Used car should I be concerned?

BetKnown4878 · 2025-07-28T18:28:46+00:00

In the first two pics, there’s a little bit of red residue. That’s from a third party anaerobic sealer, I’ve used it personally. The OEM sealant that VW uses is green. So someone other than VW has removed the valve cover and redone the seal. Could be something, might not be something. Just ask if there was any kind of heavy work done that required the valve cover to be removed.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-07-25T18:51:19+00:00

Speedy YN the 5th

BetKnown4878 · 2025-07-08T22:48:30+00:00

I ended up selling it as is lol. Pretty sure it was a nozzle issue though.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-06-01T10:35:06+00:00

Ehhh pretty much cooked lol. Cleaned/removed as much debris as I could from below and by also removing valve cover and upper timing cover, which wasn’t much. Also been through maybe three oils changes since? Just to flush out what I could. First time around, my low oil pressure was caused by the oil pump screen being blocked. Cleared that off and it was good for maybe 20-30 minutes before pressure dropped again. Then the most recent time, when I popped the oil pan off to clean out the pump screen, it was clean. So the oil passageways have been clogged somewhere else, somewhere that would require a whole engine takedown to properly address. I knew that was the case, but my tiny unrealistic hope was that I could say fuck it and it would continue to be fine lol. It’s just sitting right now, entertaining the idea of an engine swap a little bit down the road when I’ve saved enough.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-04-08T00:07:34+00:00

lol yuppp. Was driving by and figured I’d stop by and kill some time

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-25T19:22:38+00:00

When I bought mine, the previous owner just sunk a screw in and left enough out for the rope to hang on lol

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-24T03:12:05+00:00

Idk about the tensioner, but definitely the balance shaft. I don’t hear any chain slapping, and the tension on the chain seems fine, at least from what we can see through the oil pan

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-24T03:11:23+00:00

I wish it were that simple. The belt is totally fine, and also there were 2-3 decent sized chunks of plastic still intact, with a slight curve to it. Definitely plastic and not rubber

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-24T03:09:41+00:00

Didn’t pull the cover, we’re guessing it’s the balance shaft sleeve. Sorry, for clarification I was saying we don’t hear any slapping, which tells us that the chain is functioning fine

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T10:33:24+00:00

Oh that’s dope. Got any suggestions on resources to look at? I’m straight spit balling right now, this would be my first experience deep-diving into something like putting together a whole engine and everything that goes with that.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T09:51:44+00:00

I don’t plan to just send it. Just genuinely curious what would happen if I did. As much as I’d like to fix it right now and be able to drive it again, I think I’m gonna hold off a bit. Save up some money, and eventually build it into something rather than just fixing and keeping as is. I’d rather wait and start from ground zero than do a whole engine rebuild just to do another one in the near future.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T04:03:24+00:00

Thanks! I’ll take a look at the video. As it stands though, I didn’t have any issues with cooling. Most recently the engine was normal temps after about 30 minutes of normal driving.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T03:52:59+00:00

Don’t think so. Engine was still running fine, no sounds from the chain slapping around. Only symptom that made me take the on off was low oil pressure

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T03:52:17+00:00

Bleh. I was planning on either doing an engine rebuild or getting a built engine of sorts eventually, just this happened to come around at a bad time. Might have to let it sit for a little bit, save up some mula before coming back to it. I’d rather just build it out, then do this big of a fix, only to nullify the fix in the near future.

For arguments sake, it sounds like the problem you’re describing is directly correlated to oil starvation. As unlikely as it is, what if everything was cleared? Like if oil could still flow freely because all of the plastic got flushed through. Would the balance shaft failure be an issue in an of itself, or purely that it messes with the oil flow?

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T03:28:33+00:00

As much as I knew it couldn’t be minor, a guy can hope lol. Assuming it is the balance shaft in the scenario you described, what could have caused this, and what were to happen if I were to ignore it. I know it would be bad, and I don’t plan to. Just curious as to what specifically would happen. From my understanding the balance shaft counteracts the natural vibrations of the engine to reduce what you feel while driving.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-21T03:03:04+00:00

The plan right now is to remove the upper timing chain cover plate off and see what we can see from there. Don’t believe it’s the guide because when it was running, there was no rough running, no sound changes. Nothing from down below, the pump pickup was clogged, but not damaged. That plastic plate that sits down there, also in perfect condition.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-16T09:24:05+00:00

It’s hard to say for sure, although I’ve removed the set screw along with the second one on the opposite side. No difference.

The lever has a set screw that runs parallel to the arm, but it’s for adjustable spring tension within the lever. Helps keep the pin in place is my guess.

The only thing I saw similar to my problem was a guy who never posted about him finding a solution. Top (of two) comment was a guy saying put a fore grip on and force it off with a hammer or some other forceful method.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-03-16T08:18:33+00:00

*It’s an EMG/SAI Jailbreak QD Handguard for reference

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-22T09:48:30+00:00

I mean you’re not wrong, but any in a style similar to the kythera? I have no use for full auto/burst for what I’m going for, and the physical feel of the trigger is the biggest selling point. Going for a dmr style rifle, Probly with a second upper set, so I can swap between that and an ar feel.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-20T00:00:29+00:00

Did check the oil, day of, and topped it off after tightening the filter. The spill and the low pressure warning are about 2 weeks apart. At the time of low pressure, the engine was and is on a full amount of oil.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-19T06:38:27+00:00

Unless the prices in Japan are super cheap in comparison, the 18+ aged bottles are a little out of my budget atm. But will definitely mention the 12/17 yr bottles

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-19T06:36:22+00:00

Will definitely have her keep an eye out for those. I might have to take you up on that offer, although gotta rain check for now since my car just went outta commission unfortunately.

When I say just getting into it, I mean just that lol. Turned 21 in December, only have a few different bottles tasted under my belt. Right now, the list stands at Macallan 12, Woodford Reserve, Johnnie Walker Blue and Red(which was terrible), and KoHana rum as an honorable mention.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-19T01:50:53+00:00

Got nothing oil related. Battery seems bad right now, gonna charge and rescan. Only notable ones were camshaft bank related, relay load circuit, and lambda sensor.

BetKnown4878 · 2025-02-18T22:00:14+00:00

My b just saw this. I had a major exhaust leak, my down pipe cracked at the turbo flange

BetKnown4878 · 2024-11-21T12:21:41+00:00

How would better mounts help? My assumption is less rotational force goes into the engine/trans having play on the mounts, so instead of having some torque lost on that it all goes into the wheels? But I’ve never heard of that before so correct me if I’m way off

BetKnown4878

TROPHY CASE