HI all.

 

I have a 05 VW Polo GT with 112k, and was driving along the road a few weeks ago and it totally lost power. I freewheeled to the side of the road and the motor would turn over but not start. My mechanic recovered it and thinks something has gone at the bottom end, it's no longer turning over and he can hear it clunking as he tries to turn the engine at the crank. When it stopped there was no noise or smoke. Mechanic said getting an engine would be the cheapest fix.

 

I've been looking around for the hens teeth of a BLT with sensible miles. I was offered one from an English breakers with 65k but on checking the online mot history the car had 88k 3yrs ago!

 

Reading through the forums I see some people have replaced the BLT with an ASZ which seem cheaper and more plentiful. Anyone who has went this route, do the ancilleries and pipework from the BLT fit the ASZ and use the same ECU? If not, what else am I looking at needing for the transplant?

 

Thanks in advance

Stop worrying about the mileage so much, it sounds like your engine has bent the valves due to slipped cam timing and the pistons are stopping against the stuck valves.

 

Changing the cylinder head is a much smaller job than changing the entire engine, I'm unclear why the mechanic would think otherwise.

 

I would get the head rebuilt and refitted with OEM gasket and cam belt kit and PD150 bolts.

I'm not overly worried about the miles as long as it hasn't been to the moon and back. He says the knocking is coming from the bottom end. I had the belt and pump replaced last year but I'm sure that wouldn't rule out it slipping as it happened during acceleration.

 

There's another mechanic in the area who seems to deal with VAG engines and rebuilds so I may ask him to investigate further. He mentioned he had a few ASZ engines but no BLT, that's why I'm wondering if I get him to look at it, how much of my own engine can be transferred on.

14 minutes ago, jtay77 said:

I'm not overly worried about the miles as long as it hasn't been to the moon and back. He says the knocking is coming from the bottom end. I had the belt and pump replaced last year but I'm sure that wouldn't rule out it slipping as it happened during acceleration.

 

There's another mechanic in the area who seems to deal with VAG engines and rebuilds so I may ask him to investigate further. He mentioned he had a few ASZ engines but no BLT, that's why I'm wondering if I get him to look at it, how much of my own engine can be transferred on.

 

The engine wouldn't stop if the bottom end bearings were going, it would continue to run and drive but the knocking would just get louder.

 

Please be clear that I'm not saying that it isn't the bottom end, just that in all the years on this forum bottom end failures have been almost non-existent on all but the most heavily modified engines with giant turbos.

Thanks for your help. I'll maybe pass it to someone else then who'd be more interested in doing a bit of investigation. It's a good enough car with a full history and totally standard, so this was very unexpected. When you see cars with over 200k still going strong this one is barely run in.

I was chatting to a mechanic at the VAG specialist and he thinks the crankshaft sensor would be an issue between the 2 engines. He asked if the turbo would have gone and I did a search and found this thread

I actually thought I had written this as it describes what happened to a T. I'm now wondering if a bit of the turbo has blocked a valve while the mechanic was trying to start it which could be the knocking noise he is hearing. I'll ask him to pull the turbo off and if it's lunched itself, get him to pull the head off. I'll keep my fingers crossed that there's no or very minor damage to anything as this knocking only happened after the car wasn't running. 

Thanks for the help and I'll update if I get any more info. It may help someone in the future.

46 minutes ago, jtay77 said:

I was chatting to a mechanic at the VAG specialist and he thinks the crankshaft sensor would be an issue between the 2 engines. He asked if the turbo would have gone and I did a search and found this thread

I actually thought I had written this as it describes what happened to a T. I'm now wondering if a bit of the turbo has blocked a valve while the mechanic was trying to start it which could be the knocking noise he is hearing. I'll ask him to pull the turbo off and if it's lunched itself, get him to pull the head off. I'll keep my fingers crossed that there's no or very minor damage to anything as this knocking only happened after the car wasn't running. 

Thanks for the help and I'll update if I get any more info. It may help someone in the future.

 

When my turbo went there was no cloud of smoke, slight pop and everything died. Engine management light came on and would not restart. Like the article above, I coasted in to the side of the road.

 

The AA guy came out and didn't think it was the turbo either as there was no smoke signs of oil etc. When I got it to the garage, it turned out the the turbo had blown and instead of dumping the oil towards the exhaust it dumped it all into the intercooler and shredded the 1st 90 degree bend from the turbo.... like shrapnel  In fact, even after the new turbo was put on, there was still a boost leak and I only found the last few small holes through the metal pipe beyond the bend when converting to the FMIC. So if it sounds similar to that, pop off the pipework of the SMIC to see if it's been turned into an oil can!

Edited 16 July, 20187 yr by toonartist
typo

Just an update if helpful to anyone.

 

Turned out the turbo had lunched itself and the engine got oil in the cylinders and beyond. Turbo has been refurbished and pipework cleaned out and she is up and running again.

 

Only issue is the turbo cutting out at higher revs and going into limp mode. Searching the forums, it seems likely to be the MAP sensor as the cut out happens at the same point (ie 3.5k in third, 3.2k in 4th, 2.9k in 5th and 2.5k in 6th.) Once I switch off and on again it resets and works fine with the occasional check engine light which resets itself after a few miles. The MAP sensor may have been oiled up so I'll check with the mechanic if it was cleaned or replaced.