Golf engine is knackered for sure.

[jezza16v]

The only thing within the engine block which could cause the problem, assuming it is unmodified, is the pistons being well coked up which would increase the compression ratio. If the pistons are coked then the combustion chambers in the cylinder head will be as well. If the compression ratio is up you will need to increase the ron of the fuel (difficult but if you can get Tesco 99 ron give it a try) or alternatively retard the ignition timing from the VW specification. Do you know how to retard the timing? If the cam is not standard this could also cause a problem if the timing and fuel metering are not adjusted to suit it.
Other things which can cause pinking are a weak mixture and the engine running too hot. You may have a faulty metering head or injectors which are not delivering enough fuel at the critical rpm (normally the rpm where maximum torque occurs), you may have an air leak somewhere between the metering head and the cylinder head making the mixture weak on one or all cylinders. There are just so many things or combinations of things it could be. Firstly I would check all the vacuum pipes to make sure there are no leaks and if that does not help try retarding the timing a little at a time by up to 5deg to see if you can get rid of the pinking, if you can get rid of the pinking that way then the problem probably lies somewhere in the fuelling mixture. I'm not suggesting you leave the ignition retarded to overcome the problem permanently, but at least you will know the engine is not knackered, you just need to look at all other the other possible factors..... Lost the will to live yet?  

[golfmk2boy]

Hi,

Thanks for the info!.

The guy who came yesterday retarded the timing enough to almost stop the pinking however it is near being unsafe.  There is little power now, and everything sounds like it is coming out of the back end.  It struggles to overtake a scooter now  :embarassed:

I have had the air pipes checked, however the guy who checked them was retarted, nearly as much as my timing, so I couldnt eliminate the possibility of an air leak somewhere.  Is there any way to check for leaks?

Also, I havent messed with timing myself.  How do you do this, I know it can be quite an in-depth thing to do.

I might consider a rebuild in the future of my engine.  If I had a valver I would deffinately get it rebuilt.

I got quote £850 for engine rebuild, does this sound right?

Again thanks for the help fellas!

[rubjonny]

What engine managment is it, K-Jet or Digi?  If its Digi check my 'how to tune your digifant' post in the MK2 maintenance + info section, if its k-jet look through the bit about setting the static timing, sounds like its not been setup correctly.  If it is a digi try replacing the knock sensor too

[golfmk2boy]

What does coked mean?

[rubjonny]

build up of carbon deposits on the bores/cylinder/head etc. If it gets bad can cause hot spots in the cylinder and pre-ignition.  Not good for a healthy engine

Trickling a bit of water into the inlet can help shift it, as can injector cleaner in the fuel.

[golfmk2boy]

Would it be worth putting some Redex in to clean out the crap from the engine?

[jezza16v]

Could also be low fuel pressure due to  a 'warm up regulator' fault. I'm getting a bit out of my depth here but I've read somewhere that the WUR reduces the fuel pressure during cold starts, it may be that its faulty and not switching the system back to full pressure when warmed up. Could even be low pressure from the fuel pump. Also the underside of the airflow sensor flap can get pretty messed up with gunge which makes the flap heavy and weakens the mixture but I've never seen one so bad yet that might cause this but worth a look. Got to be worth checking everything before you chuck the engine!  ('scuse me if I'm talking b****cks)