M M's 1989 VW Golf Mk2

[M M]

This Mk2 was my first car and I've owned it for close to 5 years now. Bought it as a standard 1.8L 8v Digifant Mk2 that hadn't been messed with, so the perfect base. And then I messed with it. All work on this car was done by me with the help of a couple of good friends.

 

Link to discussion: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48069-m-ms-1989-vw-golf-mk2/

 

How I got it:

 

 

Then I did many things, so I will just post photos. Sorry but I can't be bothered typing it all.

 

 

More to come later/tomorrow (the best bits are yet to come).

[M M]

The wheels on there are widended Mk3 Golf steelies which I polished the lips on and clear coated them. Eventually it started to chip though and rust spots started forming. Those wheels are gone now.

 

At this point I did a motor swap (this was about a 15 months ago). I started out wanting to just do a 2L block swap, but, as I always tend to do, I, got carried away, went large and did a 2L crossflow with bike carbs. This involved a mk4 8v cylinder head on a mk3 2E block plus a bunch of other stuff. I also cleaned up the bay, hid most of the wiring, used an e36 radiator with built in bottle, moved battery to the trunk and painted the bay black.

 

Full specs:

A 2E 2L block
AKL mk4 8v crossflow cylinder head
Cylinder head polished on intake ports and port matched and polished on exhaust ports (all by myself)
276 Techtonics tuning camshaft (that I was using in my old engine)
Original 020 gearbox
Short shift kit
Yamaha R1 Bike Carbs (40mm) and custom made intake manifold
Early mk2 distributor with vacuum advance
Port matched dual outlet exhaust manifold with ABF downpipe
2.25" exhaust
Lightened flywheel
Block, cylinder head and gearbox painted black
Mk3 Valve cover mirror polished
Holley fuel pressure regulator and Summit Racing gauge
Serpentine belt setup including waterpump
BMW e36 Radiator with built in overflow bottle

Depowered power steering rack.

 

A few months ago I swapped the gearbox for a short ratio GTI box and put the standard flywheel back in. I was actually pretty quick for what it was, kept up with ABF mk2s on the old gearbox while running rich.

 

 

I had some good fun with this motor, loved the fact that I could just swap jets and make little adjustments on the carbs to tune it and it sounded amazing.

 

After that I sold the widened steelies, put widetrack front and rear with 256mm front brakes and put my original wheels back on. Recently I got given a leather GTI steering wheel from my good friend, installed Mk3 Recaro front seats (running no back seats as I have been since forever - no friends and because racecar) and got hold of a 7 slat early front grill

 

This is what it looked like 2 weeks ago:

 

 

After about a year of driving the bike carb 8v I just felt that I reached the end of what I could do with that set up. So I put the whole setup for sale and bought a 1.8 20v turbo motor and 02a cable shift gear box. So I'm in the process of installing that, which involves installing a hydro clutch, drive by wire (the DBW ones can be tuned over the OBD port which is why I chose it) and some of things. At the moment there is no motor in it, dash is removed and wires are everywhere. Will post a photo tomorrow. I hope to have it done in a couple weeks and if all goes well I'll be coming to the next wednesday night meet in it.

[M M]

This has been my working environment for the last few days:

 

 

It's much tidier now though, wiring is almost done. Just need to connect the DBW pedal and a few other wires. The main parts are done. Once my new engine mount arrives the motor and gearbox will be going in. Need to install the shifter box as well.

[M M]

Wiring now done (at least temporarily for the motor to run, so I can see if it's done right.) Will be tidying it more once I make sure it's all correct.

 

 

Also had to look for a new flywheel, as after inspecting the one that came with the gearbox from the car we wrecked, it looks as though the flywheel was machined too far and the clutch has been rubbing against the flywheel bolts. Will post a photo tomorrow if I remember. One of the pressure plate bolts has also been snapped off in the flywheel (I noticed this when pulling apart, only 5 bolts were in.) Found a new flywheel with a friend of mine, he has lightened it so will be picking it up from him and taking it to get balanced. Hopefully have this done and engine in by end of next week/early week after.

 

Also de-immobilised my ECU last night with this cool little clip on chip reader I got which comes with a virgin immobiliser file and software to read/write the chip. Looking forward to see if it works when the motor is in. If it works it means I can de-immobilise me7 ECUs.

[M M]

This is the motor that will be going in:

 

 

Degreased and water blasted it today so it's clean now. Still need to get rid of some of the unnecessary vacuum lines and the SAI pump and stuff. Also started working on a mirror polished intake manifold and valve cover a while back but I won't be working on that until the motor is in and running (because I think getting it running is slightly more important).

[M M]

Made some brackets and mounted my intercooler today.

 

[M M]

Painted the valve cover today with wrinkle black. Plan was for it to be temporary until I finish the mirror polished one but this looks pretty cool. I might end up keeping it. Will see how the paint holds.

 

[M M]

Engine went in today.

 

 

Just need to do the intercooler piping, some coolant piping and some other small bits. Downpipe is also being made by a friend of mine. Was hoping to have it going for Wednesday but it looks like end of the week/early next week will be more realistic.

[M M]

Almost there. Finished the intercooler piping, and pretty much sorted all coolant piping and wiring. Also mounted the power steering bottle. Will try and start it tomorrow if all goes well. The red top radiator hose is temporary, will be ordering a black one later.

 

[M M]

Just got it started, it goes. Just waiting for downpipe and to sort out last few bits such as the dbw pedal as it's got some fault codes and not working.

[M M]

Did some investigating, found that through VAG Com (the OBD Scanner) the pedal is recognised all the way throught it's positions but for some reason has no effect on the engine running. I wired the Mk4 pedal (that came with the motor) and it worked perfectly, so will do some further digging to see what the issue is. I would like to use the one in the car as it's already in, otherwise I'll have to fabricate mounts for the Mk4 pedal.

[M M]

Bracket for the Mk4 pedal done.

With DBW pedal mounted:

 

Big thanks to my friend Anton who welded this on for me (pretty much the only thing I don't have the resources to do myself yet).

[M M]

I decided to go with the Mk4 DBW pedal as I found out that the one I had on the pedal box won't work with the ECU for this motor since it was from a TDI. Apparently TDI pedals only work with TDI motors and petrol with petrol. Weird but I'm not surprised since it came from a Mk4. Downpipe is pretty much done so pictures to come of that as well.

[M M]

Downpipe pretty much complete. Big thanks again to my friend Anton for making this.

 

[M M]

After having some issues earlier this week such as the brake bias valve being blocked, last night and 11:45pm I managed to get it all done and the car running. Took it for a midnight burn around the block, all I can say is I am very happy with how it goes. If you go for it, it wheel spins all the way through first and second and a bit in third, and gets to 100 pretty quick. Did an oil changed and some small bits today and drove it around a bit to a friends place. It goes better than I expected, I thought this is how it would go with the tune on. I will drive it for a week for two to make sure everything is ok and then I will flash the tune on, can only imagine what that will go like. Only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the diverter valve is pretty loud when you take your foot off the gas and I look like a complete douche bag, hahaha.

 

[M M]

Quick video my friend took leaving his place:

 

https://instagram.com/p/3S5db9A0PJ/

[M M]

Couple of photos from Caffeine And Classics on Sunday (photos aren't mine, thanks to who took them):

 

 

Was pretty fun driving in the rain, wheelspin everywhere. Still have a bit of tidying up to do in the engine bay, solder the engine loom wires and put the dash back together but it's been going well for the last few days. Did about 200km in it since Friday night.

[M M]

Flashed the tune on on the weekend, at first it didn't feel much different but after driving it a while I could notice quite a difference. It goes pretty good but it's not 100% smooth, at one point in the pedal travel it feels like it all of a sudden it applies much more boost. It could be just me being picky, I'm not sure how name brand tunes drive like but I have heard similar stories about them too. It's still very driveable and heaps of fun. I'm going to leave it on and just drive around with it for now, having too much fun with this.

 

I have also ordered 40mm springs for it as these 60mm fronts are just too low, lip hits the ground on hard braking and absolutely every bump and driveway (the sump is not much higher than the lip and is aluminium) and tyres rub on the plastic arches at any more than 2/3 turn of the steering wheel, so it's no good really. Once those are in and I wash the car (I can't see out of the back window from the dirt) I should have some photos for you guys.

[M M]

I redid some of the piping today and did a bit of a general tidy up and fixed a few small things. Just have to change the heater core now and put the dash all back together. Also here you can see my new look-faster coils.

[M M]

The Boost Car (as we've dubbed it) is finally all back together. I installed my 40/30mm springs today, sits much better. I might lower the back by a notch as it is a bit high but will let the springs settle a bit first. First wash in 3 months today.








My G meter (as in Gs generated going round corners, not how much of a G I look in my pimpwagen):