Spare engine with no compression

VW cat · Post by **VW cat** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:09 am

My son's A1 engine in his Suzuki finally died. A friend gave me an A2 engine a couple of years ago and claimed it started and ran very well in his rusted out Jetta. Not sure how long it was sitting on a pallet before I got it. I put the A1 injectors in it and duraterms, after a couple of squirts of oil in each hole. Turning the engine over with a wrench after a timing belt change, I realized it had almost no compression on each cylinder. At this point I was kicking myself for not checking this sooner, I now had several hours in it, prepping it for the install, including an oil pan and injection pump change.

We decided to put it in anyway, it was either that or bore the old engine($). My son left the radiator, alternator and power steering off, so about 3 hours later we were ready. I had already primed the injection pump with a speed wrench when the timing belt was off, so I had fuel right up to the injectors.

We got one cylinder trying to fire, then 2. The battery, battery charger, and the glow plugs were taking a beating. Finally it started and a few seconds later purred like a kitten. We shut it off after 5 seconds to complete the install. It's run great ever since, starting almost instantly one morning at 32 deg F.

I can only guess that these engines, probably most, do suffer from sitting long periods of time. Phil

82vdub · Post by **82vdub** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:10 am

I think any engine can suffer from sitting. Depending on how long and how much flash rust develops on cylinder walls and if the rings stick, they all can suffer. The diesel is probably more of a problem of this than a gas engine, because the diesel needs the compression to fire the engine, where the gas has the plug to fire the engine.

tylernt · Post by **tylernt** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:47 am

Yep, I resurrected a lawn mower that had been sitting for a while. Rings were stuck in the piston grooves and it took a a few heat cycles to free them up and then it ran fine. Sounds like your rings freed up a lot easier (no doubt due to the much higher peak cylinder pressure in a diesel compared to a low compression mower!!).