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GoodDayForADrive
10-19-2006, 11:26 PM
I seriously cannot even begin to describe how much trouble I'm in.

Scroll down to the short version if you're in a rush...

So first thing is first, I started installing my turbo on monday. The entirety of monday was spent getting my exhaust manifold and downpipe off, and involved me grinding one of the studs in the head down enough to get the manifold off, and then pulling that stud out of the head.

Tuesday was when I noticed that the turbo manifold I have would not allow the turbo to clear the firewall. I overnighted an ATP manifold brand new so my turbo would clear, meanwhile I did some other stuff like injectors, chip, oil pan, etc, while I waited for the manifold to come in.

Wednesday I get the manifold in, get everything bolted on finally by about 2:30 AM or so.
Start the car up, oil light comes on. Turn the car off. Check underneathe, big puddle of oil, so I check my fittings and realize I forgot to tighten up my oil drain line off the turbo. Tighten it up, restart the car. Won't idle. My friend notices fuel bubbling out of the intake manifold, so I take off the manifold to cehck for leaks. Nothing. Finally we realize I forgot to plug in the throttle body sensor, so we rebolt the manifold, plug that in, restart the car. Idles and runs fine (I'm assuming the engine flooded itself not knowing how much air was coming in.)

Drove the car around to test drive it, runs fine. Take it out on a main road, only to find out that I have no 4th or 5th gear. Wtf? Bring the car home, and notice that the downpipe is not allowing the linkage to clear it. Simple fix, I just need to swap the turbo manifold over. No Problem. Went to bed.

Thursday (Today) I wake up and start unbolting stuff to get to the manifold. Everything is going great, flip the manifold over, start bolting it back on, and then a stud breaks off of the head. Great. Only way I have to get this out is to drill it, and hammer a tap in there to get it out. So I do. Get it nice and snug, go to turn it, and the tap breaks inside the stud. At this point I'm really thinking I'm in a nightmare. After trying many other things that don't work, my dad suggests that I just drill it out bigger, and use my friend's threading set to rethread a larger hole. Ok, so I try that, but even my metal bits won't drill through the hardened steel of the tap that is jammed in there. So I get the brilliant idea to drill a smaller hole, and then I could just use washers to make sure it holds onto the manifold decently. I drill a small hole, and start threading it. I'm thinking I'm home free, finally figured this thing out, when the threading tap breaks inside the hole. I just about lost it at this point. Now, I have just enough room to drill one more small hole and thread this part, so I decide to do this, and this time make sure I have enough room to thread pretty deep in there. Problem is, I drill too far, and coolant starts spirting out of the head. I about cried.

So basically, I threw together some JB weld, and stuck it in the hole, hoping that at the very least, I can bolt the manifold back up with 7 bolts later. I'm really at a lost to describe the terrible luck I have had the past few days. I'm not really sure if this is a vent, or a request for help, but I needed to tell someone, and you guys are the ones.

Short Version:
I drilled a hole through my head in an attempt to tap out a new bolt for the exhaust manifold, and now coolant is leaking through this hole. I attempted to JB weld it tonight, and will take a look at it in the morning. Any ideas would be great.

Mr_Diesel
10-20-2006, 09:39 AM
DAMN!!! Man... I feel your pain. I have an aba crossflow head I will give you if you pay the shipping! It's in good shape, man.

Let me know how that goes... I hope you figure it out, but if you don't you can have this crossflow of mine.

GoodDayForADrive
10-20-2006, 10:07 AM
My mom had an interesting idea this morning. If I drill out some of the JB weld from last night, I may be able to JB weld in the old broken stud. If I could make sure it's straight, it would function pretty much the same.

snipeboomyurded
10-20-2006, 12:26 PM
I was wondering why you didnt call me to come back and help... That sux man, hope you can get it fixed pretty easily. GIve me a call later if you need some help.

SteveXs2
10-20-2006, 01:09 PM
Just think was this is going to be like when it's all done:

VroooooOOOOOOMMMMMM! pssst. VroooooooOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM,mm,mm,m,,m,M! pst!

Ok I'm lame. But dude, once this is done you're got yourself a turbo jetta.

GoodDayForADrive
10-20-2006, 05:09 PM
Just think was this is going to be like when it's all done:

VroooooOOOOOOMMMMMM! pssst. VroooooooOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM,mm,mm,m,,m,M! pst!

Ok I'm lame. But dude, once this is done you're got yourself a turbo jetta.

I've driven it already, and trust me, it sounds amazing.

GoodDayForADrive
10-20-2006, 05:11 PM
Oh, and an update btw. I'm attempting to JB weld the stud back in, I'm hoping it'll be strong enough to hold the manifold on enough that it wont leak, but it doesnt need to be super strong since there are 7 other bolts on there. Hopefully it'll be strong enough, we'll see in 6 hours when the JB weld dries. Actually, I won't really be able to see it until after work tomorrow, so that gives it 27 hours to dry, hopefully it'll be nice and strong by then, and I can attempt to put the manifold on tomorrow night. We'll see.

burn_your_money
10-20-2006, 06:13 PM
First, Change your oil. If you flooded your engine than gas is now in your oil, which makes it nice and thin. The last thing you want is a engine rebuild.

Got a welder? Weld a bolt onto what's left of the stud and try and get it out. Careful not to blow yourself up if there is fuel in the area. Once you put a new stud in it should not allow the coolant out. Put a bit of gasket sealer on the bolt if you want

Bummer about the luck man, you'll be driving it before you know it though

GoodDayForADrive
10-20-2006, 11:36 PM
First, Change your oil. If you flooded your engine than gas is now in your oil, which makes it nice and thin. The last thing you want is a engine rebuild.

Got a welder? Weld a bolt onto what's left of the stud and try and get it out. Careful not to blow yourself up if there is fuel in the area. Once you put a new stud in it should not allow the coolant out. Put a bit of gasket sealer on the bolt if you want

Bummer about the luck man, you'll be driving it before you know it though

Getting the stud out is no longer an option, trust me. If the JB weld doesn't hold, I'm going to try to get it bolted up with 7 bolts temporarily while I get my hands on another head to swap on there.

burn_your_money
10-22-2006, 08:15 AM
How's the JB holding?

I don't know what your exhaust setup looks like but would it be possible to make a helper bar like on the cam cover? Possibly using thicker steel and having it slightly bent in where the missing stud is?

BTW there is a ported/polished etc head for sale in the CND classifieds for $850 CAD if you are interested. If he won't ship to the states I will defintly for you

GoodDayForADrive
10-22-2006, 08:47 AM
The JB didn't hold. I bolted everything up with 7 bolts, and I'm going to pray for no coolant leak. I know this'll burn out the exhaust gasket, but it's the best I can do right now. Meanwhile, I need to start saving for a new head.

GoodDayForADrive
10-22-2006, 11:53 AM
So I drove it to work today, no coolant leak, thank ***. There are exhaust leaks though, so I need to go back through and make sure I tightened everything up enough.

Also, something odd is happening with the butterfly valve in the throttle body, and on occasion it gets stuck open, and so the car revs itself, and I have to shut the car off, and go close the butterfly valve. It only happened twice today, on the way to work, but then I was fine the rest of the way.

Now time to start saving for a new head. :?

burn_your_money
10-22-2006, 12:57 PM
Check the adjustment on your accelerator cable. Not sure how these fancy A3s are setup but you may be opening the butterfly too far and causing it to bind

Here is that head I was talking about. Lots of extras you could sell to make some of the money back
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2865484

GoodDayForADrive
10-22-2006, 01:49 PM
Check the adjustment on your accelerator cable. Not sure how these fancy A3s are setup but you may be opening the butterfly too far and causing it to bind

Here is that head I was talking about. Lots of extras you could sell to make some of the money back
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2865484

Ah, yes, that one. I've seen it on there before, he was trying to get 800 US for it before. I'm actually flat broke right now though, I have a ton of stuff I need to post up for sale. I could definitely make enough money to buy it, but it'd take me at least a couple weeks before I could afford it. Although he has been trying to sell that for quite a while, so maybe he'll still have it when I get some money. I actually already have a g60 valve cover and a 260 cam installed in my current head, and I have dual coil valve springs in a box in my garage.

The other thing about getting that head, is I would probably then add a low compression head gasket and ARP head studs, I wonder if I would be pushing too much power for my transmission after all that, lol.