Favorit - Removing cylinder head bolts

[Jxx]

Head gasket has failed coolant into no 3 cylinder - no 3 plug wet with coolant and coolant thru exhaust, coolant blowing out of header. No evidence of coolant in the oil.

 

Have been reading threads on here re Felicias and have learned a LOT. THANKS FOLKS, ESPECIALLY RICARDO.

 

I now know that I should have been more careful to change the coolant regularly. I did this job a number of years ago and he gasket then was totally rotten. Just got away with the head.

 

Have got genuine head and manifold gaskets and have removed the manifolds and drained coolant. Manifolds are ok.

 

Query is regarding removal of head bolts. They seem incredibly tight. with a standard ratchet wrench I can't move any of them. A few seemed to "click" and move a couple of degrees, almost as if the head of the bolt had rotated very slightly, but then nothing. But I might be mistaken.

 

I presume the bolts are sticking in the head. When I did the head last time I would have run the bolts up and down as necessary to ensure they were free and oiled them. I remember they were tight last time but I don't remember them being this tight. (I seem to recall that there was one bolt in particular that I struggled with.)

 

Just how much torque is it safe to apply to these bolts without shearing them? I've got a couple of torque wrenches, one goes up to 150 lbft / 210 NM.

 

Would it be a good idea to to give all the bolts a few smart taps on the heads first, or would an air impact wrench be a good idea, undoing say 1/4 turn or so all round first?

 

I'd hate to break a bolt off, especially near or below the level of the block. Especially as I gather that the shortest bolt is now obsolete from Skoda.

 

I'll worry about the condition of the head when I get it off. May have to have it skimmed.

[Jxx]

Oops!

 

Should have made it clear - car is a Favorit, 1.3 registered 1990

[RicardoM]

I'll worry about the condition of the head when I get it off. May have to have it skimmed.

I don't have any doubt about the skimming being mandatory due to corrosion and warping. Let's pray the head is not beyond repair.

 

About the head bolts: breaking one in the block below the surface is the worst nightmare indeed. Fingers crossed.

The torque to unscrew the bolts is around 100 Nm. Anything above is a gamble. Some bolts are corroded in the block from the leaking coolant. There are no guarantees when removing them.

[RicardoM]

Maybe this is the best solution. And PATIENCE.

 

[Jxx]

Thanks Ricardo - good to know the "safe" limit!

 

The head was a little tatty last time but I thought I'd just about get away with it. It's been ok for several years, I forget how long, but when I asked my 21 year old daughter if she remembered it and how old she was at the time she guessed between 10 to 13. I'll have to go back through my paperwork for the dealer invoice for the gasket to find out. Have done a few tens of thousands of miles in that time, both short local runs and longer hight speed ones. To my increasing shame I hadn't changed the coolant in that time. I hadn't realised that was what had rotted the original gasket in the first place. So I'm hopeful that the main problem is a rotten gasket and that the head is recoverable, probably with refacing this time. It's on forums like this that one learns the errors of one's ways.

 

That video was an interesting technique  - but I fear of limited use for bolts deep inside the head?

 

I guess if the outside ones are removed the inner ones will get tighter? Get them free one at a time and tighten down again to reduce the risk of casting distortion?

 

Any thoughts on using - carefully -  bit at a time - forward and reverse -  the air hammer? I know it seems brutal in this instance, and I'm somewhat reluctant to try, mainly because the thread into the block is quite long, but I know I've used those things to shift fixings that I'm sure I'd have sheared off otherwise - and saved my knuckles.

 

If I can get the bolt up a couple of threads or so I guess I *might* be able to run some penetrating fluid down the bolt and work it out.

 

Laco penetrating fluid or similar.

 

Any thoughts on the internet's favourite ATF and acetone? The acetone (low surface tension) is supposed to take the ATF (EP properties I presume) down the threads with it. Been meaning to get some ATF and try it on something a little less critical where I can do some sort of a comparison.

 

I do know Laco is good stuff, If I can still get it. MSDS does not say a great deal about it, petroleum distillate, and mentions kerosene / jet fuel. Seems to have a characteristic odour somewhat different to kerosine. Possibly similar what we in the UK would call white spirit with some light oil added. Yup, £5.39 including postage from ebay UK.

 

Using it on the manifold studs, I'd have liked to see more actual lubricant penetration I must admit, but they came free quite easily.

 

hanks again for your help

[RicardoM]

Re. the penetrating fluid recipe, I highly recommend the recipe in this video below. The guy is very resourceful. In fact his entire YouTube channel is full of interesting videos about day to day repairs.

 

As for the bolts and methods to budge them, I would go from the outside bolts in a spiral motion towards the inner bolts using the torque wrench set to 100 Nm. It's the same torque used on wheel studs. Shocking the bolts may help. A good 10 Allen key definitely will help. But as I said, there are no certainties, from me or from anybody else. You've admitted you have been neglected the coolant for years. So now you have to bite the bullet.

 

[RicardoM]

I guess if the outside ones are removed the inner ones will get tighter?

There is some truth in your assumption. So I have to clarify my previous reply by stating that when you go from outer to inner bolts with the torque wrench set to 100 Nm, you don't take out the bolts all the way. Take a first pass trying to unscrew all of them a quarter of a turn or less a.s.o.

 

I am interested in your repair, especially if you take some good pictures.

[KenONeill]

If the relevant bolt heads are in wells in the head, or you can make wells from modelling clay, diesel fuel can also make a very effective penetrant/release agent for a corroded thread.

 

Also, have you tried hammering on the heads of the relevant bolts?

[Jxx]

Thanks for that info Ricardo - gives one some confidence knowing a safe "maximum" to start with. 100 NM wouldn't touch it. I increased torque to 125 NM and after several 'breaks of the torque wrench they started to move. Did the quarter turn as you suggested. Tapping the top of the bolts sharply a few times seemed to help.

 

Funnily enough the worst 2 bolts were 5 and 9 at the front of the engine - the blow was compression / water in no 3.

 

No 6 appeared to be held at the top - no "spring" in the bolt as torque increased. I got my torch and carefully warmed up the head of the bolt (didn't want to risk the temper of the head of the bolt), applied Laco (I've found it generally more effective than WD40) and tapped the bolt head smartly a few times, trying also to tap sideways. Repeated 2 or 3 times, and the brute shifted. re tightened and loosened a few times and it came out clean. The worst was no 9. A lot of tapping and a small torque increase and it shifted.

 

In short brute force applied as gently as possible. No bolts were harmed in ...

 

I nearly gave up on no 9 and went out to get an impact "hex socket" to try my air impact wrench to try to shock it loose, My main concern was that might shatter the socket head on the bolt. Do you think this would have been likely?

 

Your comments re neglect and biting bullets are accepted - but the sight of the remains of the head and motheaten head were far more sobering. At least I've learned what causes it and how to avoid the problem in future.

 

Re head - from what I can see with a straight edge there is precious little distortion, which I would expect, as there's been no overheating, but in view of the pitting I can't be bothered to actually try to measure it.

 

The question is - just how far is it going to be possible to skim that head? I'll need at least 1 mm - probably double that, and it'll still leave some isolated pits. Will the tappet adjustment cope with that?

 

I presume the pistons come up to the top of the bores. What about the valve lift? I only have the Favorit Haynes BOL and it doesn't give that kind of useful info.

 

I'm assuming of course that the head hasn't been skimmed before. There is a notch in the edge of the  head casting down the manifold side. Is this some kind of recommended maximum skim marker?

 

It'll obviously affect the CR - I'll probably have to back off the timing to prevent knock.

 

The good news is that there didn't appear to be any water in the oil when I drained it, so I guess the rest of the engine will be ok, but I didn't quite like the look of it when I poured it into a clean oil can. Sizzle test was spectacular. So a couple of new filters and 200 miles or so on cheapo oil it'll have to be.

 

I've taken some pics and I'll post them as soon as I can. I've got some couple of people chasing me for work and I've got a quite complicated estimate to do asap. The joys of being self employed.

[RicardoM]

Congratulations for the patience and determination so far. The description of the solutions you found suitable for unfreezing the head bolts will be useful for other members doing similar jobs.

 

The warping of the head has to go. How far skimming? The photo shows it. The rest of your assumptions are correct. I'm pretty confident you'll do a great job with minimum costs.

 

Feel free to ask if I've missed anything.

 

[Jxx]

Wonderful! It looks new? I'll never get my head back to that state. The best I can hope for is for plenty of decent surface around the fire rings and other essential areas. I'm sure that there'll still be a few pits here and there.

I phoned my local Skoda dealer in Chelmsford (about 25 miles away) - he couldn't give me an idea on how far it was possible to push the machining, but gave me the name and phone number of the engine shop he uses in Chelmsford. Richard's a good guy, very knowledgeable and helpful.

I'll give the machine shop a ring.

It's not so far as it seems - I pass through Chelmsford about once a week visiting my wife - she's staying with her 96 year old dad at the moment, and I pass this engineering shop every time, although I've never noticed it was there.

If I get a chance I'll measure the combustion chamber capacity before I take the head in to compare with when I get it back.

The car was running well, not burning significant oil, so I'm wondering if it's worth doing anything to the valves. (Maybe they can machine the head with the valves in place? I'll obviously have to take out the rockers.

It's my work bus, and gets a lot of cosmetic abuse. I know it's not got long left, but I need to keep it for a year or 2. (Cost and the need to find a suitable replacement) That brute's got lots of room and guts and I find it very comfortable. Was my father in law's. He gave it to me when he gave up driving some 14 years ago. I'll be very sorry when I have to finally bid it goodbye.

Question - I'm intrigued -What are those figures written on the head in the photo?

[RicardoM]

Question - I'm intrigued -What are those figures written on the head in the photo?

I think they have to do with calculating the static compression ratio. The volume of combustion chambers and stuff.

[RicardoM]

These are the head bolts that Jxx managed to extract in one piece. :whew: They are straight, it's the camera lens having barrel distortion.

 

 

The  head gasket :o

 

 

The head and the block..  There's lots of carbon buildup that has to go.

 

Edited 21 December, 2016 by RicardoM

[KenONeill]

With that amount of carbon on the chambers and piston crowns, I would think that it would be worth dropping the valves to decoke the ports and valve heads.

[felicia16v]

That head is pretty much dead looking at the pitting around the coolant areas. Y3s it could be welded but may as well look for a decent head to start with

[felicia16v]

It Was the better gasket too by the looks a temac one.

Probably have a better head than that at work I can as gaffer how much he would want for one if you are stuck.postage wouldn't be that bad at a guess

[Jxx]

"With that amount of carbon on the chambers and piston crowns, I would think that it would be worth dropping the valves to decoke the ports and valve heads."

 

Agreed, but she has been running ok until this happened, using very little oil (leaking a bit from the bottom end, probably sump gasket, but I have to work in the road and don't fancy removing the sump with a lot of dust and grit blowing around, so I'll live with it) so in view of the general condition of the car I reckon I'll be lucky to get another couple of years or so, so I'll probably leave em as is.

 

I've been on the phone to a machine shop my local (Chelmsford) Skoda agent recommends, and I'm bringing it in for him to have a look at tomorrow morning. on the phone he reckons he cam skim the head with the valves in. If it'll take a skim he can do it almost immediately. He mentioned welding out the pitting, but that'd be in the new year. Only got wet finger in the air guestimate on costings over the phone so far. Will know more tomorrow.

 

I've taken off the 'stat housing and rockers and cleaned up the filth on the head, and cleaned out the combustion chambers. They've come up nice and clean. Not had a chance to take photos.

 

From what I could see with a decent engineering ruler there's precious little distortion if any. Which is what I'd have expected given that it hasn't overheated. In view of the need to skim a more accurate check is academic.

 

"Probably have a better head than that at work I can as gaffer how much he would want for one if you are stuck.postage wouldn't be that bad at a guess"

 

Would be interested to know the price, and whether I'd need to have that one machined, in case mine is beyond repair. I'm still hoping for some change out of £100.

 

Can't afford a new bus at the mo, so keeping this one on the road is the only reasonable option. Besides, I've got somewhat fond of the old brute. Simplicity and reliability, and a nice driving position (after I raised the seat a couple of inches) mean a lot.

 

The old head gasket was supplied by Richard at Writtle - genuine Skoda part. Not sure when I did this last - must be up to 8 years ago. At that time the original gasket was like the one I've pulled out. At the time I didn't have broadband internet access, nor access to the sort of knowledge and advice I am getting here. My experience over the years has been with the Austin A series cast iron  engine and I had never seen a head gasket rust out like that before. I just assumed that was normal old age on a 1990  Skoda. I had no idea rotten antifreeze was to blame. Strangely enough, it's still listed and I've got a genuine replacement. (Don't remind vw.)

 

The head was quite pitted then, but I thought I could probably just get away with it. History shows that I did for a number of years. At the time I never thought I'd be keeping the car for as long as I have. Unfortunately I don't think I took any pictures at the time for comparison.

 

I suppose that pitting would have allowed coolant to seep into the low spots and stay there, where it would quickly deteriorate and continue to have its wicked way. Regular antifreeze changes would have surely helped, but I suspect not eliminated the problem.

[KenONeill]

"With that amount of carbon on the chambers and piston crowns, I would think that it would be worth dropping the valves to decoke the ports and valve heads."

 

Agreed, but she has been running ok until this happened, using very little oil (leaking a bit from the bottom end, probably sump gasket, but I have to work in the road and don't fancy removing the sump with a lot of dust and grit blowing around, so I'll live with it) so in view of the general condition of the car I reckon I'll be lucky to get another couple of years or so, so I'll probably leave em as is.

 

I meant the intake and exhaust valves, which are in the cylinder head, so no need to disturb the sump. Having said that, I'd agree that dropping the sump is better in a cleanish environment.

[Jxx]

OK - the story so far.

 

I took the head into Star Engineers on thursday morning for assessment. We batted about the feasibility of skimming the head. The fire ring area of no 3 was somewhat eroded. (Personally, given the state of the gasket, I think I would have got away with just a new gasket - for an indeterminate number of weeks. Possibly. Ie a get-you-home bodge.)

 

It would have been necessary to take at least 2 mm of the head to clean up that eroded area, and there were deeper pits. We agreed that taking 2mm might not be good enough, and he suggested welding the head up. (I like a challenge - done it loads of times before on these heads.)  I asked him how - he said oxy and an aluminium filler rod. He did it the same day, and I picked it up on friday morning. Not bad just before Christmas! I had to go on to suffolk on thursday, so I didn't see it done, and so, sorry no photos.

 

Painful, though - £50 had become £120. He had to pop the valves and seals and replace afterwards. He reckoned one of the valves in no3 was a bit pitted, but lapped in ok. He didn't have any new seals, but reckoned they were ok and popped back easily enough. I'll have to trust him on that.

 

He's cleaned up the head nicely, including the ports.

 

My first comment on seeing the job was (You haven't had to take much off!) He said about 12 thou.

 

The head's not perfect, but all the vital areas are clean. I'll try to get a photo up shortly.

 

I spent the rest of my free time on friday trying to clean out the bits of rotten gasket around the cylinder liners and cleaning the tops of the pistons. This was a problem. I needed to be very careful not to disturb the liners - a bit of that muck under one of them and its game over. My longest long nosed pliers was too fat to easily get in there and I didn't have a suitable pair if tweezers. In the end I went down a completely different route. I decided to try vacuuming it out.I've got a home made adaptor with a pcl connector to fit a radiator hose to enable me to pressure test radiators. (No, not at 100psi!). A few layers of insulating tape and it fitted into the end of the cleaner hose. A bit of flexible silicone hose over the pcl connector and it worked a treat. Initially as a pickup tool for the larger bits, then sucking out the smaller bits. A lot of it jammed in the silicone tube or up against the pcl connector, some of it  in the connector itself, which made the job slower, but kept most of the crud out of the vacuum itself. I could probably have made a special adaptor with a larger tube, but that would have taken even longer. I used a commercial Numatic George wet / dry / carpet shampooing device (THIS BIT'S IMPORTANT) with a bypass motor. Don't do this with a normal domestic vac, folks! In fact I used the George in "Dry" mode as there wasn't that much muck and Henry/George use plastic non woven bags. I really did not want to clean all that muck out of the tub...

 

The vacuum also came in handy (without adaptor) sucking up the carbon as I carefully cleaned off the cylinders. I used a bit of clean cut copper pipe to gently scrape off the carbon, as I had used 2  bits to space out the bolts and washers I used to temporally clamp down the liners.Bores look excellent. Lots of wd40 sprayed in there at the mo.

 

The good news is that the tops of the liners look good - the original machining is still clearly visible.

 

Gave the head bolts a good scrub today. All looked ok, apart for the one I had reused to clamp the liners. That one had the threads quite pitted. I've got one of each of the 2 longer bolts (smallest now unavailable from Skoda) I'm a little reluctant to replace just one bolt - I know Skoda supply them as singles, but will this be ok?

 

There is something potentially nastier. I noticed that the thread, compared to the new bolts, shows that the bolt has stretched. Seems to be about half a thread top to bottom of the thread, mainly the thread towards the top of the bolt. This led me to do a quick check of the other bolts. Strange, the longest bolts seem ok, it's the mid length ones which are stretched. The shortest less so. How nasty is this? Ricardo?

 

I have run a new bolt repeatedly down into the head with wd40 until I coudd "bottom" all the threads with fingers alone. Some of the threads had a lot of muck in them. The worst 2 were the ones at the front of the engine. One of these was the one I had most trouble removing (no 9 in the torque sequence). That one bottomed out I would guess about 5 mm earlier than the rest of the row, with a a few threads still showing. I presume that the bolts do not go that near the bottom of the holes, and this hole was tapped short at the factory. Am I right?

 

The other strange thing is that both these 2 front bolt holes Seem to be a much snugger fit for the bolt. The others were much looser.

 

In every case the "Stretched" bolt hand threaded down to the bottom by hand equally easily.

 

There's a lot of wd40 down the holes at the mo. I'll leave it there tonight, run a bolt down again tomorrow and mop it carefully out with a bit of paper towel wrapped

round a screwdriver. I'l then coat the bolts with a good engine oil and run them couple of times before I degrease the block and fit the gasket.

 

Re oil - I'm wondering - The oil I use in my Austin Metro is a special 20 /50 engine oil, made by Millers. Because I have the gearbox in the sump, it meets gearbox GL4 spec as well as the necessary engine specs. A good idea or a definite no no??

 

In short, do I need to source new bolts?  If so, whose, bearing in mind that the shortest bolt is unavailable from Skoda, and the others are £8.00 EACH?

 

Jxx.

[RicardoM]

Not changing the valve stem seals is a bad idea given the mileage of the engine. I presume the existing seals are the factory ones. If not now, when it is so easy to change them, then when?

 

Skoda says there is no need to replace the bolts. That is true if all bolts were torqued evenly and didn't stretch. I recommend buying new bolts. I know you have a low budget but a head gasket job is the last place for trying to save money. The gasket could go pffff right at first engine start and that would get even more expensive...

 

Well done paying extra attention to cleaning the threads. It's vital. Don't forget to  dry the holes with compressed air. Oil on bolts, just a smear, no dripping.

 

Re oil - I'm wondering - The oil I use in my Austin Metro is a special 20 /50 engine oil, made by Millers. Because I have the gearbox in the sump, it meets gearbox GL4 spec as well as the necessary engine specs. A good idea or a definite no no??

I don't understand what you mean by "I have the gearbox in the sump".

Nevertheless, use only fresh, cheap 10W40 mineral engine oil for now. Again, I don't know what you mean by telling us about GL4, that is for the gearbox. I hope you don't intend to use gearbox oil as engine oil... :o  :no:

[Jxx]

OK - I've just had a closer look at those bolts.

 

1.  They have all got the same marking stamped into the head. | 10k | and L1 on opposite sides. So I guess they are possibly all from the same batch / spec.

 

2.  The 2  - long and medium - bolts I got from Skoda the other day are marked OE FTF and 10.9 on opposite sides.

 

3.  The first 1 inch or so appears to be unstretched, which from the slight marks left after the scrubbing appears to be the extent of the threads actually mating with the threads in the block. Conformed by the pitting marks on 1 bolt.

 

4.  This is a bit weird. the 2 long bolts appear unstretched.

 

5.   In tightening order (how better to refer to them?) numbers 2 and 3 are worst - includes pitted one no 3. These, over the remaining 40 mm or so seem to be as far as  I can see visually about 1/4 turn, ie approx 0.37 mm over 40 mm.

 

6.   The rest, including the short bolt, have considerably less stretch.

 

7.   As far as I can see only 1 bolt has any significant pitting.

 

8.   I was surprised how many small flats /dents there were on the threads of the bolts - looks like impact damage. The 2 new ones have the same minor damage. They were supplied fairly well wrapped in polythene with Skoda part numbers stuck on. Naughty.

 

I'll try to get a passable photo of the pitting.

 

Re the head,taking a closer look at the limit notch in one long edge of the block I think they may have taken a bit more that 12 thou off. Certainly a bit more than 0.5 mm.

 

 

Jxx.

[RicardoM]

Here is a set of bolts freshly extracted for comparison.

 

 

And here is a badly corroded head, again for comparison.

 

[Jxx]

Hi, Ricardo.

 

Yes, I agree, compressed air is a better idea. Just have to lug the compressor across the garden from the shed and longish 3 /8 hose out through the sideway (2nd shed) along the side of the house.

 

I was thinking to get away with industrial type paper towel wrapped around a small screwdriver to get out the wd40, some white spirit, repeat with paper towel.

 

Re oil.

 

The Metro, and Mini from which a whole series of cars are derived, is a bit unusual. The MIni was in production in various form till 2000

 

The mini came out in 1959. It used the Austin A series engine, dating back to the 1940s, which was designed as a, then bang up to date, 4 cylinder overhead valve unit, in line driving through the back wheels. Alec Issigonis at Austin (then BMC and merged with Morris Motors) designed a very compact 4 seater family car with the engine turned sideways and the gearbox and diff UNDER the engine, effectively in the sump and sharing the engine oil. Drive came off the crankshaft onto a primary gear running free on the end of the crankshaft behind the flywheel, the splines of the primary gear taking the clutch, which was also inboard of the flywheel. The pressure plate was on the back of the flywheel. commented through the flywheel by 3 pairs of laminated spring steel driving straps. When the the clutch was engaged the primary rear was locked to the crankshaft. and drove the gearbox first motion shaft via an idler gear.

 

The gearbox, largely taken from the Morris Minor etc, sat in the same oil as the engine used, ie in lieu of the sump. One great advantage is that all you need to do to change the clutch is jack up the power unit a tad, remove the battery and tray, whip off the clutch cover, pull the flywheel and there's the clutch. No need to remove the gearbox.

 

I can send you a piccy of a metro and the power unit if you're interested.

 

The problem is the gearbox. Most engine oils cannot stand the shearing action of the gearbox and diff teeth and bearings. The  result is that  a modern oil, is totally unsuitable for this rather special use, and can come out like diesel after as little as 1000 miles. The engine was also designed for 20/50 or similar.

 

Millers have come up with an ENGINE oil, 20/50 grade, which also meets gearbox GL4 spec. For that particular machine it's really good. I've used it for a number of years now. What I was wondering was, in view if the probably grotty finish to the threads in the block, - and the bolts if they did get reused - would the extreme pressure properties of a smear of this 20 / 50 be an advantage or not? Ignorance asking those who know better.

 

Incidentally, one of the leading companies supplying the mini fraternity, including the racers, here in the uk is Minispares. They have had their own brand 20 / 50 mini oil blended by another independent. I bought a couple of gallons, and decided to try it first in the Skoda. Owner's handbook says I can use 20 / 50. Happy with it for the last year.

 

I have had another look at the bolts. Unfortunately I was offline when I composed that post, was unaware of your response before I posted. Sorry. I've got a picture of the reworked head and the pitted bolt. I'll see if they're ok and send them to you.

 

I take your point on the seals. I had to make a spot decision when I took the head in and I was hoping to get this job done and dusted over Christmas. We've had incredibly mild weather, and it's set to get colder ... If I've got to source a set of bolts I'll look at finding a set of seals. One of the things that persuaded me to take a chance was that the seals are now obsolete from Skoda. I don't want a set of pattern part rubbish that is going to be worse than I've got! I'd also have to make that the supplier had the right size. I gather there are 2 sizes, and the only difference in the Skoda numbers is a suffix letter! Frankly, the same concerns with the bolts. Before I buy I'll post back here with the options for good advice. TBH, I'm more worried about the quality of the bolts than the seals. They were fine before this all happened, and provided the guy hasn't damaged them I'm hopeful.

 

You posted a picture  somewhere on the forum (can't remember exactly where now) that seemed to show changing seals without removing the head. Nasty job. I've done it on a Nissan Sunny. YUK - Hated that car. Can't remember the Sunny, but for the Skoda that would surely entail removing 2 of the head bolts. Would I need to release the others? I do like the improvised valve spring tool. For the Sunny ISTR I cobbled something together with a ground up case opener. Did the job, but I decided that if ever I had to do that again I'd need to design a mk 2.

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Jxx

[john999boy]

I've now subscribed to this thread as I've found it extremely interesting so far and I'm hoping for a positive outcome.

[RicardoM]

Jxx

I am amazed you have the time and patience to write so much. It is interesting stuff about Minis and Austins. If I'll get one in my garage, I know where to ask for help.

 

Re. the oil: if the manufacturer says the oil complies to the standard #s required by Skoda, I see no problem to use it. I didn't know there is such universal oil. The gearbox oil has a very distinctive odor  :sick: ...

One observation though: 20W50 oil might be good for hot weather but it is too viscous for the winter, especially for a very cold one (global warming my  :moon:  ;) )

 

The valve stem seals: change them, they are deformed and crispy for sure.

Part obsolete from Skoda? I hear that very often from local members. Skoda dealers act as if the UK is a satellite of Jupiter, far away from aftermarket suppliers... Victor Reinz company makes high quality seals. Do Skoda dealers know that? My impression is they don't bother with Skodas older than Fabia. There are tons of parts in Europe and if we can get them half an ocean away...

 

I've now subscribed to this thread as I've found it extremely interesting so far and I'm hoping for a positive outcome.

Hey John. It is interesting indeed. Me and Jxx talked by email too as I often did with many other local or foreign members when asked for details. Feel free to join our debate with any advice you might have. 

Edited 26 December, 2016 by RicardoM