Skoda Rally Blog

OK, so after yesterday I thought it best to leave the engine to cool down completely before removing the head, as I didn’t want any problems.  And that was wise, as the dismantling was fairly straightforward, as you’d expect with something that was only assembled 5 days ago.  Everything came apart easily enough, and the head has been undamaged by its undignified start in life.  Phew!

The bottom end seems to be a different story.  It would appear that most of the problem comes from the rings – from what I’ve been reading since yesterday, a too-gentle break-in can be a problem, as can too much fuel.  Both of which definitely happened when these were first being run – it was taken VERY easily for the first few hundred miles, so that could be a problem, and it was also too rich.   There is lots of oil build-up on the tops of the pistons, as seen on the one on the right in this picture – the ones on the left have been cleaned, while no.3 is untouched (and black and sticky!).

Hello, again, pistons.

The bores seem to be a bit glazed, from what I can tell, so they need honing:

Glazed bores? You decide!

The plan with these is to remove them (taking the sump off, then pistons out the top), and then hone the bores.  They can be removed from the block to do this, which is probably the best idea, as there will be grit, and grit and engines don’t really get on too well.  Or at all.

The other problem is whether or not the head gasket was actually blown – there was no evidence at all of it having done so when looking at the gasket, and the liners seem to be the right protrusion above the block – they certainly seem to have been clamped down well by the head/gasket as the gasket looks (to me) to be spot on.  However, the gasket was a bit dodgy, it turns out, there were a couple of bits of surface rust on it, which I’d not spotted.  I looked at another one in the same packet, and it too has some rust marks on it, so I’m hoping this is the issue, although I will have to re-do the liners anyway if I remove them.  All the parts to do all this are arriving tomorrow, so hopefully by the end of the weekend it will all be done and the car will be running properly.  End of the weekend?  Why?  Well, today’s my birthday, and I’m “out out” tomorrow night, so I’m not sure how precise my work will be on Saturday – I’m hoping to get everything out tomorrow afternoon before the carnage begins.

2 weeks to RallyDay!