Stanford Hall VW Show 2017

Stanford Hall VW show 2017
Some of my favorite cars!

Betty Broke Down - Fan Belt

Was on my way to work. Just driving up a hill and I only notice a little bit of smoke and a smell from the engine. So pulled over and took a look.

Thought initially the fan belt was on its way out as belt was smoking and pulleys where really HOT.

So started to change the fan belt and noticed that the rear part of the pulley was stuck against the front of the alternator.

Thought it could be the alternator bearings had gone (worse case!) BUT after trying to remove the front pulley it became clear that it was just spinning around on the fan & alternator and the rear part of the pulley was not moving.

So after holding the front pulley with some mole grips I managed to take the front pulley and belt off.

Here is what happened to the rear pulley:

As you can see it has detached its self from the center part. It does not look like the welding 

BUT more like metal fatigue.

I suppose the Alternator must spin at at least x2 as fast as the engine so spinning at 8000 rpm it must have given up!

Also here is the effect of it on the front side of the alternator

Nice bit of machining going on there!

So could not attach the two parts of the pulley together. No spare on board! (funny enough I do carry a lower Crank pulley as mine is rust around the weld as a spare just in case!)

Could not repair thought about trying to drive home but engine could overheat.

So called the AA - They arrived in 1/2 Hour. Very good response.

Nice bloke also called Steve arrived........ No parts or repair on roadside......... Started looking at recovery......

Then he asked if I could order a part - I said GSF have them and might be in stock.

So he said he could take me in the AA van to GSF Nottingham branch. GSF had one in stock and £10.50 paid.

I let him fit it with my guidance (That's what I pay the AA for!)

All sorted 5 minutes later and my spare belt fitted.

Away I went! Broken down at 8:00 was on the road at 9:35 not bad!

Lessons Learnt - 

1) Carry more spares - Yes BUT carry more spares of rotating moving parts! So I am going to have another look at the on board spares.
2) Compile a list of local motor factors in my book or phone!

Running rougher & increase in noise......

Rough and noisy running.......

So after a month of running the s/s vintage speed exhaust I have noticed a sudden increase in noise and a rougher sounding engine.

No loss of power or speed BUT you just know your engine and know when it changes.

So took the van off the road and took the wife's car to work this week.

Initial checks

1. Check and tighten ALL exhaust bolts - Suspect a leak in the exhaust. No sign of anything. Some bolts a little loose BUT no leaks that I could see.

2. Run VCDS Log - Hooked up the laptop and took idle logs, results looked fine no DTCs or any obvious changes in readings from all sensors.

3. Cleaned oil / crankcase breather - My engine always suffers from oil / water mayo at the crankcase breather around the oil filler and via breather valve pipes. Cleaned them all out with some WD40 and refitted

4. Tappets - Re-set tappets. 2 valves where a little loose so reset them. None where tight (Tight valves are = bad valve seats or stretched valves)

5. Checked distributor cap and rotor arm - Some mild tarnish / matt colour as they have done quite a few miles. Just cleaned them up as there where no other obvious problems.

After the above still sounded quite loud and sounding rough.

So not cured with the above. Was worried that the engine could be on the way out SO decided to check the worst things so this week I did a compression test & check sparkplugs.

Sparkplugs

So removed all sparkplugs

So here are the four plugs barraged in the cylinder positions.

All plugs showed a good tan colour indicating a correct mixture (was expecting black rich carbon)

Some plugs had a cracked patterned gunk on them. Here is a close up

So this does not look like a running issue or maybe a rich BUT burnt on effect due to high temperatures.

So plan is to replace all plugs with my spare set and clean these up and keep them as a spare.

Compression Test

So once the plugs are removed managed to get my compression gauge installed (quite hard screwing a rubber hose into the sparkplug threaded holes)

Once installed the procedure is to remove Fuse 14 (20A fuel pump and injector fuse relay power) so no fuel.

Dis-connected coil to distributor main HT lead so no spark.

Turn over the engine on starter 5 revolutions with a WOT (Wide Open Throttle) and the gauge will show and hold the peak compression in psi.

So here are the results

1 = 135 psi
2 = 140 psi
3 = 140 psi
4 = 140 psi

So all are high and within 10 psi of each other. So no issues with valve / cylinders etc.

Great engine is in good condition!

So what further issues could it be:

1. Vacuum leak - Suspect there could be a vacuum leak as had a few instances of rough idle. Smoke or pressure test this next.
2. Sparkplug condition - Replacements should confirm this.
3. Exhaust leak - Cannot see one but will do a test to confirm
4. Exhaust internals - Could be just the exhaust baffle working loose or broken inside. my mate Ben had a vintage speed which went wrong and had to get a replacement. Maybe the same BUT hard to prove without anything to replace it with.

So maybe maybe its just me being paranoid. Glad compression tests results where good!

Update to follow.........