177K miles, poor fuel economy, and rattling at start-up from the top of the engine. To get this engine back in shape it was time to tear in to the intake valves and camshaft chain tensioner to replenish some power, mileage, and piece of mind. While everything was apart, we also changed the spark plugs, and the auxiliary cooling fan due to easier access.
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Diving in to the heart of this 177k Mile '06 VW Gti.
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Carbon equipped intake valves. Not the worst we have seen.
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Valves after some mild chunk removal and walnut blasting.
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Another set of valves post walnut blasting.
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Valve cover and gasket off and the VW factory camshaft lock tool in place. This allowed us to remove the camshaft timing chain without worrying about the valvetrain getting out of time.
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Camshaft timing chain tensioner pinned with the chain removed.
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A close up of the worn tensioner showing cracks forming around the oil (lubrication) port.
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Old worn and leaking tensioner compared to the new unit. Time to put the clattering at start-up to rest.
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All back together and ready top have the engine bay cleaned.
