'92 TSI Complete Rebuild From Firewall Forward - Part 3

[Calan]

Well I finally got the motor torn all the way down and off to the machine shop for measurements and a thorough inspection. Over the next few weeks, it will be tanked, magnafluxed, and blueprinted. In the mean time, I'll be trying to decide exactly which direction I want to go with it and trying to come up with the funds to actually do it .

As of right now, I'm leaning towards a 2.3l stroker at 8.5:1 or 9:1, eventually running a Holset hx35 turbo. But that could change depending on what the final $$$ damage will be. Ok...enough daydreaming...

The bearings weren't horrible, but the front main cap shows a good bit of wear that can be slightly felt.

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The crank also showed a little wear at the rear main seal, but it isn't all that much. The crank journals all look good.

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Other than that, the motor actually looks pretty good...except for the broken ring land of course. No matter...it will look MUCH better eventually

Next up was some more suspenson disassembly and cleaning. The sway bar came out, and I removed both knuckles and hubs. The wheel bearings, ball joints, and tie rod ends are still in good shape, so I'm not going to replace them. I will get new grease boots for the ball joints and tie rod ends though. I'm wanting some from Energy Suspension or Prothane, but I'm having a hard time finding them for the lower ball joints.

Update: I went ahead and bought new tie rod ends for $25 shipped from here, and have two new ball joint covers on order from Mitsu. (For anyone needing these, the p/n is MB176047... and thanks to chico904 for the TRE link ).

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I also decided to test some some spray-on bed liner for the wheel wells. It's the stuff used to line pickup beds (not Rhino), made by Duplicolor. I sprayed a small area on the driver side wheel well as a test. We'll see how it looks after a day or two.

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Other than that, it was just more cleaning and trying to figure out how I want to route the PS lines. I want them down lower instead of over the engine mount, if I can figure out how to keep them out of the motor. I think I'm going to fabricate a high pressure hard line to run next to the factory return line. Any other ideas welcome

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That's about it for now. Next time I should have a better idea of what I'm going to do with the motor, and I "should" be ready to start moving in a positive direction instead of deconstruction

Stay tuned!

 

[viprez586]

Both pictures of the bearings look pretty good with minimal wear, however second picture looks like its shiny on the left and dull on the right. Maybe someone else was in there before you were.
Anyway thrust bearings like those will have an faint orange appearance when they begin to really wear out. - Mine had this when i pulled my motor at 145k and my last compression test did 120 across the board. Except for the bearings being worn i was thoroughly surprised with the condition of the internals for such a high mileage motor.

G'luck man I'll be checking your new posts as they roll in.

 

[Calan]

second picture looks like its shiny on the left and dull on the right

This was mostly due to the lighting and camera. There actually wasn't much difference from one side to the other.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Let us know how those TRE's turn out. I picked up a cheap set off eBay and there's something not quite right. When the steering is articulated the TRE's get some really gnarly angles on them - so much so, that the body of the TRE's themselves cut into and tear their own boots apart.

 

[Calan]

Let us know how those TRE's turn out. I picked up a cheap set off eBay and there's something not quite right. When the steering is articulated the TRE's get some really gnarly angles on them - so much so, that the body of the TRE's themselves cut into and tear their own boots apart.

Will do. I'm painting now, and the suspension should start going back together in a week or so.

Were they the wrong TRE's? I don't see how one should be different from another, if they are the correct length. I'll watch for it though.

Thanks for the heads up