Recently picked up a Skaddy, always fancied something from the VAG group and prefer older, more accessible cars. A pickup was perfect as i'm a gardener. Been lurking this site for a while since i've had her so thought i'd say hello, post a few pictures and ask a few questions.

 

Car Details:

140k miles and recently had new exhaust and new front wings a couple years ago, the worst rust is in the bed at the back, has a less than perfect custom blue paint job. When I picked it up the previous owner mentioned that it heats up on motorways and thought nothing of it, but on the drive back it was getting hot, sitting just under the red marks - on closer inspection it was the thermostat, it had been replaced in 2016 (got a lot of paperwork) but the thermostat housing had started to disintegrate, so i've put a whole new unit in, seems to be fine now - although can't test drive.

 

The main running complaint now is a sucking sound coming from behind the throttle body, which seems to cause a delay between pressing on the pedal and the engine revving, suggesting vacuum leak.

 

I took the throttle body off to clean it and further inspect the manifold underneath and couldn't see anything obvious, then upon reinstalling the throttle body i'd accidentally set the torque wrench to 10ft-lbs instead of 10nm and stripped the thread from the nut in the manifold. My line of thought is to re-tap the ruined m6 1mm thread to the rarer m7 and get a new bolt. This wasn't the source of the sucking sound as it was happening before the thread was stripped, just a nice extra little job.

 

So my main questions are:

 

- What could be causing the sucking sound? a split manifold?

- The crankcase breather hose is slightly split and oily, is this something to deal with ASAP? I know it's not causing the sucking sound. 

- Any other suggestions on fixing the threaded nut in the manifold?

 

Thanks, any help is much appreciated and this forum is great.

 

Day I picked her up

Cleaned up a bit, Skoda caps on, truckman off with tourneau cover, minus the horses & pink butterflies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took off the inlet manifold today to try and inspect the sucking sound, think i may have found the problem, seems the manifold is coming apart around the middle cast line, may try to epoxy it, or replace if i can find one.