Skoda Rally Blog

… is strewn with pats from the Devil’s own satanic herd, to quote Edmund Blackadder.

Yesterday, the new oil pump and pickup pipe that I ordered were due to turn up.  However, the supplier didn’t get them in time, but after a phone call to them to ensure they knew how important these parts were and that they had to be with me today, they were sent special delivery, turning up at 8:30am this morning.  Opened the box, and this is what I saw:

Nice shiny bits

At the top, the oil pickup pipe.  At the bottom, the engine front cover, which houses the oil pump (the two round sections where the gears go).  The old pickup pipe’s pressure relief valve wouldn’t even hold me blowing on it, while the new one certainly does, so it seals 100% and that’s what I was hoping – it came with spring and bearing fitted, thankfully.  Splendid, it was time to get  started.  I got out in the drive, got the sump off (placed back temporarily after stripping the engine the other day), and then set about removing the front cover from the engine.  This is fairly simple, but means dropping the engine down to get the crank pulley off.  Thankfully Skoda have thought about this and the engine mounting bolts are long enough to just loosen off and drop the engine the required 20mm or so.  It all came apart easily enough – good music on the radio, everything going as planned.  Finally looking like a great day for the Skoda.  Here you can see the difference between the new (left) and old (right) pumps – the body is quite scratched, which will have an effect on pump pressure, plus the new one has much lower clearance whereas the old one was nearer the wear limit.

New and Old pump bodies.

Where the crank comes out of the front cover there is an oil seal, which I have a couple of spares for, so I went to fit it and hit a problem.  The hole for it to go into was too small.  I couldn’t believe it, so I checked the seal I had against the cover that had just come off – it was the same size, 58mm outer diameter.  There had to be some mistake, so I measured the hole.

What size is it? Not the right size.

Oh.  Well, needless to say I thought more than just “Oh”.  After I’d regained some form of composure I took a look at the old bottom end.  58mm.  The other spares I have, 58mm.  Clearly I’d made a mistake, so I checked the online parts catalogue from the page I had ordered it from, and checked the seal size quoted there.  And it was 58mm.  Not the 56mm of the casing I had.  After some checking online, I discovered the problem.  The part I have been sent is not the part I ordered.  It was one from an earlier car, a RWD Skoda, and although the engine is the same, there are clearly some detailed differences and this is one of them; the earlier engine’s oil seal has a 56mm outside diameter. I think what’s happened is that the part is old stock, someone has found it without a part number and mis-identified it from a catalogue.  Needless to say I will be letting said supplier know of my displeasure.  I phoned several Skoda garages in reach, none of them had either a parts department that was open, or the part in stock.  No bearing factors are open locally on Saturday, so there’s no option to get the oil seal.

Bugger.

So there’s no way the car can run this weekend.  I can get the right seal easily enough either online or locally by Tuesday, but that’s too late.  However, I decided to use the time I have to get everything back together as it’s possible to fit the seal in situ, so I spent the next hour or so putting everything back together – the new cover went on easily enough although my brackets for the crank sensor needed a small mod to the spacers (OK, washers!), and everything else fitted as it should do – pickup pipe and sump going back on without any issues.

The car can’t be run until Tuesday at the earliest (I work until 8pm or so on Mondays so nothing will be done then, alas), so I guess I’ll have to see what’s going to happen; I’m still not 100% sure I’m not at home to Mr Cockup, despite having found the problems which Jim had predicted, so I think a decision will need to be made soon about Rally GB.  Stay tuned, and keep your fingers and any other appendages crossed.