Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, just need some advice on what I do with my syncro...

A few weeks ago I had a breakdown, diesel pump had ceased. Pump was refurbished, re-installed and adjusted, costing me nearly £3k to sort out - apparently the pump wasn't standard for the AAZ engine and it was quite hard to get timings right.

Van was driving OK for 200 miles, then yesterday the engine blew up on the M4 with no warning other than black smoke coming out of the exhaust for a few minutes, then sudden loss of power and a big bang that left a hole in the engine block. The AAZ is no more. Recovery brought the van back to my house.

Now I am in a dilemma, evaluating options:

1- send it to the scrappers
2- sell as a non-runner (how much could I get for a van where everything works except the engine?)
3- fit a new AAZ
4- do an mTDI conversion, could potentially re-use the pump I've just refurbished
5- do a TDI conversion

How much are engine conversions going for these days? I will take me until March next year to save some money for the conversion, leaving the van outside for 6 months will not be ideal.

Any suggestions?



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Hmmmm tough one.
If you know the van well and like it and want to keep it then you know the answer. AW Engineering may be able to salvage alot of the engine. A replacement from them is say 2.5k.
At the amount you paid for having the pump refone - find another mechanic otherwise an engine job is going to cost you silly money.
I had my pump rebuilt for 150 and a DTI gague cost 20 quid. Timing it all up took a few hours.
Problem with old timers is some garages play on the passion of the owner and milk it.

post a pic of the pump- prob off a mk2 golf with a flat lda. Timing is the same they like advancing to 1mm

fh9977 wrote: ↑04 Nov 2024, 12:05 Hi, just need some advice on what I do with my syncro...

A few weeks ago I had a breakdown, diesel pump had ceased. Pump was refurbished, re-installed and adjusted, costing me nearly £3k to sort out - apparently the pump wasn't standard for the AAZ engine and it was quite hard to get timings right.

Van was driving OK for 200 miles, then yesterday the engine blew up on the M4 with no warning other than black smoke coming out of the exhaust for a few minutes, then sudden loss of power and a big bang that left a hole in the engine block. The AAZ is no more. Recovery brought the van back to my house.

Now I am in a dilemma, evaluating options:



1- send it to the scrappers
2- sell as a non-runner (how much could I get for a van where everything works except the engine?)
3- fit a new AAZ
4- do an mTDI conversion, could potentially re-use the pump I've just refurbished
5- do a TDI conversion

How much are engine conversions going for these days? I will take me until March next year to save some money for the conversion, leaving the van outside for 6 months will not be ideal.

Any suggestions?

3k sounds crazy money for a pump refurb and fit .
I had full injection pump overhaul by Diesel Bob in Preston for £450.  Took  pump off , refitted and timed up myself . I got comprehensive instructions from Brickwerks and bought a dti gauge . A bit nervous on start up but all good and has not missed a beat since . Mine is 1.6 td jx 

3k is more like a light engine refurb / install.

If you're gonna keep the van spend the money and fit a PD130 engine.i think Slaughterhouse customs do them for 6k
As its a syncro it'd be worth doing and would be much better than an AAZ in every respect.
Don't scrap it!.. unless you meant the engine then chuck that, but not the syncro! You could probably sell things like the engine mounts, oil pan etc to recoup a bit of money.

Your transmission as is will take a TDi without any changes as long as you rein in your 'need' to drive so hard all the time - (I built it, I know what's inside everyone)

Jamie at J's garage in Aberystwyth would be my engine conversion garage of choice

Use a complete eTDi engine set up from a single donor vehicle for reliability, ease of diagnostics, parts supply and maintenance going forward

Pursue whoever took you for £3k for the pump as their work killed the engine and you have the evidence, threaten them with a small claims and be prepared to do it if they don't give you some satisfaction

And once you've got some recompense then name and shame so we all know who to avoid in the future

Aidan took the words out of my mouth - black smoke followed by kaboom is a fuelling issue, the last thing you want to do is put that pump on another engine.

To start with, does the workshop acknowledges any responsibility or warranty ?

The price you paid is far to expensive for this job, and the engine failure is a consequence of a bad job.

I would always opt for the eTDI with any of the engine codes 1Z, AHU, AFN.

As Aidan wrote, the best option is to get all of it out of a single car.

It is important to source a transverse mounted engine, as the longitudinal mounted (Passat B5, A4, A6) have a different block.

I can also follow Aidan's recommendation of J.

Don't scrap the Syncro. It looks great as of the photos.


 

cobblers wrote: ↑04 Nov 2024, 16:01 Aidan took the words out of my mouth - black smoke followed by kaboom is a fuelling issue, the last thing you want to do is put that pump on another engine.

+1

Black smoke means chronically overfuelling, sounds like it hydraulic'd and for a diesel that's bad news.
Unless of course your engine ran a big end (it happens and fast on a diesel because of the compression ratio) which could have caused incomplete compression/combustion on that one cylinder, it would then appear to run rich, conrod grabs the crank and...leg out of bed. Thankyou and goodnight. Its an old engine, they dont last forever.
Doesn't excuse the £3k invoice though.

Black or very dark grey smoke is fairly often the turbo blowing which could well explain the bottom end blowing a con rod

FWIW I'd put a 1.8 20vt petrol engine in it

silverbullet wrote: ↑06 Nov 2024, 09:23 FWIW I'd put a 1.8 20vt petrol engine in it

I've been seeing this done a fair bit lately. I dreamt of doing it about 12 years ago when I did my last AGG conversion but it wasn't a path well travelled and the van was my daily.
Now mk3 gtis are near extinct, a low power 1.8t seems a very good choice. I seem to recall the JX sump/ oil pump fits, but the turbo was in the way of the engine mount - I'd guess someone selling pre-made mount kits now?

Frankly I'd suggest option 2.

I can't see swapping to a more complex engine is a good idea, you've managed to destroy the wonderfully simple AAZ, by ignoring black smoke shortly after an injection pump swap.

You're probably better off getting a more modern, stock spec van, that you can just use and get serviced properly with some degree of confidence. Presumably the 3k you chucked at the injection pump can be recovered either under the suppliers warranty or via the courts.
 

You’re highly unlikely to get anywhere with court particularly as you ignored the black smoke for 20mins that could well have been the sump emptying via the turbo failing, if the fuel pump was seized and now it isn’t then the job was carried out correctly, need lots lots more details, presumably new cam belt was fitted , if the pump was seized how was the cambelt not effected?

I'm not into online postmortems, but I just wanted to support a couple of views already expressed. From the OP description the failure sounds like overfuelling, not a runaway due to ingesting its own oil (having seen that in person, not on my vehicle thankfully). Overfuelling a diesel can result in damaged or melted pistons, which could quickly lead to seizure and the rod exiting the crankcase. Boost and EGT gauges are advisable on a non-standard mechanical diesel for this reason.

cobblers wrote: ↑06 Nov 2024, 09:38

silverbullet wrote: ↑06 Nov 2024, 09:23 FWIW I'd put a 1.8 20vt petrol engine in it

I've been seeing this done a fair bit lately. I dreamt of doing it about 12 years ago when I did my last AGG conversion but it wasn't a path well travelled and the van was my daily.
Now mk3 gtis are near extinct, a low power 1.8t seems a very good choice. I seem to recall the JX sump/ oil pump fits, but the turbo was in the way of the engine mount - I'd guess someone selling pre-made mount kits now?

Its a well trodden path now. GMB-mount used to make the bits, Epytec copied them iirc the diesel ones are prone to fatigue failure due to poor design details and diesel vibrations.
A 150bhp 1.8T won't destroy the transmission with insane torque and will be nice on fuel if geared right i.e. 70mph at circa 3500rpm on a light throttle