I was afraid of that. How much longer can I drive on these worn rings before there's a noticeable decrease in performance, or before the car is no longer drivable?

I take it that thoroughly cleaning the intercooler at this point is a waste of time, right?

 

Really hard to say because running on really low compression means that cylinder is running really rich and the cylinder walls are being washed down with fuel, when that happens the rings start to wear out even quicker. If you let it go too far there can be even more damage to the cylinder walls and if the rings come apart they will damage the deck of the head. I know this because I had rings come apart on my stock 1.8 and ended up having to bore it out to 83.5mm and get a new head.

 

How likely is it that my engine will fail on me without warning? I'll be going on a 1400 mile road trip in a few weeks so I need to make sure my car can make it. I don't have the time or money to do any major engine repairs before I make the cross country road trip.

How hard is it to swap out the engine on our cars? I've changed out motor mounts and my clutch, and I just replaced the timing belt and water pump, so I have an idea of what I need to do but just want to know if this is something I should consider doing myself. If I need to remove internals I'm thinking I may as well upgrade to a 2.0 liter while I'm at it. Does anyone make a ported head for our engines, would it make sense to have one?

 

Bump.

 

Not very likely to 'fail w/o warning' based on ring wear. You could try some stuff called 'Restore' from the parts store. It has been tested and helps alittle. I have tried it myself in a 318 and found less blow-by and oil burning. Before using it, I was burning about 3/4 qt every 2 tanks. Afterwards it dropped to less than a qt every oil change - 5000 miles. No compression tests to back that up though. Worth a shot 'till you can fix it proper.

http://www.restoreusa.com/

 

People port heads but since you own a small port head 1.8t the easy thing to do is to swap over to a AEB big port head. You can even swap the VVT from your head to the AEB.

 

if your turbos arent smoking you are fine. how many miles?

 

About 128,000 miles right now. Barely noticeable amounts of oil are disappearing every time I check. So that Restore stuff actually works? anyone else know?

Glad to hear about the head swap/mod options. That makes things easier. Will an AEB big port head fit the block if it's been bored to a 2.0?

 

Bump.

 

Bump.