Started up the car today and there was a very loud banging noise coming from left hand of engine. Turned the car off straight away...

Ive took exhausts off and had a wee look inside the exhaust ports nothing seems loose etc. Checked the valves and theyre all fine none loose.... dont really want to start it up again encase its something very serious.

Any ideas?

Tried rotating by hand and will rotate so far then refuse to go forward or backwards now... looks like somethings came loose in cylinder???

Guhh sh..e! Totally loosing the will to live with this thing!

i had that in mine when i first started it.
turned out it was a washer from the brand new carb hadnt been fitted, much have been floating loose.
anyway it got sucked down and mangled itself into my new piston.

i now have that knackered piston on my desk to remind me not to trust new suff.
take your heads off and have a peak.
but do it with a smile...

Blahhhh I'll read up how to do it next week, really not in the mood!  Just when it was about to phone to arrange a rolling road setup... Is it a difficult job? IE engine out etc as ive never done anything that big of a job before.


Only thing I can think of is if ive accidentally knocked in a washer when re-assembling the carbs 

Have you had the plugs out I have seen the centres come loose and fail making noise.

Take the belt off and spin the dynamo incase the fan has thrown a piece off.

Not tried the plugs ill give them a check.. fan looks fine as its a type 3 motor its pretty easy to see inside the ducting...

Could have been a plug has self destructed I guess..  Urgh Just everything always happens to me.... Hope I win that grand in your hand off the radio competition tonight!!! 

Take out your plugs and using one of them cheap extender magnets(looks like an old car aerial) have a fish round in each cylinder to see if you find any debri, this may at least point you to which side to strip down or even clear the item causing it to be noisy.

Banging or ****ing loud rattle??
This is the remains of something.............it caused a lot of noise, but not exactly 'banging'.........the 'bits' where embedding into the head.
Drove about a mile like it............took head off, cleaned it all up, refitted head back, no ill effects
Altho, when it 'went off' I thought it was all over!!! 

Banging or ****ing loud rattle??
This is the remains of something.............it caused a lot of noise, but not exactly 'banging'.........the 'bits' where embedding into the head.
Drove about a mile like it............took head off, cleaned it all up, refitted head back, no ill effects
Altho, when it 'went off' I thought it was all over!!! 

How lucky was it that you put it back together all ok 

Shows how bullet proof these engines are, we tend to be a bit precious about them IMHO..............funny thing was the head next door had similar damage from a previous event......
Usual suspect is often the soft metal plug on the side of the stock carb.......amazes me how these bits get past the valves on the way.....I've even heard of carb bits even spat from exhausts.

It was a banging noise, it was a really loud harsh bang every time the engine rotated around full.

Well plugs out and they were all fine, checked the valves again just to be sure nothing was suck between them so looks like its something inside the cylinders...

Couldn't get a small enough magnet tool ma-bobber so had a look with a torch, couldnt see much. Off to phone a vw specialist on monday and see if they can take it on, hopefully there not just a diagnostics specialist! hahaha.

Had a similar thing happen to my old beetle. Stripped it, cleared out the debris and rebuilt it, ran fine for 5 years then sold it.

If the piston & barrel are goosed, are they available as singles for replacement? Been trying to roughly price the worst case and seems like they all come in 4's.

If only 4's might as well upgrade to a 1641

There will be plenty of used barrels n pistons about but there are dished and flat top versions. Got some dished ones here 1600 with barrels.

any reason why the dished are better? I was looking at forged ones from vwhertiage £250 for 4 which seems ok.

Hopefully it wont come to this but im just checking rough prices.