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Now down to the nitty gritty. I had to find a new (used) piston and rod for #1 cylinder. There was only one local yard that had any VW parts. So off I went. To make a long story short, after two trips to this yard (the last time I brought my calipers with me) I found out what the difference was between a 1500cc and a 1600cc piston. They didn’t have a 1600cc piston.
I scoured the internet for VW bone yards (anywhere). There was one close to home (anything less than 250 miles in SoCal is close) in Hesperia, Ca. John from Small Car Connection told me he just received an 85 Golf NA and would pull a piston and rod for me. My wife and I took a trip out to Hesperia (about 90 miles from home) and got to look over what they had. I picked up a front Grill at the time along with some brand new parts.
I honed out cylinder number 1 to remove most of the scoring that was caused by pieces of broken piston and head material. I estimate the damage to have been a couple of thousandths deep. The other three cylinders I honed to break the glaze. You can see some of the ridge left at the top of the cylinders. Using feeler gages I measured the clearances between piston and cylinder wall and they were all within spec.
Number one cylinder is at the top of the picture, number four at the bottom.
Here’s a closer look at Cylinders 1, 2 and 3. Number one being at the top. You can still see a vertical score in cylinder number 1. After honing as much as I did, I decided it was “good enough for government work”.
The pistons after I cleaned them up. Number one piston was from the bone yard. I used emery cloth (coarse, medium then fine) to remove the valve impressions. I did this by hand (no power tools). Then finished up with Scotchbrite.
After Torqueing the head bolts. The head gasket had the sequence, so that’s what’s behind the head. I have the fuel injectors bagged in plastic and tied off with zip ties. This head looked almost too good to put on the vehicle. I wanted to display it on the coffee table, but my wife didn’t like that idea. So I installed it.
All buttoned up and ready to go.
Last updated: 18 April 2011