The Notorious 1.4 CAVD twin charge... a story

[vorleys1982]

Cracking effort mate - a well deserved pat on the back. I am pretty reasonable with mechanical knowledge and ability but would not have attempted a task this big. Glad to hear its running well which is a testament to your hard work and dedication.

Congrats.

Thanks! Its not the first cylinder head I've done and I have to admit that I was nervous, this engine is far more complex than anything I've done before. But once I got into it, its obvious that it still relies on the same principals as any 4 stroke engine and treat it as several small jobs rather than one massive one and it is fairly straight forward.

Manuals and you tube are your friend. My default go to has always been the Haynes repair manuals (they come in pdf as well) but they never made one for this engine series. probably because it was only made for a short period of time, or because even Haynes said 'I'm not touching that.' I also found a YouTube video of a guy from eastern Europe doing a timing chain change on this engine, it is the ONLY video I could find. The translate tool on YouTube made for interesting dialogue but watching the video did help even if I couldn't really understand him.

Four Rings Auto in Perth on FB/YouTube were a good source of info as well.

Thanks again for the encouragement!

[The_Hawk]

That is an insane amount of work! Hats off to you, that's awesome... especially if you're planning on moving it on anyway, it shows a real commitment and just underlying pride in what you're doing.

[vorleys1982]

That is an insane amount of work! Hats off to you, that's awesome... especially if you're planning on moving it on anyway, it shows a real commitment and just underlying pride in what you're doing.

Thank you very much. I have to confess to feeling very proud of the work now that its back up and running. I promise to not get to big headed...

[Benji2391]

Thank you very much. I have to confess to feeling very proud of the work now that its back up and running. I promise to not get to big headed...

Mate!! Good work on the Twincharged engine rebuild. I’ve just bought the same car and unfortunately I did my research on the car after I bought it so no going back on the purchase now. Can I please have your contact details if in need of advice if/when mine fails on me. I would love to find a way somehow to keep the car running in good order but I don’t like what the near future seems to hold for me in this respect. My number is 0435744749, would love to have a chat.

Ben

[Martin]

Great read, I know this thread is old, I came across it due to doing some research as I have to do a water pump and belts on one tomorrow at work

The VW hose clamps are a massive pain in the arse to remove without the special VW tool which is too expensive and unnecessary.

eBay sells the (cheap) tool needed to work with these hose clamps
You can also use angled pliers
These clamps are used on a all euro cars and are not a failure item
These clamps normally have a tag that holds them in the open position making re-installation very quick and easy

The enitre EA111 engine range is like the hand grenade series - more problems than you can poke a stick at

The CAVD needs to be driven on 98 octane petrol

Direct injection engines put more soot into the oil than inlet injection
The soot in the oil wears the chain links leading to stretch
This has caused manufacturers and consumers grief world wide: BMW, Mercedes, VAG and even Toyota
Running the oil for 15k (especially on the daily commute) does you no favours
Doing an interum oil/filter change between services (6 month) can be very effective at minimizing this risk
The EA211 engines switched to a timing belt and are wonderful (but are still plauged with water pump failures, as are most VAG TSI engines and BMW and Mercedes)