New Engine.... Part 6 - Fitting & first start

With the engine fully built up the fitting and then engine could be started!

1. Fitting

As the engine was built on the ATV jack it is ready to be installed straight in. The ATV jack and removable valance is the way to go for installing engines. So stable, slick and quick. Especially as I have to work solo.

Engine waiting ready to slide in on the plywood flooring.

There is quite a lot of wiring and cables to and from the ECU and also fuel and accelerator cable

Finally home

A Little tricky to get fitted. Last few inches always tricky to find the right combination of height and angle.

I recalled the great words of wisdom of the late Bob Hoover.........

"If it doesn’t want to go, stop. Take it out. Think about it a while. Check everything over and tackle it again after taking a break. (This time it’ll slide right in and leave you wondering, it was so easy. Veedubs got a sense of humor.)"

After a break and a cup of tea...... Slipped straight in :-)

All home and connected up Wiring and Fuel Lines.

Welcome to your new home!

Quick check of the Accelerator cable movement Fan belt attached, removed spark plugs and filled the oil read for the oil pressure test.

Not the final oil but okay for first few hundred miles.

Oil Level checked

2. Oil Pressure Test

Following the engine warranty and instructions supplied by the engine. Removal of spark plugs and fuel & HT, turn the engine over on starter motor until oil pressure warning light goes out.

Here is the video proof.

Also timed the time for the light to come back on. First time about 30 seconds. Second Oil pressure test around 78 seconds. Not bad. Seems to be holding pressure.

Quick check for any signs of oil leaks........

All dry and clean

4. First fire!

Checked tappets.

Its odd value of 0.10mm for the tappets but the instructions said to check the push rods for either Steel or aluminium. After checking with a magnet the new engine uses steel push rods so had to go for 0.1mm tappets.

So Tappets set. Oil pressure checked.

First fire up! Took a while for fuel to pump through. Used the 1 seconds prime of fuel pump repeatably to ensure fuel was there.

She is alive!

The engine fires up. No leaks and idle and accelerator fine. Yipeeeeee!

Moving on I have to fit the rear valance - Still got to put some paint on it.

 

All sort and snug and sealed. New Valance is okay.

Valance was filled but the etch primer had eaten a small edge of the filler.

Next job is to refit the bumper - It needs some serious rust and paint work. So much for powder coating

Running Rich - Fuel Pressure Tests & Results

Further testing to investigate the rich running and high CO emissions I preformed a Fuel Pressure Test.

Set up - 8mm Female attached on fuel filter, Isolation Tap, T-Piece, Pressure gauge, Male 8mm to fuel rails.

Test 1- Static Pressure Test - Ignition on primed pressure pump runs for 2 seconds.

Pressure reads 2.5 Bar. Tap closed (isolating injectors & FPR) - 10 Minutes drops to 2.3 Bar. FPR Vacuum open (No idle under load conditions)

This confirms pump pressurises and holds without Vacuum applied (Low Vacuum, High load)

Test 2 - Fuel Pressure Regulator Test - Ignition on primed Pressure - Vacuum Applied on FPR

Pressure starts at 2.5 Bar. Tap Closed. Vacuum 24" Hg applied. Pressure Drops to 1.6 Bar and remains there.

This confirms that FPR regulator lowers pressure at Idle (High Vacuum, Low Load)

Test 3 - Fuel Pressure Regulator Test Repeat - Vacuum Applied then Ignition on primed Pressure -

Vacuum 24" Hg applied. Pressure starts at 1.6 Bar. Tap Closed.  Pressure Drops to 1.6 Bar BUT then decreases rapidly down to 0 Bar in <1 min.

This IS AN ISSUE as FPR should just lower the pressure. It seems that this test removes all pressure very quickly!

So I removed vacuum and repeated Static Pressure Test 1 and AGAIN it fell rapidly down to 0 Bar. Repeated again many time and all tests failed and static pressure was not held.

Conclusions:

So there seems to be some leak (Internal as no visual leaks found) not in the fuel pump circuit as tap was closed.

Did not have any more time to investigate but thoughts are:

1. Injector Leak - Through leak of stuck injectors - This would cause pressure to drop but not expected to be so rapid unless stuck open. This could cause excess fuel leaking causing rich mixture.

2. Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR) - Stuck FPR spring or diaphragm - This would cause fuel to be returned. Thought if it was all being returned this would have caused a leaner mixture as less fuel pressure. Unless it sticks open and closed so increasing pressure causing rich.

Anyway I think I have found some issue.

I have ordered a FPR and also a set of 4 injectors (Not cheap! but at least I have them as spares as parts are getting scarce).

Further tests:

1. Repeat Pressure tests - Static and dynamic with engine running.
2. Dead End Pump Tests - Test pump pressure by dead end tests (turn tap & gauge round)
3. Repeat Tests above to recreate issue.
4. Isolate FPR - Clamp pipes or dead end FPR to see if pressure still decays.

I will most likely change FPR before injectors (much more work) and see if mixture returns to normal.

UPDATE:

No chance of getting injectors! Only available in South America market.

Ordered and fitted FPR - When removing FPR fuel leaked back from tank via return line which was odd.

Fitted new FPR and no difference to rich running indicated by Lambda.

Have not had time / cannot be bothered to rerun fuel pressure tests as I expect no change in rich running unless I can change injectors. 

Moved on to exhaust investigation....... See next post

Fuel line quick connectors

I have been meaning to change my kombi fuel filter.

So I needed new filter and tool to insert into the quick connectors to remove them.

I wanted to replace the connectors locking mechanism as you are supposed to. BUT I could not find any original vw version.

So after a lot of searching I thought that Dorman in the USA where the ones used. I ordered them from the states and they arrived. 

How wrong could I be!

Image of the Dorman (white on left) and original on the right (black)

So changed the filter and reused. No leaks.

Now the search continues to find original ones.

Any ideas where or what part number they are?