Club 80-90 Forums

Hello,

I’m new round here, new to T25s in general, and we have just welcomed our very first in to the family; a 1990 2.1 Bluestar Multivan thingy. Both I and my father have worked on beetles before but the t25 looks a wee bit more complicated; we’ve got a Haynes manual on order and will get a Bentley one as soon as we have the money to do so. There a plenty of little bits that need doing on it and I may have to ask for advice for those bits too, but one step at a time!

On to the exhaust; on the drive back home the van’s exhaust started blowing and it seems to be coming from one of the pipes towards the rear of the engine (the silencer etc looks new).

My father will hopefully be having a closer look at the exhaust this weekend. I will be doing my best to help but seeing as I’m not in the greatest of health I’m going to be more a backseat-mechanic, so I thought I’d try to make myself useful by asking the following;

Does anyone have any tips/dos & don’ts for removing the exhaust or sections of it?

It looks like it’s quite rusty back there so am a little worried about studs breaking or everything crumbling under the slightest touch!

Also, not completely unrelated, does anyone happen to know of any good garages/mechanics/MOT centres in the County Durham area? It’d be nice to know of one or two if/when we ever need them.

Cheers,
Tom.

Hi Tom and welcome to here where you will find all you need to know and lots you don't

Firstly, congratulations on having the sense to ask on here re your exhaust as this job, if not done carefully can lead to all kinds of nightmares

You are right about the rust and the studs.

If you shear off a stud (and it happens often) you are likely to have to remove the engine to fix it !!

Tips =

Research for ages on here by searching the word "exhaust" !! (until you are exhausted - Sorry )

Do it in a warm dry place with lots of tea available to help you relax.

Use real "Plus Gas" NOT WD40

Start applying the plus gas hours before you start work and repeat the application often to get it really soaked in.

Get a gas powered blowlamp or similar to heat the nuts up as much as you dare (bearing in mind they run into the Alloy heads) before attempting to move them.

When the nut moves, run it back and forth as you gently undo it.

Buy some new nuts for the studs before you start (Europarts do good exhausts at good prices, and supply fitting kits with nuts)

One (or sometimes 2) of the bolts / studs holding the pipes to the head are actually Allen bolts which are a bit of a sod to get at (esp the one at the rear left hand pipe). Get a really good fitting Allen key and take care not to round the bolt head off !!

try not to take it to a mechanic for exhaust removal.

patience, heat, plus gas.

and it will come off
if you break a stud , no bother we all have, so plenty advice there.. replace it all with stainless.

every thing is available from GSF

Wow those replies were quick! Thanks to both for the welcome and tips.

Argh, allen headed bolts! We think it's that left-rear pipe that's blowing too.

Unfortunately we don’t have a warm and dry place to work on the van as it wont fit in the garage (and to be honest, it’s not that warm or dry in there anyway...). So it’ll have to be done outside. In the cold. Plenty of tea though!

We don’t have any Plus Gas either so, unless the local motor place has some, we may have to postpone until I’ve ordered some from the interweb. I think we have a blowtorch though.

Anyway, looks like tomorrow it’ll be a case of putting the van on the ramps and having a nose around rather than attempting to take anything off.

Out of curiosity how difficult is it to drop the 2.1 engine out of a t25? We’ve taken engines out of various beetles (a long time ago!) but the t25 looks a little more complicated...

Cheers,
Tom

DrHfuhruhurr wrote:Wow those replies were quick! Thanks to both for the welcome and tips.

This site is like that, well populated and helpful

DrHfuhruhurr wrote: Unfortunately we don’t have a warm and dry place to work on the van as it wont fit in the garage (and to be honest, it’s not that warm or dry in there anyway...). So it’ll have to be done outside. In the cold.

I don't recommend it and I wouldn't do it, and I have fitted an overdrive to a Hillman Hunter on my back in the snow

At LEAST wait for a dry and bright day !!

Oh and get some wheel ramps too !! - you need plenty of space to work in.
(Don't risk working under it on a jack !)

DrHfuhruhurr wrote:We don’t have any Plus Gas either so, unless the local motor place has some, we may have to postpone until I’ve ordered some from the interweb.

Good, trust us, you need Plus Gas, anything else is just not as good (imho as always )

DrHfuhruhurr wrote:Anyway, looks like tomorrow it’ll be a case of putting the van on the ramps and having a nose around rather than attempting to take anything off.

Very sensible, esp in view of the weather forecast.

DrHfuhruhurr wrote:Out of curiosity how difficult is it to drop the 2.1 engine out of a t25? We’ve taken engines out of various beetles (a long time ago!) but the t25 looks a little more complicated...

Not too bad, mostly as you would expect.

Need to get the rear end nice and high to get it out.

Do it on a VERY flat surface, makes getting it back in on the trolley jack SOOOooo much easier than doing it on a normal road surface.

Watch out not to damage the plastic thermostat housing at the front l/h side of the motor = very hard to come by and easily damaged when getting the engine in and out.

.

re 2.1

Eight bolts (cradle and bell housing)
4 wires (carb)
disconnect various water pipes and fuel lines.

the whole lot, exhaust and all, drops out

4 hrs is about average
you'll get that time down too

Thanks again both. Kevtherev; your engine looks shinier than ours does! Where does your exhaust tailpipe/silencer bit fit though?

We picked up some ramps today (didn't want to be working under a jack either!) so at least can have a peak underneath tomorrow and maybe pinpoint where the leak's coming from. Maybe I'll remember to take a couple of pictures, too.

Removing the engine doesn't sound too bad but I hope, fingers crossed etc, we wont need to do anything like that just yet! (Have probably jinxed it now...). A flat surface could be hard to come by though. They're nigh on mythical around here.

I think, though not 100% sure, that ours has fuel injection. Does this make engine removal any more difficult? (guess it'll all be in either Haynes/Bentley manuals but they've not arrived yet).

Tom.

Had a peak underneath today and have found the source of one leak (a previous “repair”). Plus there’s a stud, a bracket, and a couple of bolts missing too, so someone’s been there before us. Managed to apply a bit of penetrating fluid and get a few pics before the heavens opened (again):

The repair/bandage (we think the hole's actually underneath this):


Catalytic convertor (top) & what’s that similar shaped object, a small silencer...?:


Lambda sensor going in to CAT?:


The mystery silencer close-up?:


So really probably requires everything apart from main silencer/tailpipe, however...

As a very temporary measure Dad stuck a bit of exhaust-gasket-sealer-thing around the old bodge and that’s quietened it down enough so we can hear the engine properly.

But, it's got a (possibly new) knocking/ticking noise that seems, though not 100% sure, to be coming from around the waterpump (? top/left bit of engine as you look through the engine hatch).

What could the ticking/knocking be?

It’s not had a run out for a week now and has only been started/moved briefly (couple of minutes at most) to get up/down the ramps. So, after searching, wiki-ing, and finger-crossing, I guess it could be hydraulic tappets?

DrHfuhruhurr wrote:

But, it's got a (possibly new) knocking/ticking noise that seems, though not 100% sure, to be coming from around the waterpump (? top/left bit of engine as you look through the engine hatch).

What could the ticking/knocking be?

It’s not had a run out for a week now and has only been started/moved briefly (couple of minutes at most) to get up/down the ramps. So, after searching, wiki-ing, and finger-crossing, I guess it could be hydraulic tappets?

yep, very likely is the hydraulic tappets.

And as you probably have read elsewhere a good long fast-ish run usually sorts them out.

Has this van had an oil and filter exchange since you bought it ?
btw, re filters most reckon only to use Mann Oil filters, available at good prices from the VW main dealers and Europarts.

ghost123uk wrote: yep, very likely is the hydraulic tappets.

And as you probably have read elsewhere a good long fast-ish run usually sorts them out.

Has this van had an oil and filter exchange since you bought it ?
btw, re filters most reckon only to use Mann Oil filters, available at good prices from the VW main dealers and Europarts.

Thanks, cross fingers a good run out will quieten it down. Hopefully getting classic insurance sorted tomorrow/Tuesday so once that's done we can take it for a blast!

Nope, no oil or filter change (yet). Previous owner informed us that it had been done recently but we have plans to re-do anyway (and possibly do coolant too although that looks considerably more difficult). Oil is half-way between min/max at the moment though and looked pretty clear.