still sits with Chris at Kraftwerks in Braintree, Mass. I am really torn between selling the car without a working engine (it's a fairly decent looking car, except for one inch cut in the rear bumper, and the car is tan), and putting a new engine in it. Chris advises me NOT to replace the engine unless I want to keep the car. With recent difficulties diagnosing severe drive-ability issues after the EGR valve stopped closing up when it is supposed to (and I told a local mechanic to look into that after finding a post by MOGolf about it, did not have time to drop off the car with Chris) and a string of surprises like balance shaft, glow plugs, the rarity of the engine, and the inconvenience of traveling long distances and leaving the car with a mechanic like Chris who can diagnose issues with rare engines like this, I wonder if it would make sense to sell the car and get a more common year/make/model vehicle.
The car is quite nice when there are no problems, but that EGR valve going on me was quite a pain to deal with. Add to that 3 MAF sensors that have gone bad in the last 30000 miles (at least one due to my error in not seating a new air filter properly), and I am really undecided as to whether to keep the car or sell it without a good engine.
Maybe I screwed up bad on one of my oil changes, somehow introducing a spec of dirt into the engine accidentally, causing cylinder 1 to get scored? How hard is it to do something like that? How else do cylinders get scored?
So I am trying to decide what to do. What is a fair price for a 'good' BHW engine (assuming I decide to keep the car)? What is a fair price for a clean Passat sedan (assuming I decide to not keep the car)?
milage on engine iron ppm
95,500.............29
96,300.............19
101,000...........261 <- was really concerned, but it subsided somewhat
104,000..........74
106,000..........44
114,000...........80
120,000..........118
124,500..........135
128,500..........247 <-- really concerned again!
at this same time I had the car at the Ho5G gtg and Chris Hill said the engine sounded really LOUD, and I should have it looked at.
Well, I dropped the car off with Chris to have a look, and he found the cam was worn and needed replacing. I originally bought the car with 88000 miles and do not know what oil was used prior to that, but I installed the Greascar kit in it at that point, and started using Total Quartz Ineo 5w30 oil. I think I might post a thread in the oil forum inquiring about 5w30 oil experiences with cam in PD engine, since some people seem to think 5w40 is better for the cam. So, Chris saw a lot of soot coating the inside of the valve cover and figured the main issue was with cylinder 1. Upon trying to remove the ceramic glowplug, it broke, stuck tight to the glowplug bore. At that point I gave the okay to remove the head on the engine.
Once the head was removed, he discovered the walls of cylinder 1 was scored. Said I would likely start to burn alot of oil in another 5000 or 10000 miles. I didn't think it made sense to reassemble the engine without fixing that. No after-market over-size pistons are available, and no surplus bhw complete engines are available either. Anything except a used engine from another car seemed to be prohibitively expensive.
So the car still sits with Chris at Kraftwerks in Braintree, Mass. I am really torn between selling the car without a working engine (it's a fairly decent looking car, except for one inch cut in the rear bumper, and the car is tan), and putting a new engine in it. Chris advises me NOT to replace the engine unless I want to keep the car. With recent difficulties diagnosing severe drive-ability issues after the EGR valve stopped closing up when it is supposed to (and I told a local mechanic to look into that after finding a post by MOGolf about it, did not have time to drop off the car with Chris) and a string of surprises like balance shaft, glow plugs, the rarity of the engine, and the inconvenience of traveling long distances and leaving the car with a mechanic like Chris who can diagnose issues with rare engines like this, I wonder if it would make sense to sell the car and get a more common year/make/model vehicle.
The car is quite nice when there are no problems, but that EGR valve going on me was quite a pain to deal with. Add to that 3 MAF sensors that have gone bad in the last 30000 miles (at least one due to my error in not seating a new air filter properly), and I am really undecided as to whether to keep the car or sell it without a good engine.
Maybe I screwed up bad on one of my oil changes, somehow introducing a spec of dirt into the engine accidentally, causing cylinder 1 to get scored? How hard is it to do something like that? How else do cylinders get scored?
So I am trying to decide what to do. What is a fair price for a 'good' BHW engine (assuming I decide to keep the car)? What is a fair price for a clean Passat sedan (assuming I decide to not keep the car)?
