jacissmiling

Im running an FMIC with hardpipes now (and have been for quite a long time), but when I got the car it had the standard SMIC and pipes. So at least if the I/C hadn't been changed since when that happened to the old old turbo, the old IC is off the car now anyway. Although as above got that in the plan for this coming weekend to have good look at the core and double check there is nothing in any of the pipes. Dont see how it could be from my old turbo though, as the inlet side looked spot on - was just the exhaust side that disintegrated lol - even if it had been an errant bit of something that somehow sneaked through the air filter and turbo, it is lots of small bits spread across the cylinders rather than just one errant 'bit' that has made a mess of one cylinder. Cheers for the link to the engine though...but regrettably Ive no chance of being back on the road this side of Christmas :( No more overtime = very little money for the car :( Will keep an eye out though and if the engine is still there come the new year its only 60 miles away from me

Cheers Sepulchrave - knew it would be a simple reason lol...just a bit gutted lol :( Will get pricing everything up over the next few days - may even stick a few photos up this coming weekend when I get the pistons out the bores (weather permitting) - then set about turning the old engine into paper weights and furniture lol - as well as keeping good bits for spares lol. Cheers for all the help!

http://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-368221/sealey-vs162.html?gclid=CPiSz-iDlckCFSgFwwodqTsG7Q Something like this be roughly what is required? Or the above plus a quick run over with a finer ball hone?

Daft question...but why does the block need to be out to be able to hone it? Would it be possible to do it with the engine in the car? By just blocking off all coolant / oil passages and then having a glamorous assistant pour a steady stream of oil down the bore to keep things cool?

:'( Was hoping to avoid a new engine as it means Il need to rent an engine crane :( Do have a nice new shiny GT1756 hybrid that I put on the engine right enough, only had about 30 odd minutes run time so far...glad nothing came out the engine to kill it!!! Remember reading a piece a while back saying the SAE (society of automotive engineers) have found no benefit to honing a used bore when putting in new rings...which makes me wonder if i could get away without honing the bores...but I suspect with my luck id have engine that drank oil lol :s Seen ball hones that can be used for breaking the glaze too, don't suppose you've got any experience of them? Seen that they can be used just by running up and down the block attached to a hand drill...but never seen or used one myself :( ...If only id have bought an Alpha...i would have been expecting crazy **** like this lol :s

Interesting...(if that's the word) development this weekend...checked the big ends and they look as near as dammit new, so was pleasantly surprised on that front... ...lifted the head this afternoon and...well...its not good lol. Appears that shrapnel has embedded its self in each of the pistons and in the head :S Not from my turbo (which had its exhaust side only fail) - so presumably from the cars previous previous turbo... :S Minor alarm bells started ringing when I was replacing the turbo and found a few different sizes of nuts on the exhaust studs...so im guessing when the previous turbo was replaced on the cheap / quick - no one lifted the head to check the state of things... I'm now presuming that when I was driving a bit of shrapnel decided to leave the engine, damaged a valve and most definitely destroyed my old turbo :( Absolutely amazing to think that even with a home made map the car made 175 horses on a dyno and drove in that state of tune for approx. 15k miles... Question is...what do you think gents? Ive not taken the pistons out yet (next weekend as I was running out of daylight lifting the head :( ), so will have a look at the bores when I do - but if they look ok, then new head (or skim old one), new pistons and rings then jobs a good un? Will also check all the intercooler pipework and intercooler its self...find it hard to believe the engine could have ran in that state for so long...but seeing as its lots of small bits all spread across each cylinder im presuming whatever it was, was broken before it got into the engine - hence my thinking it may have been a previously burst inlet side of a turbo....

Had a few things on this weekend so didn't have any time to get going on the car :( The EGR is mapped out and blanked off - but that's a fair point - yet another reason to get rid of the EGR in my opinion lol. That's a good shout about a broken piston ring - if that left the engine could certainly have killed the exhaust side of the turbo...will post back my findings at the back side of next weekend once Ive dropped the sump and lifted the head - weather and time permitting lol. Cheers for the help guys, much appreciated!

Bit of an update... ...ended up not having time to drop the sump today (damn sunset just after 4 lol :s) - but instead did a compression test. On cylinders 1, 3 and 4 had 23 bar - but on cylinder 2 only had 12 :s Checked the cam timing on VCDS and it was floating around 0 at idle and 0 when held at a few different rpm's. Got the feeling Il have to take the head off...and drop the sump and see what state things are in. Will also have to start saving for many many stretch bolts :s Has anyone ever heard of a turbo going - at the same time as something in the head (valve / head gasket) and a big end? Had a 9 year old 2 stroke Italian motorbike in years past (Cagiva Planet) and amazingly it was actually more reliable than the damn Fabia :s - May have the most temperamental Fabia that ever rolled out the factory lol...

Turbo only had the exhaust side wheel 'explode' lol. The inlet side wheel seemed more or less fine, doesn't appear that the oil seals in the turbo let go. Would that still cause a drop in oil pressure with the turbo no longer spinning? But cheers for the above, will try have a look at the big ends on Friday afternoon! Couple photos of the old turbo... ...another KKK turbo bites the dust lol.

Hi Guys, Looking for a bit of help! A couple weeks back the cars turbo blew. I was lucky (if that's the word) in that the turbine wheel exploded, but the compressor wheel on the inlet was in near perfect condition. After the turbo had blown the engine was still running, but had a bit of a strange knocking noise coming from it that wasn't there before. Couldn't really pin down what the noise was...but rightly or wrongly decided to myself that it was the combination of worn cam and followers and blown turbo making the noise more obvious. Anyway - car now has a new turbo on, new cam, new followers and new timing belt too. Got its first start last night and it still has a bad knocking noise. https://youtu.be/1S2VCrPaFio Any one here have any ideas? Starting to wonder if its the big end...any opinions anyone? Also, does anyone here know if it is possible to get to the big end bearing caps with the sump off - but engine still in the car? Was wondering if I can get away with removing the head and sump - then doing the big end bearings. Was also wondering if it is possible to take off the main crank bearing caps and have a look at the condition of them, again with the engine and gearbox still in the car? Would rather not do the main crank bearings as that involves dropping the gearbox + subframe etc etc, but appreciate doing the rod bearings and not the main bearings may be cutting corners somewhat... Have dropped the subframe before when I did the clutch and while it was doable - it was a lot of ballache and certainly not something im in any rush to do again! Any help greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jac

Not had a look lately, but as far as I remember I don't think there is quite enough meat on the arm for the tie rod to get another hole closer to the centre. Been having a look at other hub carriers, but haven't seen anything that looks like a winner yet...will keep hunting amongst the other VAG cars...would be easier if they had design or fabrication drawings for them I could find...then all the measurements would be done and easy to see whats what haha! I think a fairly simple bit of metal work...nothing as clever looking as the super steer...could do the job. So long as the attachment stays still relevant to the hub carrier (i.e. cannot rotate with reference to the hub carrier) (hence the brake calliper bolt on the above device) could work. Will keep looking around...maybe even try talk my way into a workshop for an afternoon one day to see what can be done haha!

Hi Guys, Have seen on the forum that for the likes of the Octavia's, it is possible to install an R32 steering rack in order to quicken up the steering. But in the case of a Fabia, no other rack is a 'bolt on' way to quicken the steering. http://blog.perrinperformance.com/50/ Just came across the above link to a device that quickens the steering by moving the track rod connection point on the hub, a little closer to the centre / pivot point of the hub, and hence quickens the steering (and presumably makes the steering a little heavier and allows for more lock (although might end up causing rubbing I guess)). Any of you guys came across anything similar or done anything similar before? ...cant imagine it to be too hard of a device to make...

Ah that's good! Have never played about too much with microcontrollers or C, didn't know that functionality could come already in place! Everything I done before was either old school analogue, quasi modern analogue IC's or via an atmega chip coded on an arduino lol (spot the idiot who codes like a monkey lol) :p As I say excited to see this complete as every morning I drive to work whilst cursing the cost of having a diesel rather than petrol hot hatch lol.

With previous things Ive built for the bike (shift lights, rev counter and quick shifter) Ive had pretty good success using discrete voltage regulators. They are fairly cheap and can take a fairly large input voltage range and output a reasonably clean 5V. Shunt capacitors and or a series inductor can help with noise rejection on the 5V supply rail too - but in all but the rev counter circuit, I never had any real trouble with 5V rail noise. I havnt even had to bother with a heatsink with them either as the current draw for the control circuitry is way down in the couple of mA region. Not sure what the closing / holding current of the relays is, but if 5V isn't enough then as you had suggested before, using mosfets or similar to switch the v+ of the car, but with the control circuitry supplied by the 5V rail, might be an option. Only way Id guess to monitor the battery voltage would be to have again another fixed voltage source (quite a few discrete components or IC's available for such) and an op-amp comparator circuit. i.e. comparing supply voltage (the terminal 30 connection straight onto the circuit board would be ok id guess) as well as that fixed voltage generated from the fixed voltage source. As you say though, I guess the battery voltage isn't the best solution for monitoring load. Getting the microcontroller to monitor the DFM duty cycle would defo be good! Il be keeping an eye on this thread excited for when Wino and yourself have it all sorted!

Glad to hear it looks normal! Was just surprised as to how rough the tips looked...but that said...after 100k of having diesel sprayed onto them at hundreds of bar, I suppose they do take a bit of a beating! But good point Wino, I hadn't quite thought it through! New plugs in and cold starts are now much better with no unburnt diesel coming out the pipe immediately after a start either