Day 4 VR6 Engine Tear Down – Update on Engine

Have an update from the shop on the engine. …


The intermediate cam chain gear came loose and yep, you have bent valves, at least 4 visually. The timing chains were done recently; just somebody didn’t get a bolt tight.


The cam train all seems to be in good shape, no damage there. At this point I still have it in short block form in case you wanted to save some money, the cyl walls look great, and I pulled one rod cap and that bearing looked great.


The head is on its way to the machine shop, for further evaluation.

Day 4 VR6 Engine Tear Down - Porting the Intake_2

It's been a couple days since I had a chance to work on anything related to the car.  Yesterday Vinny and I bought and installed some cheap shop lights.  Nothing special just a little something to help when working in the garage at night.  I'll take the time to tidy up the cords this weekend.





So today I was able to finish the stage one porting on the lower intake.  Stage two will just even out the high spots from the aggressive burr used during stage one.







I was also able to get the upper intake manifold outlined with the gasket and scribe so hopefully I can get this done tomorrow after work.
Here are some pics of the upper intake ready to be ported;





As a reference I grabbed a couple shots of the complete intake and how it looks with the lower and upper intakes together.

Day 3 VR6 Engine Tear Down - Porting the Intake

So while the long block is at the shop being evaluated I thought I would take the opportunity to make the engine more efficient.  I thought I would port both upper and lower intake manifolds and later the head when I get it back.  Not looking to do anything crazy just a simple gasket match and clean out, since the engine is like a big air pump.

Here are the tools I used.  I started with the red sanding stone yesterday.  After that quickly clogged up I did a little research and found I would need a carbide burr.  Took a trip to Northern Tool on the way home from work today and picked up two bits.


Here you can see the difference



Close up





The complete intake side of the lower manifold.  I still have to clean out the runners, but the matching part is done.



I ran out of time tonight but scribed out the edge of the gasket on the head side of the lower intake manifold.  I have a LOT of material to remove on this side tomorrow.

Day 2 VR6 Engine Tear Down

Today Vinny and I started to remove everything from the exhaust side of the engine.

We started by removing the remaining plug wires followed by the exhaust manifold heat shield. Then we removed the exhaust manifolds, with was a BIG PIA! Two of the bolts holding the right manifold were rounded off so the only way I could remove the bolts was to grind off the bolt. Only problem with that is I ground into one of the studs for the exhaust manifold so I'm sure that will have to be replaced.

Next We removed the all the related EGR equipment

So it was time to hook up the long block to the engine lift and disconnect it from the engine stand.

Next and you'll all love this; we loaded the engine onto a cargo carrier I picked up for the van and prayed to God that we didn't lose the engine on the way to the shop.

Well, Vinny and I made it to the shop to drop off the engine. Hopefully we'll have an answer mid next week. While at the shop (www.everythingvws.com) the owner Tom will tear the engine down and check it out to see what we have to work work. The kid I bought the car from said he bent a valve. From what i understand it's pretty difficult to bend a valve and if you do it's not just one; it's several. My theory is the timing chains were the cause of the bent valve.

Day 1 VR6 Engine Tear Down

Today I started to remove all the accessories off of the engine in prep for taking it to the shop for them to open her up and tell me what the damage is.

Here is what I started with tonight

First thing I did was drain the oil. Next i removed the alternator (upper left) and the A/C Compressor (lower left). Then the accessory brackets, coolant pipe (black pipe runs across the engine), oil filter canister (lower middle) and the oil cooler (just up and to the right of that).

Next i removed the lower intake manifold and the gasket.

The I carefully removed the wire harness, thermostat, and coolant pipe, oil filter canister, and cooler