[urq] WX 000454 is RIP

[Louis-Alain Richard]

Hi everyone,

 

My trusty WX had a little hiccup last Sunday, on the way to Mecaglisse ice
lapping day. The head gasket blew between cylinder 4 and 5, and the result
is a dead WX. The head, rebuilt less than 4 years ago, is shot, material is
gone between the 2 cylinders, and the #4 piston is partly melted as well. So
a new engine is in the future for my car. We also found that the turbo as a
small crack and the exhaust manifold is a little warped too. Oh well.

 

I would prefer to do a repair using as many stock parts as possible. There
is 2 WX for sale now, but each are far from here, and they have a lot of
miles on them too. I have not decided against any of them yet. There is also
a  WX short block pro-rebuilt available on ebay, but then, I need a head and
a turbo.  

 

I would too evaluate a MC swap, either with the WX CIS or the MC system. I
want the car back on the road as fast as possible, to prevent the "car that
sit too long for repair" syndrome.

 

So any of you has something for me ? A rebuild head (WX, KH, WK or WR) would
be fine, a good used K26 or K24 too, stock or oversized pistons, etc.

 Or a complete engine with all the surroundings, either a WX or a MC. 

 

Speaking of heads, there is a bunch of 2,1 liter rebuilts available for
cheap, one is 25$ now on ebay and a guy on vwvortex has many of them,( 035
103 373H is the casting number) but no one knows for sure on which engine
they fit. Are they hydraulic or solid ? If solid, then could I buy one and
transfer the cam/valves from my engine ? Links are here :
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3596751 and
http://tinyurl.com/3cnm2d 

 

Oh, last question: what would cause a gasket failure like this ? When I
asked Geraint and Brady this very question, they answered (collectively
laughing) : " Why bother, it's screwed, man ". Well, I want to be sure that
the failure was not caused by a clogged injector, or an air leak, or
something else that would resurface with the next engine. The shame is the
car was going very well prior to that, accelerating hard without any
hiccups. The failure happened after an half hour drive at 75 mph, then we
left the highway to take a regional road. Starting from stop, I did my usual
0-60 WOT acceleration, then kaboom ! I kept running for a few kilometers, to
find a safe spot to stop. That distance is surely responsible for the
piston/head meltdown, (my fault), but what caused the first gasket failure ?
The car was filled with fresh 94 unleaded from the day before. 

 

Enough for now, 

 

Louis-Alain