Golf mk3 1.4 AEX Engine Swap

[djsanders]

Hiya all i'm new to the vw & audi forum. Having a bit of trouble with my golf mk3 1.4 aex. First car and love it 2 bits. Slightly modified ie. cat bk ss exhaust, Borbet A's, coil overs, gti interior & mint cloth recaro's. So really want to do the best thing for it.

The story goes a bit like this . . . .

It all started when i snapped my exhaust manifold studs on a <removed> speed bump because of my car being so low and the stupid design of the down pipe being the lowest point of the car. Couldn't get the broken studs out therefore a secondhand head of a polo 6n2 aex had to be fitted. Happy days for a while until car started to smoke and use a hell of a lot of oil !

1L every 300 miles or so. Not good. Good friend said that its my stem/oil seals or piston rings have gone. Maybe ? Should of renewed them when the new head was put on. . . .

Don't no what to do now

either

1. Take it all back off again & repair

2. New engine but the 1.4 abd engine code because people have told me that the earlier abd engine is better.

Question is how hard would it be to put in ? ie, loom ? gear box ? ecu ?

Any help would be gr8

[BobProperty]

It all started when i snapped my exhaust manifold studs on a <removed> speed bump because of my car being so low and the stupid design of the down pipe being the lowest point of the car. Couldn't get the broken studs out therefore a secondhand head of a polo 6n2 aex had to be fitted.

Next time take the front off the Golf and drill out the stud. In fact, you might be able to do that with an angle drill. (Try doing them on a Talbot Express 2l petrol XN1T engine. )

1L every 300 miles or so. Not good. Good friend said that its my stem/oil seals or piston rings have gone. Maybe ? Should of renewed them when the new head was put on. . . .

You need to do a compression test to be sure, but logic says as it didn't do it before you swapped the head then it's the head. Unless of course you dropped something in the bore(s) when you swapped the head. Or there's some sneaky difference between the two heads or gaskets. You did use new bolts didn't you?

Don't no what to do now

either

1. Take it all back off again & repair

I think you can renew the stem oil seals without taking the head off, but I'd have to look that one up. Someone else will know for sure.

2. New engine but the 1.4 abd engine code because people have told me that the earlier abd engine is better.

Question is how hard would it be to put in ? ie, loom ? gear box ? ecu ?

Any help would be gr8

Doubt the ABD is any better than the AEX. As a swap I'd say difficult because I think the ABD is single point injection and the AEX is multi point, so a lot of electrickery mixing and matching would be needed.

[djsanders]

Hiya thanks for your reply.

I tryed drilling and tapping them out but failed because of the strength of the studs.

Had the head skimmed and used a new head gasket, rocker gasket, head bolts, oil and filter. Don't really want to pay out for all that and more again. Kept the block covered until i put the new head on and 99.9% sure nothing dropped in. Can you really get to the oil seals without taking the head off ? Would that be a specialists/garage job ? Don't think my expertise reach that far lol.

Will do, ill book it in for a compression test soon as.

[BobProperty]

Can you really get to the oil seals without taking the head off ? Would that be a specialists/garage job ? Don't think my expertise reach that far lol.

Remembered how to do it now. Need an air line and an adaptor to the plug socket. Compressed air in the cylinder being worked on keeps the valves closed, then a certain type of spring compressor (deck?) is attached to the head and compresses the spring being worked on. Compress spring, remove collets, remove spring, then old oil seal, fit new oil seal, compress spring, fit collets and, as the Americans say, rinse and repeat. So, if you have a compressor, an adaptor and a fancy valve spring compressor, easy, otherwise, yes, it's a garage job.