Thank you my friend, we had a great Christmas, I hope you did too. Good to hear that you managed to get some FL2 work done - ! wish you a merry Disc-mas :D. I almost spent Christmas Day afternoon helping my brother-in-law remove the gearbox from his mk2 Golf GTi but we thought better of it in...

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas. I had a few days away with family and recharged my batteries. I have fitted the new crankshaft oil seal and I'm really hoping for a better outcome this time. Thanks Andy. I did apply some silicone sealer when fitting the new oil seal. 👍 I made the...

I was asking a mechanic friend-of-a-friend about fitting crankshaft seals and he said that he uses grease on the inner face and liquid gasket sealant on the outer. He has been 30 years in the trade and says he's never had a seal leak doing it that way. I've read a lot about it and watched a few...

That's sage advice mate, thank you... Unfortunately I totally disregarded it and pulled the engine back out again today :eek: :D I'm not in a hurry to get it back in again, I just needed to get it out and confirm the oil was coming from the crankshaft seal; it looks like it was. I can't see...

Well today was the day. I did some final checks to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, checked the fluid levels again, put some ATF in the box and went for it. It sounded like it was really straining to turn the engine over but after just a few seconds she fired into life and...

Hi All, I have just put a new engine in my FL2 and while it was out I took the opportunity to get the TC rebuilt to hopefully get rid of the dreaded 1600RPM juddering problem. The rebuilt TC is back in and I've drained the oil from the box to replace it. I've read about the standard procedure...

I've had a bit of a hectic week so work on the car has been sporadic but I have made some progress. When I put the engine in I tightened up the engine/transmission bolts not realising that the flex plate and torque converter would be in quite firm contact. I had thought that I could still...

Hi Steve, It doesn't have the flapless manifold but I do intend to remove the swirl flaps, however that's a job for another day. Yes, I made sure to do the oil filter before the engine went in. I did the fuel filter too but ended up removing it again (along with the housing) to get the AC pipes...

👍 Definitely feels like I'm making some progress now. I'd like to have it running by the end of the week but there's a lot going on so I don't know if I'll find the time. I don't think it'll be a 5 minute job but it should be pretty straightforward. It just those darned awkward little clips...

Great news... and some not so great news! :eek: I found myself at a fairly loose end this morning so I decided to get the engine in the car. It was a bit of a faff because I had left my original AC compressor in the car so that I wouldn't have to get the system re-gassed. It turns out that it...

I had the engine on the crane with the sump plug out for a few days and used the levelling bar on the crane to tip the engine slightly. With how cold it has been I don't expect to have got out as much as if I'd drained it when warm but I've only got around 5 litres out, it feels like there's...

Sorry guys, I've been away from the car and the computer for a few days. The good news is that I finally heard back from the seller of my new engine. I wanted to know the registration number of the donor car so that I could check the MOT history and verify the mileage. He supplied the...

it was bought through eBay so there's full traceability and they are usually pretty good at handling disputes. I've already sent one engine back because I found out the mileage was way higher than the seller claimed, I'll be kicking myself very hard if I find I've been bitten a second time.

Thanks for that idea. I just did a web chat with DVLA and they said they could only find vehicle details based on a registration number., they couldn't look the information up from an engine number 🙁. Back to the drawing board.

Does anyone know if it's possible to look up the registration number of a the car from an engine number? I bought a used engine from a LR scrapper who seemed genuine enough on the face of it. The engine arrived and looked ok but I wanted to know more about it and check the mileage via the MOT...

I did the timing belt yesterday and it looked pretty decent (it was a Gates belt), the water pump was very clean too and the crankshaft pulley bolt came out comparatively easily with just an 18" breaker bar. From this I am thinking that the belt and. pump had been changed and the mechanic didn't...

Great advice, thank you. I decided to man up and tackle it. I didn't have any left handed drills so I just set about drilling it out with progressively larger bits until I got to 5.5mm and I was only 1mm or so away from the threads. I got out my cheap-o set of extractors and prepared to do...

Yeah, it’s sheared pretty much flush with the crankshaft flange. I’ve got a set of basic bolt extractors but I doubt they will be up to the job. I had to use my breaker bar to get the others out. I’m tempted to start drilling it out and see if I can get enough material out of it to loosen its...

Finally, my new engine arrived yesterday and it looks ok. I got the engine and the car into the workshop and began to look it over. My first impressions are that it appears to be well maintained, the accessory belt looks brand new so I'm wondering if the timing belt has been changed recently...

I've been trying to get hold of the guy selling the engine all week but to no avail so I was starting to worry that I was on another wild goose chase. Then this morning he called me to say he'd been ill all week and hadn't been at work. Anyway, he's pulling the engine out today and and it should...