Hi Steve,

Thanks for the advice. I've tried what you described, but there are
now more maladies.

Here's what I did... I removed the airfilter housing and found the
breather pipe. Mine has a large green canister half way along which I
think is not original as it is held in place with worm type jubilee
clips, not the springy ones used elsewhere on the engine. I removed
the pipe from the crankcase as a whole and found I could blow through
it easily, so it wasn't blocked. I then made a long nail by grinding a
point on the end of a steel rod (about 4mm dia). I put this through
the angled hole in the domed cap, and belted the other end until it
pushed into the crankcase a bit further. It came out covered in thick
black tar, so 'mission accomplished' I thought. Put it all back
together and drove the 120 miles or so home from my folks that
afternoon with no problems. It was even going a bit faster, just about
managing 80-85 mph flat out.

Folowing morning I managed to run into the back of a Golf due to being
half asleep :-/ It was only a tap, and I thought nothing of it, but I
noticed this week that it's been running much hotter and the fan seems
to be on all the time. Then I noticed that I must have cracked the
radiator in the crash as there is a small jet of steam emerging from
the grille. I've been topping up the bottle with tap water, but it
wasn't losing much.

On the run to work this morning, the oil light came on so I stopped
and found the dipstick was dry. Luckily I carry oil, so topped it up
and proceeded, but two minutes later the same thing happened. It has
developed a small leak just over the alternator as you suggested, but
that can't account for the amount it's consuming. And it's not burning
it so I'm thinking it's making it's way into the water jacket.

Soooo, my question is, is it likely to be the head gasket, and is it
worth fixing, or is it more likely I've done some damage to the
crankcase and is it time to start looking for a replacement motor?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice folks.

Neil.


"Tunafish" wrote in message ...
You don't have to pull the engine out to sort the breather out. You need a
new rubber hose, a long T shape thing, which attaches to the rocker box and
airfilter to oil separator. At the back of the engine there's a metal dome
that the hose is attached to, the gauze behind this may be blocked, so Use a
long nail to bash some holes in the gauze. (if you take the dome off it's a
bugger to put back on). The head gasket eventually leaks just above the
alternator, it can weep for years without causing trouble, but it's not a
big deal to replace.

Good luck, Polo Coupes are tough little cars and cheap as chips to run - my
old one used to run Notts to Cornwall about once a month occasionally with
the speedo needle against the end stop!

--Steve

The extra green cannister half way along is something I'd like to know
about. Mine once had one but after a service it came back without it, with a
bit of pipe inserted instead joining the two halves of the pipe.

I am aware for a while they put an extra oil seperator in the pipe going to
the Air filter.

Graham W

"NeilS" wrote in message
om...
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the advice. I've tried what you described, but there are
now more maladies.

Here's what I did... I removed the airfilter housing and found the
breather pipe. Mine has a large green canister half way along which I
think is not original as it is held in place with worm type jubilee
clips, not the springy ones used elsewhere on the engine. I removed
the pipe from the crankcase as a whole and found I could blow through
it easily, so it wasn't blocked. I then made a long nail by grinding a
point on the end of a steel rod (about 4mm dia). I put this through
the angled hole in the domed cap, and belted the other end until it
pushed into the crankcase a bit further. It came out covered in thick
black tar, so 'mission accomplished' I thought. Put it all back
together and drove the 120 miles or so home from my folks that
afternoon with no problems. It was even going a bit faster, just about
managing 80-85 mph flat out.

Folowing morning I managed to run into the back of a Golf due to being
half asleep :-/ It was only a tap, and I thought nothing of it, but I
noticed this week that it's been running much hotter and the fan seems
to be on all the time. Then I noticed that I must have cracked the
radiator in the crash as there is a small jet of steam emerging from
the grille. I've been topping up the bottle with tap water, but it
wasn't losing much.

On the run to work this morning, the oil light came on so I stopped
and found the dipstick was dry. Luckily I carry oil, so topped it up
and proceeded, but two minutes later the same thing happened. It has
developed a small leak just over the alternator as you suggested, but
that can't account for the amount it's consuming. And it's not burning
it so I'm thinking it's making it's way into the water jacket.

Soooo, my question is, is it likely to be the head gasket, and is it
worth fixing, or is it more likely I've done some damage to the
crankcase and is it time to start looking for a replacement motor?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice folks.

Neil.


"Tunafish" wrote in message
...
You don't have to pull the engine out to sort the breather out. You need
a
new rubber hose, a long T shape thing, which attaches to the rocker box
and
airfilter to oil separator. At the back of the engine there's a metal
dome
that the hose is attached to, the gauze behind this may be blocked, so
Use a
long nail to bash some holes in the gauze. (if you take the dome off
it's a
bugger to put back on). The head gasket eventually leaks just above the
alternator, it can weep for years without causing trouble, but it's not
a
big deal to replace.

Good luck, Polo Coupes are tough little cars and cheap as chips to run -
my
old one used to run Notts to Cornwall about once a month occasionally
with
the speedo needle against the end stop!

--Steve

The head gasket can leak on the corner for ages without any problems to the
engine (although the alternator can stop working if it gets soaked!). When
the oil starts to mix with the water is when you get problems, you can tell
when this happens because you get a white 'mayo' in the top of the radiator.
So long as the engine doesn't overheat and warp the head you *should* be ok
to just replace the gasket without skimming. The parts are cheap, 10 head
bolts and a head gasket but the labour is expensive (circa £300). You might
want to drop the sump pan off the car if you have it off the road and clean
the oil pickup for the oil pump if the oil is thick. Luckily s/h parts are
very cheap for MKII Polos and you can prob fix it all up for the price of a
service of a new VW :-)

--Steve

PS the weird plastic cannistor is an oil seperator to prevent hot oil vapour
from fouling up the air filter.


"NeilS" wrote in message
om...
Hi Steve,

Thanks for the advice. I've tried what you described, but there are
now more maladies.

Here's what I did... I removed the airfilter housing and found the
breather pipe. Mine has a large green canister half way along which I
think is not original as it is held in place with worm type jubilee
clips, not the springy ones used elsewhere on the engine. I removed
the pipe from the crankcase as a whole and found I could blow through
it easily, so it wasn't blocked. I then made a long nail by grinding a
point on the end of a steel rod (about 4mm dia). I put this through
the angled hole in the domed cap, and belted the other end until it
pushed into the crankcase a bit further. It came out covered in thick
black tar, so 'mission accomplished' I thought. Put it all back
together and drove the 120 miles or so home from my folks that
afternoon with no problems. It was even going a bit faster, just about
managing 80-85 mph flat out.

Folowing morning I managed to run into the back of a Golf due to being
half asleep :-/ It was only a tap, and I thought nothing of it, but I
noticed this week that it's been running much hotter and the fan seems
to be on all the time. Then I noticed that I must have cracked the
radiator in the crash as there is a small jet of steam emerging from
the grille. I've been topping up the bottle with tap water, but it
wasn't losing much.

On the run to work this morning, the oil light came on so I stopped
and found the dipstick was dry. Luckily I carry oil, so topped it up
and proceeded, but two minutes later the same thing happened. It has
developed a small leak just over the alternator as you suggested, but
that can't account for the amount it's consuming. And it's not burning
it so I'm thinking it's making it's way into the water jacket.

Soooo, my question is, is it likely to be the head gasket, and is it
worth fixing, or is it more likely I've done some damage to the
crankcase and is it time to start looking for a replacement motor?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice folks.

Neil.


"Tunafish" wrote in message
...
You don't have to pull the engine out to sort the breather out. You need
a
new rubber hose, a long T shape thing, which attaches to the rocker box
and
airfilter to oil separator. At the back of the engine there's a metal
dome
that the hose is attached to, the gauze behind this may be blocked, so
Use a
long nail to bash some holes in the gauze. (if you take the dome off
it's a
bugger to put back on). The head gasket eventually leaks just above the
alternator, it can weep for years without causing trouble, but it's not
a
big deal to replace.

Good luck, Polo Coupes are tough little cars and cheap as chips to run -
my
old one used to run Notts to Cornwall about once a month occasionally
with
the speedo needle against the end stop!

--Steve