My Golf Project

[L1J]

Thought I'd post some details of my new project in order for you lot to keep me motivated!

She arrived last week, a 1991 Golf GTi 8V, 160K miles, recently resprayed and an unfinished project!

Plans are to install a 1.8 20V Turbo engine from a Seat Leon Cupra that I got off ebay.

First job was to remove engine

Not that bad a job, everything on the front of the golf is removable making it a lot easier to get the engine out.

Close inspection of the engine bay, some bits of rust that need to be treated. I will be painting under the bonnet before the new lump goes in.

 

[L1J]

This is where I got up to today, subframes and engine bay brackets out.

Some before shots of the subframes etc, hopefully powder coated by the start of next week

They arent as rusty as they look, the sun was setting and they have lots of red dust on them from the paint job!

 

[L1J]

Went shopping in a scrappy earlier in the week and got the following bits.

Passat 2.0 16V gearbox, driveshafts, bottom arms, hubs and brakes. I'm using the passat bottom arms to give a wider track at the front.

Golf bottom arm (top) compared to passat

Managed to source a Golf Rallye intercooler for the conversion

Yes, I know its upside down!

More to follow soon I hope!

 

[L1J]

Cool looking project, sure its been done before, but its still nice to follow a proper project non-the-less.

You going to do any work to the 1.8T bar the pipework and FMIC?

It's been done lots before, thankfully

I'm going to upgrade the turbo to a K03S unit, not sure which ECU to use yet. Power target is about 210bhp with similar torque.

Externally its going to be totally standard.

 

[L1J]

Tell me about it, Im registered since the big nuke and only have 53 posts!

The half off roader pic

 

[L1J]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, will keep the motivation up!

Penski, nice site spent far too much time on it last night!

Fox, I used to be a golf hater until I drove my first mk2 2 months ago!

Paint wise the exterior was re sprayed 3 years ago with 9 coats of red! It hasnt been on the road since. It should come up well with a bit of polishing with a PC.

Im going to try smooth red hammerite in the engine bay first and see what it looks like.

Todays update:

These arrived today, hammerite, etch primer and rust removal gel

Might try some gel on a few rusty bits tonight to see if it works!

I took some bits to the powder coaters

They should be done in a week, cant wait for these to come back. After talking to the coatings guy I've chosen automtive black for the standard look. Everything will have 2 coats and it *should* last at least ten years (time will tell). I was quoted £80 for one coat and £130 for 2 coats.

The complete Leon Cupra car loom came with the engine. I needed to remove the engine loom from this lot.

Ended up with this

 

[L1J]

An Ebay purchase

Plans for tonight:

Finish some work for a course for tomorrow
Try some rust gel on some bits
See if the hammerite is a good match
Remove some more stuff from the engine bay and prep for eventual painting

 

[L1J]

Some scientific tests to follow!

/Goes searching for some rusty bits...

 

[L1J]

All the Astras have long done, last owned one in 2003

Shouldn't be too hard, what with all them Astras you've accumulated over the years.

Another small update:

Decided to try a small area under the bonnet to see if the gel works and the hammerite matches the paint.

Used a combination of a blowtorch, wire brush and a scraper to remove the loose rust and surrounding paint. This led to a little incident of the chassis rail catching fire! Always have a fire extinguisher handy when working on cars!

Panic over! Further prep and a coating of gel got me to this

Instructions says it needs a few hours at least, possibly overnight, so will update on it's progress tomorrow.

 

[L1J]

Found an old ford part to test the hammerite on

Will have to wait untill it dries properly but it's not looking bad so far

Some dodgy alarm wiring that needs to be removed

Why do people use scotch blocks in exposed areas?! Also found some damaged insulation

 

[L1J]

And for those interested in the gel, I also tested some on a rusty tool I found!

Wire brushed the loose bits off

Coated one side in gel and will be left overnight

Hope this stuff works.....

 

[L1J]

The electrical side is what's worrying me most!

I'm trying to choose between 3 ECUs at the moment:
Emerald
MBE
Megasquirt

The MBE comes from a company called QP Enginnering that specialise in 1.8T conversions its basically plug and play.

Emeralds new ECU has 3 switchable on the fly maps, really like the idea of this feature , but i would need to make my own loom and get it mapped

Megasquirt
Again would need to contruct my own loom and map it

For simplicity the MBE wins but the emerald sounds like fun

I'd love to be able to do a project like this but i'd be stumped on the electrical side of things as I haven't got a clue.

Nice work so far, you seem to have everything under control.

 

[L1J]

I could use the VAG ecu but for the cost of getting it mapped and the immobiliser defeat done (£800 ish) I can get a fully mappable ECU for future upgrades and get rid of the none essential stuff from the engine (cats, recirc systems etc)

Connectors - I'm going to see if I can remove the pins from the plugs and put some heat shrink over the damaged sections, failing that I will cut and solder them.

 

[L1J]

Good tip, was this the lighting loom etc? Where did they enter the chassis leg?

Quick tip to neaten the engine bay - thread as much of the loom as possible through the chassis legs. Me and a mate did that with our supercharged vr6 mk2 golf that we built.

 

[L1J]

Been a bit busy today, will drag my arse into the cold garage in a few minutes.

LOL at 'special fluid'

Some more bits I've aquired over the past week!

Polybushes

Engine mounts

Left to right - rear engine, gearbox and front engine/gearbox (solid)

Some wheels I found on German Ebay

Not sure what to do with these yet, might use them as a trackday set or get them refurbished as I think they would go well with the red? Opinions anyone?

 

[L1J]

Those bushes are very stiff - Gareth used them on his Mk1 and his brothers Mk2 (My old white Mk2 - remember that? )

That particular night of slidng a few inches from the side of a sheer drop in your Mk2 will never be forgotten! Most scared Ive been in a car ever!

How stiff is very stiff? Shocks will be Koni TAs and standard GTi springs, should be ok for a daily driver I hope.....

The powder coaters I went to do wheels aswell, will get a quote for a refurb.

 

[L1J]

The gel update

Gel seems to turn black on the rust patches

Gave it a quick once over with a wire brush and wiped with a damp cloth, has come up well, seems to remove all the rust from the pitted areas

Gave it a *very* quick coat of hammerite to protect it for now and see what the colour looks like

Didnt want to use the etch primer yet as I want to do a LOT more prep work to the area.

 

[L1J]

And now for the rusty tool!

Quick wire brush and wipe gave this

Going to give it another thicker coat tonight and see what happens tomorrow

 

[L1J]

Looks a cracking project, was wondering though, how do you go about getting insurance on a car like this with such a major mod as an engine conversion?

There's a few companies out there that will insure modified/engine transplanted Golfs, Greenlight is one that comes to mind.

If I can insure a 270bhp modified Scooby at 23, a "classic" Golf shouldn't be a problem at 27 hopefully.....

 

[L1J]

Very impressed with the gel! Time to make an order - did you get yours from the manufacturer?

Straight from the manufacturer http://www.bilthamber.com/index.html