Black Mambo TDi75

Fuel filter I change every year... Brake fluid every 2 years including the clutch.
Hmm I should probably change my fuel filter as I’ve done 20k miles on it now. It would also finally allow me to address the high pitched resonance / whining sound coming from the filter housing that I’ve concluded must be caused by a trapped air bubble
 
Ahh the wind, such a welcome Arctic breeze when working on the smallest fiddlyist car ever made....

Egr now deleted successfully, still puff of blue on accelerating so must be turbo as only on revs.

Anyone thinking of taking egr off, allow 3 hours, grab a short stubby 6mm allen key. If you have ac then good luck if not like me it's doable.
The two bolts on the egr pipe are 6 allen key, although my rear one (blind by the way!) Turned out to be t45 13mm replacement bolt, so someone has been before me.
The bolts on the asv\egr are 5mm, the rear one of course is blind unless you have a child's sized head and no ac.

Here's some juicy photos. Took me 10 mins of blind fumbling with various types of 6mm hex before I took a photo to see what's going on on the rear bolt.
When I did this on my atl it beat me up, and the egr feed pipe was solid due to cooler. On the amf the pipe has plenty of spring to get on the lower 5mm front egr bolt.

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My egr was leaking oil through the vent and was wetish inside, interestingly the exhaust feed pipe was dry. This tells me that the turbo charge wheel is letting oil blow by, so I guess the oil flinger "seal" are in need of help. The intake charge pipes were fairly oily tbh.
Or there is crankcase pressure that's not letting oil drain out the return pipe fast enough. Saying that,I took the filler cap off and the smoke was still there, so no doubt turbo.

And of course one 5mm bolt fell down back, even with no undertray it's not been found yet.
 

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This car was meant to a small rescue project to become a hard working commuter that woukd see action in bad country lanes and some motorway cruising. Its doing it okay even with issues, returning 62mpg average on last tank.

Issues left with this car:

Coolant pressure.

Things got a bit worse so tested the gasket, it failed, so I used steel seal, yes I know, less than ideal.
To my delight it's fixed the white smoke and condensate plus coolant smells. However it's left the pressuring issue.

Car still passes the gasket test after a tank of hard driving, the car drives well sounds good but still get pressure. Ran coolant indicator for 40 mins and still it passed???!!

At a loss so must be head?

Smoking blue exhaust on pulling away and revving.

Egr removed and blocked off, way less stuff coming out back. But still blue.

I've released the crank cover vent pipe and it's not spitting oil out into turbo vent. Tried revving when hot with oil cap off , and still same smoke, so head vent pressure are okay.

Think must therefore just be the turbo "seals" leaking oil out sides. It's worse when low revving better at high revving, possibly indicating to me that flingers work better at speed as designed I guess.

This leaves me with needing a turbo recon or valve stem oil seals plus head gasket.

I've put conditioner in to see if it's valve stem seals.

I've picked up a spare amf engine as a better cost option from Steve. Just now need to now work through the costings.
Cam belt will be done either way and car should be then solid and ready to go, having only done 140k (both old and new engines has similar milage)

Tough one this car, emotions of regret, joy and stress, and of course frustration, seem to be a daily part of ownership. Looking forward to the light appearing at end of the tunnel!!
 
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Forgot to mention I mended and refit the vanity lights and popped new rubber mat in the front footwell. You know those jobs you shouldn't be doing given it needs mechanical work?? Can't help myself.
 
With everyting done bar spraying the bonnet myself I wa shoping to drive it on for a few years. Sadly the headgasket issue and the turbo flinger seals issue has meant it going to be having a, new to me, like for like AMF engine sourced form @A2Steve breaker.

The engine has done 150K and is one year older so as close to original as can be. Fingers crossed it goes well in three weeks time, i twill have a new clutch and timing belt seeing as it easy enough to do. Ill transfer the EGR and the new Bosch pump of course and add in the best of the colant pipes between the two.

If anyhting goes wrong now its the end of the road!
 
Broken dipstick replaced with alternative from @Ami , very good quality. Pleased to say oil level is still good despite some blue smoke! 20230309_115531.jpg20230309_115527.jpg
 

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Quick update...
The car has blocked thermostat whi h explains pressure in coolant. Oil still being burnt so suspect stem seal or turbo.
Been bust stripping new engine to drop in fingers 🤞!!!
Car returning 64mpg average and drives well despite its attrmpt to kill itself
 
Been a while, I've been busy trying to fit in time to get car ready for the new engine.

So far it's just the turbo exhaust nuts to do and it will be ready for splitting the gearbox off and lifting out.

I've removed the slam panel as you can see, which was pretty intense for first effort. A lot of cables to be unclipped!


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While coolant is out and car basically stripped I thought I'd have a look at the webasto. Removing this is tricky and would not be recommended without the level of access I have right now.

I have the error of the coolant temp reading being 125 deg on vcds. It moves a bit so all working just will never fire up at that temp!!
Carefully took it apart and kept left coolant hose and fuel connected. Lifted top off with impact driver on the screws, one sheered.

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Now control board is off the white square is the ntc thermistor that needs replacing. Do this rebuild it and it should be triggered into life. If it doesn't then hey ho but couldn't pass up chance to remove it.

I also repaired the rotating lower headlight rivnut by drilling head off bolt, lifting light adjuster cutting bolt flush then drilling out rivnut carefully. I used a stainless m5 rivnut and basic hand tool to set it in. You can see corrosion and damage around it but it works for now!!

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Driveshafts off, exhaust nuts off, all coolant and turbo pipes off. Vacuum pipes off and tandem pump off. Just waiting for Monday to fit the new engine!

Lord knows how many new bits I've bought here what I can remember of the "might as well while it's off" list.

New timing belt and water pump
New altenator pulley
New auxillary tensioner and belt
New clutch kit
New coolant pipes to oil cooler
New coolant manifold housing and temp sender
New thermostat housing and original thermostat
New egr blank
New webasto pcb unit
New dipstick
New header tank and top hose

Cleaned inlet manifold and turbo out.

Exciting and nervous, never done this before. Doubt I will again either!

Other bits to fit when complete:

New glove box unit
New hard touch window switches
New refurb light switch and surround
New ashtray
 
Driveshafts off, exhaust nuts off, all coolant and turbo pipes off. Vacuum pipes off and tandem pump off. Just waiting for Monday to fit the new engine!

Lord knows how many new bits I've bought here what I can remember of the "might as well while it's off" list.

New timing belt and water pump
New altenator pulley
New auxillary tensioner and belt
New clutch kit
New coolant pipes to oil cooler
New coolant manifold housing and temp sender
New thermostat housing and original thermostat
New egr blank
New webasto pcb unit
New dipstick
New header tank and top hose

Cleaned inlet manifold and turbo out.

Exciting and nervous, never done this before. Doubt I will again either!

Other bits to fit when complete:

New glove box unit
New hard touch window switches
New refurb light switch and surround
New ashtray
Excellent work!
 
New amf engine fitted, it's done same milage but was known runner, fingers crossed. If anyone's thinking about doing this, it's hard graft first time. I found it intense as there's a lot of cables and clips and bolts to remember, not only that there alot of parts you may alswell change when it's out. But I was quoted over 1200£ for the job without the timing belt and clutch changes.

Not far to go now! Old engine in front of the car.

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Thanks goes to @Chris Warren for his time for the day to help me do this job, its definately and two man job for moving the engine and gearboxes around.
We had fun and managed to change the clutch and timing belt kit at same time, luckily the engine went in on a large trolley jack and a little jiggle.

Before it went in we cleaned evrryting up we couldnt reach later, popped silicon hoses on the turbo connections and air intake, I hope to never be behind the engine again!
 
It's done! Engine fired up on about 5th crank. Some odd noises as the fluids got around to all the places it needs to go. No odd smells or smoke ticks over okay, what a relief.

I feel proud and tired, replacingall the bits was easier than removing them as the memory comes back to you. My headlight rivnut repair working nicely too! Chuffed.

Tomorrow will refit the wheel arch liners and drop it onto the wheels for first time in 6 weeks nearly.

I just need to flush the coolant once, and the oil after an hours drive, then its done. My god I hope its all.okay.

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