Dmitry S.

Well, today was the faithful day that I would try to fire my brand new 924 engine. Got the motor in, cranked it, but the fuel pump doesn't come on. Ran a wire from the positive end of the battery to the pump, still doesn't work. Swapped pumps, still doesn't work. Now I run a negative lead. Pump works!

Car is primed, has oil pressure, and I start cranking. Sputters a few times, but doesn't idle. I adjust the mixture, and the car idles for about 2 seconds. I try to fire it again, but my VW battery is now wasted and not turning over the starter fast enough.

I go to get a bigger battery, come back and find a HUGE *** PUDDLE OF OIL under the car. I look underneath, and it's not the filter or the drain plug. It's coming from between the bell housing and oil pan. CRAP! Undo the little viewing window in the bellhousing, and there's 10W-30 all over my 0-mile clutch. Needless to say, I'm very angry.

Tomorrow I'm pulling the transmission to change tha main seal and to clean up the clutch. Now, what cleans oil from clutch disk?

Serge944

Hopefully itll turn out ok! Im anxious to see (and drive) the car all finished as well.

BruceWard

You can use acetone on the flywheel and pressure plate. Lowes and Home Depot should sell pure acetone in metal cans. Hopefully others will know if it can be used on the clutch disk or not.

Mike S

When I picked my clutch/flywheel up from the machine shop the guy was using brake cleaner to get any oily residue off of it. I can't see why that wouldn't work for you as well.

KuHL 951

Sorry to hear of your problems. If you can get the clutch disc out fast enough you might be able to get a good deal of the oil off with brake cleaner; it's still a gamble. Look what antifreeze does to them. On a new disc there is zero glazing and oil can soak in much faster. An trapped oil will keep coming to the surface when the clutch gets hot. I know that trying to salvage brake pads soaked in brake fluid or gear oil is nearly impossible. I would also be very concerned why a rear main blew on a "new" motor. Was the seal also new? If it was you were building up some serious crankcase pressure. I hope you get a more optimistic answer from someone that's been through this problem before.
Good Luck and I hope it turns out well.

Dmitry S.

Ouch, I hope i can at least partially salvage the clutch. This does not make me happy. The car backfired once or twice, and since the 924 doesn't come with a PCV valve, it goes straight into the block. Maybe that blew the seal out. Maybe if i soak the whole disk in a tub of brakeclean?

KuHL 951

If you soak it too long it could swell up so be careful. The acetone mentioned above is a good residue-free solvent and is cheap by the gallon at Home Depot. Just try to get as much as you can off the disc; I hope it works out, those things aren't cheap. Leave your oil fill cap off this time until you get the backfire issue taken care of, that should help the internal pressure in case it backfires again.

Steve

Mongo

what about a little simple green and water? I don't think that would hurt the clutch. In fact it should degrease it fairly.

Andy

xsboost90

brake cleaner man, brake cleaner.

BruceWard

I have been rethinking my earlier post. Acetone will take care of cleaning up the metal. But perhaps it would be better to replace the clutch disk. You will never know when the oil or any product used to clean it will have its effect. With the high about of labor to change a clutch I would not take the chace.

I would get then enging running, then clean all the oil out of the bell housing, clean all the metal parts and then replace the clutch disk.

theedge

Im kinda tempted to say replace... Oil + Brake pads = Baaaad.

Dmitry S.

Hmm. I'm not too worried about labor to replace the clutch disk, the engine will come out in 3-4 weeks anyways to get the car painted. I just put the engine in now to see whether it would run before I invested a large sum of cash into the car on paint. I was hoping I wouldn't need to plop down another $180 or so for a clutch disk, but it looks like I might have to. I have these cars down pretty well, and I can change the clutch in about 3 hours or so, so it's no hassle. I'll clean this one best I can and put it back in, and if it doesn't work in the 3-4 weeks that I drive it before it goes to paint, then I'll go for a new disk.

Pitty.

I do have 2 spare used clutches...but I'm hesitant to put those in.

Mongo

Dmitry you have a lot of time to put engines in and out of your car like I change the CD's on my XBOX Perhaps when I need a motor rebuild, I'm having you come down here to help me to a drop-in and out

Andy

KuHL 951

Dmitry,
Good call on replacing it, I really don't think it will clean up enough for 100% service if it blew that much oil on it. Put in a used one if you are pulling the motor again in 3 weeks. Man, you love to wrench don't you?

Dmitry S.

Heh, I've done it a couple times already and I got it down to a quick procedure.

I think I can still save the clutch. If the car was run with oil on it, then I think it would be worse, because the oil would burn/smear into the friction material. Since it just soaked it, I think I might still be OK.

I'll update you all in a few days.