Oil, filter change, Golf

 nothing special here, just noting the change today, at 252,694 miles.  Starting to wonder if the PCV valve might need changing...

Getting through inspections... Sway-bar end link on the honda, new brakes on the Golf, a CV boot, and some welding on the exhaust!

I didn't take too many pics of any of this work in part because of all of the great youtube videos and such out there- there are much better resources to find out how to do these things! But this year to get through inspection I had to: 

 On the Honda- broken sway-bar end link in the rear. Had to chop the rusty bolts off since they were just spinning in the ball joints but otherwise an unremarkable job. 

On the Golf: I knew I needed e-brake cables (those cables have been bad/binding for years but I've just struggled along with it) before the inspection. So I did those, and then literally on the way to the inspection the ABS light went on. Vag-Com tells me it's likely a bad sensor on the right rear. 

Ok. So wait a few days for mail-order parts and then dive into it. Turns out it is way more of a pain than it should be- the existing sensors have to be driven out with a hammer and punch, completely obliterating them in the process. Then the new sensors have to be practically pressed (hammered) in- for me with the assistance of vise-grips as an on-the-car press. Along the way I figured it made sense to do the rear brakes 'cause it seems like I alwways have to and I had them all off anyway. 

The front brakes _looked_ fine... but on inspection the rotors were too scored, even though I had plenty of pad left.. ah well, might as well refresh brakes all around. 

Also the CV boot on the right side had a small hole in it and was throwing grease all around. I would have been happier not to have to remove the CV joint but I've done most of it enough times now that it wasn't too dramatic (once I had all of the parts which was a bit of a saga that I won't recount here). Most surprising is how the CV joint comes off the half-shaft with just a little spring clip. 

Finally, not sure this would have been a failure point but I noticed my rear-most exhaust hanger was rusted out and broken. So I fabricated a new one- and for this I have photos!

I'm glad I got a TIG welder- much easier to make a decent weld on the car than using my acetelyne torch...

Oil & filter change, Golf

 247 k miles, time to change the oil and filter in the Golf.  No pics, this is just an entry to log that it was done! 

Final pieces off the block, crankshaft damage exposed!

 Ok- this took a longer time to post than it took to actually do, sorry for any delay.  All it really took was a couple of bolts to get the connecting rod cap off and I could see the damage to the crank.  I have no experience assessing damage like this, but I can definitely tell that the crank journal (and maybe to a lesser extent the rod?) is scratched and not like the others.

The bearing cap and crankshaft journal, "establishing shot".

Close up of the inside of the bearing cap.  There was no bearing left in this one at all. 

Shot number one of the crank journal for the rod- you can see and feel the scuffing. 

Shot number two- hard to really do it justice with a photo- the difference in texture is really impressive. 

I thought it worth including a shot of the connecting rods themselves, as there is a question of whether these are the "third gen" rods which were upgraded after these engines had been in production for a while.  The previous owner's notes say the engine had been rebuilt, and there is an oil reservoir in the engine compartment that I hear is associated with that upgrade, but this shot should help figure it out.  It's stamped Isuzu-FM-3234.  

And finally, here is where we are now.  Nothing left to remove!  Now the block is light enough that I can haul it around by hand if need be.  Next steps- take the block and crank to a machine shop for measurements, and to see what they think about this crank.  The manual says that it shouldn't be ground because it is tuftrided, but I wonder if there's something we can do.

More disassembly- motor upside down!

 In order to progress to the next stage I had to source another pair of bolts to re-mount the engine to the stand, as the original lower bolts I had were bolted into the oil pan, which is more substantial and referred to as the "crank case with oil pan" by the Isuzu manual.  These new bolts were M12 with 1.5mm thread pitch, also uncommon so had to be mail ordered...  

But now this weekend I've got the bolts, re-mounted the motor on the stand, turned it over (with the requisite dripping of oil and coolant- ugh.  At least I expected it and caught most of it but it was still messy).

And here's what I found:

But one of the more remarkable things about opening up the oil pan is what was in there that never drained out during the regular oil changes.  There was a bunch of junk in there- not all of it parts of the shredded bearing:

Lots of gunk in there.  Some hard, some soft...  Kind of amazing, really.  A lot of it was sucked up against the pickup screen of the oil pump.  

So, next will be to pull the pistons and actually look at the crankshaft journals to see how much damage there is. But first step is to pull the cam and then the front timing plate.  But the cam is giving me trouble- you can see here that I've removed the 6 bolts from the oil seal retaining plate, but it still won't budge.  Will have a hunt around the web to see if there's any help! 

[edit- I went back a couple of hours later and got it out- just needed to be more confident with my pulling and prying!]

FInally the smoking gun- rod bearing in cylinder 1

 When fixing things, especially if you are not 100% positive on your diagnosis, it's common to take it apart until you find something that looks broken and then fix it.  It's always my worry that I'll take everything apart and never actually find anything broken...  

 That's actually what happened the first time I did that with a bad starter motor.  I took it all apart, looked at each piece, and then put it back together.  Danged if it actually worked after that...  As it turns out it was simply all gummed up and by taking it apart and putting it back together I did indeed fix it...   that was a learning experience!

For this engine, though, it was knocking really badly.  And lo and behold, once the head was off, we could do a pretty definitive diagnosis!  Here's a 43-second video.

Weekend's progress- the driver's side...

 Just a quick shot of the weekend's progress.  managed to remove the turbo, manifolds, oil lines, starter...  ready now to pull the head!