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Topic: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Digifiz mini install update (Read 5455 times) previous topic - next topic

Pearl Grey with R32 power, Digifiz mini install update

I get asked for a build thread quite often so thought I'd join in and give it a go. I've been driving MK2 Golfs since 1998 and can't get enough of them.

Pearl grey I've had for a while now and looked like this when I picked it up. Already had the Ronals, some cheap coilovers, GTI 8V, power flow exhaust and well maintained inside and out.



Only issue was the central locking stopped working. Removed the door card to reveal this work of art ..



installed a new solenoid and tidied up the wiring




The car quickly got an ABF conversion with a 4.25 final drive 020 gearbox. very quick acceleration but topped out at 120mph, she was a screamer on the motorway even at 70 :sorry, what?: 

Trip to the Nurburgring




The ABF is a great engine but no match for modern hot hatches which seem to be as quick as super cars nowadays with their 4wd twin clutch launch control flappy gearbox stuff. Plan was to give the MK2 a little extra power so opted for an R32. I'm big on nasp engines so turbo wasn't really an option for me. Luckily a guy from Westside VW was braking his mk2 R32 so I bought the engine and chucked it in ..

All the heavy stuff was done at my uncles garage during a long weekend when it was closed. Great man my uncle  :thumbs:






Next was to remove the Subframe and fit a MK3 unit. I was worried about the dredded subframe bolts but the impact gun made short work of them. Also fitted MK3 power steering lines while the frame was off



years of oil and muck..


Good as new..






And then, hey presto ... the engine is in


I was lucky enough to get hold of a Mk2 R32 6 branch from Dubpower, they don't make this anymore but the fit was perfect 




That's it for today, more updates coming soon. Thanks for reading
Next item on the list was to fit the Cable change shifter. For the clutch I used a Seat mechanism so retained a cable operated clutch.
Old gear lever came out and I hacked it up to make a brace for the MK3 item. A small amount of material from one corner had to be removed from the MK3 box and it just slots straight in. The brace I made sandwiches the MK3 box into position. This was the best solution I could think of at the time as I do not know how to weld. It’s been like this for over a year now with no issues.











With the heavy work complete it was time to take the car home so we towed it home and started working on the wiring





I wanted to hide the wiring so Engine loom comes out of a very conveniently placed bung on the bulk. Loom for the Fans, lights and other bits go through the chassis leg.



At the same time I decided to move the battery in the boot as I wanted the air box in the corner of the bay to avoid heat soak as much as possible. Rivnuts were used on the floor of the boot and a MK5 battery box.








Once the battery was secure in the boot it needed wiring. I used 35mm2 welding cable for positive and ground. Battery was grounded on the rear seatbelt floor anchor point. I crimped, blowtorched the ends and fed solder into it until it poured out the bottom then applied a piece of heat shrink. This ensured the cable super secure and going to wiggle off the connector





Power cable routed through the bulk and covered with tubing



8V Fuel pump needed upgrading so sourced a 2nd hand 16V unit. Pump was replaced and I binned the accumulator as the bracket had broken off and this engine doesn't need it anyway. Took a while to locate a 16V housing. can't believe no 3rd party company makes these  :|



16V fuel filter was used so had to get an adapter as the 8V fuel line is just an open ended hose instead of a banjo like a 16V. Probably get a banjo end in the near future



I noticed the auxiliary water pump was missing so went about adding it. Had to make up a bracket (any excuse to get the angle grinder out)




Bashed it into shape




Like a glove  :thumbs:



At this point the car was turning into a SKIP  :problem:



Battery tray was looking a bit sad so cleaned and sprayed it up




Why stop there, Servo was also looking a bit sad so decided to spray that too. very difficult manoeuvring this with the engine in. Had to remove the exhaust heatshield for space



Homemade spray booth with oven



Came out pretty good



Servo vac line had to be shortened. Brass insert and some heat was used to rejoin the tubing





Fitting it all without scratching was a pain in the ass  :sorry, what?:



It was worth the effort though



Back to the wiring, because I hid the loom I had to run the wiper motor loom inside the car. I decided to rout through the aerial grommet. This is not easy to get to as the aerial wire goes behind the glovebox and around a vent pipe then up through the bulk. The grove box is stapled to parts behind the dash so impossible to remove without breaking something.

Solution was to tape string to the aerial cable and pull through the dash then tape the wiper loom and new aerial cable to the string and pull it back through the dash again






At the same time I made a loom for my seats




New seats fitted, managed to pick these beauties up for a good price and in A1 condition. Always wanted a set of Recaros. They are soo comfy



Back to the engine, I didn’t like the short intake I got with the engine so decided to extend it. Local machine shop welded a bung for the air temp sensor then I wrapped it carbon vinyl




Firing up the engine coming on the next update

So for a while I didn’t touch the car because of our great British weather. The car stood still for a few months in the rain and cold.
This didn’t do anyone any favours as when I got back in the car I noticed the passenger side door was jammed. It wouldn’t open from inside or out.

I tried hot water, WD40 soak, plus gas soak, pushing kicking and swearing. Nothing would open it. I didn’t want to damage the door card so I got my tools together and attempted to remove the Door card with the door still closed  :confused:

Precision screwdriver and a mole grip did the trick. Was very pleased with myself  :clapping:




I was able to pry the door card from the corner and use my small girly hands to push/pull something on the back of the door latch.



I also managed to slice my hand when the latch let go and my hand hit the inside of the door, blood everywhere  :silent:



At least the door was now open. And yes, that’s a heater in the car … it was that cold



The door latch mechanism had been chromed in the past but didn't look like any grease was applied to the moving parts. Luckily I had a spare in my hoard of parts. Greased and fitted. all good now  :thumbs:

It was time to start it up. I jumped the starter to get the engine turning as it hadn’t been started for over a year. Then I primed the pump a few times, turned the key and to my surprise … it fired straight up.
Rad and Front end went back on and it started looking like a car again





It was time to give it a hot run to ensure cooling system was working ok. Started it up again and ran for about 5 minutes until I turned it off because of a very strong smell of fuel. First place I looked and the most likely cause was the dredded fuel pump housing. I was right, the 2nd hand unit I bought was leaking by the fuel return line

Again the car stood still until I sourced a replacement housing but as these are obsolete and most 2nd units have seen better days I knew it would take a while to find one.
After searching and searching for weeks an almost brand new unit popped up on ebay. I contacted the seller and made a deal. Pump was collected and fitted the next day with brand new brackets and fittings.



With the fuel leak sorted it was time again for a hot run again. Fired it up and left it running while I topped up the cooling system. All seemed to be going well but the fans were not kicking in. Water temp gauge went passed halfway and still no fans. Wiring to fans were fine so I changed the fan switch, still no fans.



Did some digging around online and came across a post on ClubGTI forum where another member had the same sort of issue after a 1.8T conversion. Turned out to be the water temp sensor for the clocks was a MK4 golf item so calibrated for MK4 clocks.
To confirm, I plugged in my laptop to the Emerald ECU and checked the water temp. It was barely 70 degrees. I let the engine run for longer this time while monitoring the ECU. Fans finally kicked in and did their job.

With everything pieced together it was time to take it for a spin up the road.

DAMN it felt scary and dangerous! Tracking was out so was all over the place but it picked up rpm seriously fast! I didn’t drive it too much as it wasn’t insured and no road tax.

Insured the car and booked it in for tracking and a custom exhaust from Style Dynamics in Hayes. Driving to and from getting this work done it was evident something was not right with the engine.
At around 2.5K it hopped around like crazy then cleared after 3K and water temp was not moving past 1/4 . It was freezing the day I drove it but the engine shouldn’t be that cool. Oil temp was only at 52 degrees and wouldn’t move.
I knew the engine heated up fine when not in motion so I had a hunch that there was something wrong with the thermostat.

I had to make some changes to the Rad bracket so removed the rad again



Then started removing the thermostat housing. On the V6 engine you have to remove the whole unit from the head. I also realised whoever put this engine in the previous MK2 replaced the standard R32 housing with a VR6 housing, probably to retain VR6 coolant hoses.




There's the Thermostat, so I thought ..


A Matrix moment .. There is no thermostat ! It's been hacked off


Bought a new housing with fittings and thermostat


Pieced it all together and fitted to the engine.


Once it was all back together I ran the engine again, bled the cooling system and took it for a spin. Success, the engine was heating and cooling as it should and water temp gauge was now ok. At this point I didn’t want to drive it took much as I wanted someone to look at the mapping. A nice chap goes by the name Toyotec on ClubGTI offered to have a look.

He popped over to mine one evening, hooked up his laptop to the ECU and bolted a stethoscope to the block to listen out for knock. We drove around until the early hours of the morning adjusting the map. There was so much improvement after every adjustment and the ‘hopping’ around had virtually gone.

During mapping, we were getting loads of top end power but seemed to be lacking in low end torque, it almost drove like a Turbo car. Had a quick look under the bonnet and realised the Variable intake system was not working. This we left alone as it was most likely down to a wiring issue. which I'd have a look at later on.

We tried to make more adjustments but Cylinder 3 developed a misfire. Eddie swapped a coil over from another cylinder but the misfire remained on number 3. This cut our mapping session short and we called it a night. Big thanks to Eddie!

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #1 –
The next day I had a look at the misfire and decided to change all the spark plugs. I started on number cylinder 3 which got rid of the misfire. Continued on to the others and noticed the coil on cylinder 4 had broken in half. The lower half was stuck in the head. Seems like a common problem with these coils on the R32 forum. To remove, some people screw a very long screw into the coil then pull out. I took the car down to my uncle’s garage who used an old coat hanger to fish the broken coil out.




All spark plugs changed and broken coil replaced it was time for a proper spin.

I was not disappointed with the engine and gearbox choice. Acceleration in every gear was relentless and bounced off the limit in 5th with no problem. And the noise, what a noise!

Little vid of the sound...
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWOVryEV0cQ[/youtube]

Next was a 3000 mile trip around Europe…

Time was getting close to a big lads Euro road trip so had to get moving with the build. I wanted the car to look as OEM as possible so got hold of a brand new set of GTI arches. Front of the car had G60 arches which I never really liked as the wheels did not fill very well. These came off and replaced with GTI arches. Rears were also changed to make it look a bit fresher. At the same time I bought some side skirts from Heritage and fitted those two. Passenger side skirt had been out of stock for a while so I bought two  driver side and modified one to fit the passenger side.



Arch looks a lot nicer now and the wheel fitment is spot on. I highly recommend the small ramp for lowered cars.



One job I had been putting off for a while were the coilovers. Both rear platform rings were seized solid. I bought some FK Konigsport rings a few years back as spares, good job as FK no longer support these coilovers so can’t buy these rings anymore.

You can see the rings have jumped threads on one side when I tried to free them off.


This called for drastic measures. Dremel made short work of removing the rings.


There were literally no threads left on the rings. Stainless steel coilovers will be my next purchase if these fail again.


The top nut that holds the shock in the coilover body had to come off to get the new rings on. Quick trip the garage, a vice and water pump fliers were needed.

That’s better


refitted the coilovers. another job done.

Changed out my generic eBay rear washer bottle for a MK2 item. I have no rear wiper so diverted the water hose and wiring from that to this bottle.




Car was now ready for the euro trip.  Plan was to drive some scenic routes to Nice > Austria > Germany. A few snaps I took of the trip


F1 fans will recognise this tunnel in Monaco.






Popped into the BMW museum.






You can see the road on the mountain edge. Looks scary from this angle


I highly recommend driving around europe. It's an amazing place and have some of the best roads. the Mountain passes are plentiful and absolutely amazing. We finished up spending the weekend at the Nurburgring which is a petrol heads heaven.

The drive around Europe and the Nurburgring put the car to test and it didn’t disappoint. I thought the extra weight would cause massive understeer but it handles really well. The quaife diff was a good investment and the car surprised a lot of people at the ring. No one expected that noise and acceleration from an almost standard looking GTI  :D

The only issue I had on the trip was when we drove up high in the mountains. The ECU was not configured to deal with the thinner air so started over fuelling like mad. It was quite difficult to drive at that altitude but once we started descending the engine started behaving properly again.

I contacted Emerald about this issue and they recommended fitting a map sensor and wideband Lambda. I ordered the bits and booked the car in for a mapping session with them.

Prior to the mapping session I had to ..
1.   Fit a wideband lambda
2.   Fit the Delphi map sensor from emerald
3.   Fix the variable inlet manifold plunger

Wideband was bought from Innovate as they use a Bosch unit so should be pretty easy to find a replacement if it were to fail in the future. I went for the LC-1. Wiring was pretty simple but the Lambda bung in the link pipe was at an almost 90 degree angle so the tail end of the lambda was brushing against the exhaust tunnel. I didn’t like this so needed another trip to Style D to fix.

While I was there they made up a new centre section with an extra silencer with V Bands. This was needed for track days because the car was soo bluddy loud and was bound to break the noise rules



V Band ends allow removed/refit of the centre section with ease. Straight through for normal use and extra silencer for Track days

Wideband bung was adjusted and sits nice now. Delphi map sensor was also wired in. 2 down 1 to go  :wink:

The Variable inlet plunger was a bit more involved to fix. Popped into my uncles garage who put a manual vacuum tester on the plunger and confirmed the plunger was not seized so put it down to a wiring or solenoid issue. He gave me an ECU wiring diagram and said …. good luck !  :mrgreen:

First thing was to trace the original wires back to see where they went. The wiring was simple. A two pin plug controls a small solenoid that is attached to a vacuum reservoir just under the inlet. Once open, the vacuum causes the plunger to open/close an extra chamber inside the inlet manifold to change the air velocity going into the cylinders at different RPM, phew

Under 4K RPM = chamber closed
Over 4K RPM (and idle) = Chamber Open

Wires seemed to lead nowhere so were not wired in. One pin needed 12V and the other had to get a switch ground from the ECU when required. Emerald recommended a spare pin on the ECU which I then wired in.

To double check it was working ok I hot hired the solenoid to the battery but the plunger still did not move. I then rotated the one way valve on the vacuum line and tried again. This worked, plunger was now working but does not operate with the ECU as it has to be configured.

One way valve (Black/White round thing)


The Plunger, quite ingenious how this works. The mapping session showed what a massive difference this little device made


Car was now ready for a mapping session with Emerald so drove up one morning and met a friendly guy Called John. He got to work straight away with configuring the ECU. There were quite a few settings that were incorrect, he started talking about injector drivers and PWM control at which point I deemed all to be witchcraft to my ears. I have no idea about mapping other than if you mess up it will destroy the engine. This is why I leave this bit to the experts.



Session was going well until at one point John stepped out of my car with a concerned look. The engine wouldn’t go over 200bhp. At this point my heart dropped and I thought I’d bought a dudd engine. Started looking around the bay and even did a fuel pressure check, all seemed fine so John started looking at the map again while on the rollers. During the next run on the rollers, I noticed the variable inlet plunger would actuate then stay like that instead of returning to its original position. The plunger should move to the ‘Power’ position around 4.5K rpm. John adjusted this in the ECU settings and did another blast on the rollers. This time I see a big smile on his face and the engine produced 230bhp.

Phew, I was relieved! Mapping continued and we came out with a clean 270bhp  :smile: . Air Fuel ratio was adjusted at different loads on the rollers at different throttle angles to ensure we had a consistent Air/Fuel ratio under general driving. John also did something with the fuel overrun on the power map so I have some fireworks on lift off  :angel:

Cold start was adjusted as much as possible but I have to hold the throttle for about 10 seconds every time I start the engine from stone cold. This is because I don’t have a DBW throttle or an idle valve. No biggie for me really I was just ecstatic with the smoothness of power delivery. It no longer had a ‘Turbo Feel’ about it.

Emerald also updated the firmware so I could wire in a Bluetooth OBD2 port and read ECU data on my phone and make pretty data screens

thanks for reading. More updates on heater box, hydraulic clutch and wheels coming soon.

Following a great road trip around Europe I noticed a strong smell of coolant inside the car. Initial thought was heater matrix leaking so I looked behind the centre console and found orangy/Pink drops of coolant from the heater box.

Got lucky this didn’t give way around Europe.

New matrix was bought from GSF which is the same as a MK3 unit. I read a few DIY’s online and prepared for the worst. What a ball ache! I was ready to take a sledge hammer to that damn heater box  :evil:

One tip I found really useful was to pull the heater box forward and remove the lower stud that secures the heater box to the bulk. I didn’t remove the dash but removed the entire heater box with blower.

Once out, I removed the matrix which was covered in coolant and decided to split the heater box to cover the direction flaps.
I used heavy duty double sided tape and neoprene foam.





When piecing the box back together I clumsily snapped off a locator for the control cable. This rendered the box useless.
Jumped onto Facebook and located another heater box not too far from me so collected and swapped the matrix and flaps over.

Refitting the box was a right old pain but everything is working now. This is not a job I want to do again anytime soon. I would not recommend neoprene foam as it gives off a horrid odour and gave me headaches until the smell subsided which took months  :silent:

Next thing I had to look at was my clutch pedal. I was using a Seat mechanism for a while which worked great. However, I was driving this car everyday for the school and work run and started noticing the clutch pedal was starting to stick. Popped into the Seat dealer only to find the cable for this kit is now obsolete so bought one off ebay. This lasted about 2 months until it started sticking so then tried a MK2 1.3 cable which many people recommended.

The 1.3 cable was way too tight and heavy and felt like it was going to snap. I was trying everything to avoid fitting a hydraulic pedal box. I even tried spilling oil down the clutch cable but this just made a mess :bad craic:

Only viable choice was to fit a hydraulic setup. According to many people online this is not a difficult conversion, simply remove old pedal box, drill a couple of holes then fit the new pedal box  :cool (y):  I thought

'Simply', hmm, I don’t think so. Big job in my opinion with many obstacles and much swearing  :silent:

Ok, first I sourced a Corrado G60 pedal box with clutch master, line and actuator. That’s the easy part done  :lol:

Now onto the hard part. Steering column had to come out for access and ease of fitting of the pedal box. Easiest way to do this was to remove all the under trays to gain access to the 2 shear bolts that hold the column to the bulk bracket. I used a dremel to cut a slot in the bolt on the right and used a ratchet flat blade to remove. The shear bolt on the left didn’t come out so easy. There was no space to manoeuvre the dremel and I don’t really like bashing things so decided to remove the bulkhead bracket but to gain access I had to remove the cluster.







Once the top and bottom bolts had been removed the steering column came out.









Next was to remove the pedal box which comes out relatively easy.

At this stage most people bash the bulk head to flatten it off so the clutch master can sit on a level surface. As mentioned before I don’t like bashing things  :geek: plus I couldn’t if I wanted to as the engine was in the way. Solution was to drill the clutch master holes then use a nut and bolt to pull the bulkhead flat.



I tried to line up the corrado pedal box to the bulk head but it just wasn’t sitting properly. The box needed to move to the right by about an inch but was fouling the Fusebox bracket.



Spent hours on forums and FB searching for anyone who has had this issue. No one seemed to have a straight forward solution for this . Som :boke: e said it fitted with no issues but others had to hack up and weld the pedal box for clearance. I don’t have welding skills so the latter solution was no good to me. There had to be a difference in the MK2 fusebox brackets somewhere so jumped on ebay and searched for a CE1 fusebox bracket. Low and behold the CE1 bracket has a notched section where the pedal box was fouling my CE2 bracket. Hit the ‘buy it now’ button and waited for it to turn up. :thumbs:

In the meantime I removed my current fusebox bracket and lined up the hydraulic pedal box. Drilled some pilot holes and used a nut, bolt, big washer and some steel on the inside of the car in an attempt to level off the bulkhead. It worked to a point but the steel I was using started to bow.





I needed something stronger so took the clutch master to a local machine shop and asked them to make me up a jig of 2 solid plates. I took the plates home and shaped one of them like the master cylinder. Again I used some bolts with the new jig and squashed the bulkhead into place. This worked a treat.






 


Used a hole cutter for the main hole then fixed the pedal box and all bits in place. Top round pedal box bracket was ground off then nut and bolted approx. 15mm to one side to line up with the original one.





The master I got with the kit was a little worn, you can see the hole that attaches to the pedal is elongated which would have caused play and probably damage the pin on the pedal as the plastic end had worn down to the metal rod. This was replaced with a new one.



Pedal box in



By this time I received the CE1 fusebox holder and the ‘kink’ in the upper left of the bracket was looking promising. I fitted the CE1 bracket with no problem and it cleared the pedal box.

CE2              VS             CE1




As always, nothing is ever simple. Problem with using a CE1 bracket is that the fusebox locating lugs are in a different position so I had to chop and re-groove the CE1 bracket using a dremel. Bracket was then fitted and the fusebox slotted straight in. This has to be done precisely otherwise the CE2 fuesbox will foul that all important kink in the CE1 bracket.



Replaced the column and replaced the shear bolts with normal ones



Fitted a new reservoir bottle and seals then bled the system. All works as it should.







Another big job done  :bout ye:

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #2 –
With most of the mechanical work done and car running 110% it was time for an aesthetic upgrade. Wheels!
I always wanted a set of, I know typical, split rim BBS’s. Common as the doors on a car but they sit soo well on a MK2. I purchased a set of 16” BBS RS023 which were in good usable condition but I wanted to do something a little different with the colour so took the wheels apart, sent the lips and spare lips to Mike the polisher and the centres of the wheels to TT Tools in Chelmsford for machine work.

The barrels are 6” wide and came with 4 2” and 2 1.5” lips so had some sizes to play with. The whole lot went to Mike for polishing. 2 of the Dishes looked like this ..



Once Mike worked his magic the dishes looked like this ..


Wheels were originally 5 x 114, centre bore of 66mm and offset of 26. TT Tools plugged, redrilled to 4x100, flattened the back and made some custom aluminium spigot rings. Once the centres were back I went and chose some colours and had two of the centres wet painted. One bronze/Gold/Brown and one Grey.



Trial fitted them on the car to decide on colour




The grey has a nice oem look about it but I really liked the bronze so went with that. Remaining faces were painted and new hardware ordered.

This was the first time I rebuilt a set of split rims so read lots of DIY’s online before committing to the task. It was something I always wanted to try.

Started off by cleaning the old sealant and paint off the barrels with a drill mounted paint striper





Same cleaning was done on the back of the dishes



Dremel with sanding discs were used on the faces to avoid damaging the paint



New hardware arrived from felgenfuchs. Decided to go with Gold bolts




Everything was cleaned with brake cleaner to remove any dust or grease

 

Wheels ready to go together



Thin bead of sealant went on the barrel



Then the mating surface




Dish was put in place and new bolts pushed through



Medium strength Loctite applied to the bolts



And then bolted together



Excess sealant on the inside was quickly smoothed off before drying and all nuts were torqued to 30ft/lbs in a crisscross pattern.
A bead of sealant was applied to the inside edge



Wheel was left for 24 hours then rechecked the bolt torque and applied another layer of sealant






One done. 3 more to go



Tyre size was something I wasn’t too sure on so tried a 195 40 16 and 195 45 16. The 40 had way too much stretch for my liking so went with the 45.

40 profile


45 profile


Fitted the wheels and decided to space them out by 10mm at the front and 15mm at the rear. Had some custom spacers made by a guy on Edition 38 forum. He made up some 4x100 57.1 inner bore and 73.80mm outer to match my wheels bore so didn’t need to use spigot rings.





I love the colour. They look stunning in the sunlight




At Dubs at the Park





Even Storm Troopers approve



that pretty much sums up the build so far. Latest thing I did was go players classic at goodwood this year. BBS's came off for my Ronals which have semi track tyres and the exhaust had to be quietened down for track noise restrictions



Short clip of a drive by on track. Even with the quieter exhaust its loud !

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKEEdYq3E5E[/youtube]

Next I have a road trip into Europe. Route I'm taking is ..

Calais > Geneva
Juan Pass > Furka Pass > Gotthard Pass > Zurich
Zurich > Nurburgring

thanks for reading

Thought I’d share a quick summary of my Euro Road trip.

Car was checked over, serviced, rear bearings greased and adjusted and BBS’s came off for my Ronals which needed new front tyres. Got some replacement Proxy R1R’s and drove the car for a month before the trip to ensure it was running ok. Car was running nice and healthy.

Few days before the trip I loaded up the boot with all my tools, spare parts, oil, tow bar (hopefully not needed), repair putty and anything else I could squeeze in. MK2 Golfs have a good size boot!



I stayed the night in Dover as we were booked into the 6:40am Ferry. The port was quiet and we got on the Ferry with time to spare. Ferry journey to Calais was only 1.5 hours.

Once we offloaded in Calais we had a 7 hour drive to Geneva in Switzerland. Bit of a boring drive as it was pure motorway driving. Driving on the Europe motorways is not like UK. People don’t keep their distance and do not wait for a space to overtake….they literally pull out of a lane and expect you to slow down for them. It’s just the way they drive over there so you have to be vigilant at all times. On the upside though, drivers generally only use the fast lane for overtaking so if you’re moving at some speed you won’t be interrupted by someone hogging the lane.

The Tolls in France were a killer! We must have paid about £60 for that drive.

As soon as you step into Switzerland at the border you get pulled over and asked to pay £40 tax for driving in Switzerland. This is required from all non Swiss cars. Geneva wasn’t too far from the border so we got to our hotel at a descent time and had time to look around the shops. We went to get a bite to eat at an Indian ‘Fusion’ restaurant nearby but soon realised this was not our style of restaurant when the waiter poured us glasses of water like he was pouring the finest wine in the world. The bill came to a whopping £150 for two of us! I must admit, the food was exceptional…..even for us veggies….but not £150 exceptional  :lol:

Next day we travelled to Zurich in Switzerland via Juan pass, Susten pass, Gotthard and Airolo pass.

If I saw a T-Rex running down the road in Switzerland I wouldn't be surprised. It's like driving through Jurassic Park.

The passes were absolutely amazing to drive on and some of the most scenic views I’ve ever seen. You can feel the engine struggle the higher you get into the mountains with the thinner air.









I love tunnels  :devil:








Next day plan was to go Porsche museum in Stuttgart then onto the Nurburgring.

It’s funny to see the first car on display at the Porsche museum is a ..







This is a really good Museum with lots of Heritage on display.

Once we finished up we drove 3.5 hours home. When I say home I mean the Nurburgring  :thumbs:

Tools and parts were offloaded at the hotel and we went out for some laps. Unfortunately I got a bit excited and mounted the grass on Adenau Forest (Turn 11). It’s the corner that catches everyone out, I approached it a bit too fast and decided to go over the grass instead of swerving and potentially sliding out.

In my mind I was thinking ok I’m going slow enough…...Oh Sh!t I’m going too fast!

Made a loud thud on the high curb and went over the grass. Got the car back to the hotel and it seemed fine. Looked under the car and saw some scrapes on the sump but no leaks. I came back to the car a few minutes later to have another look and noticed oil drops started to form on one side of the sump, pulled the dipstick and the sump was still full of oil so a scrape must have gone through as it was cooling or something. This wasn’t good so I quickly jacked the car up and the sump started leaking more. Sump was cleaned with brake cleaner and I could see a deep gash and tiny hole where it was leaking. I mixed up some chemical metal and applied sparingly over the damaged area. The sump was still warm so the chemical metal solidified really quick and stopped the leak.





Car was left overnight for the chemical to fully harden. Next morning I checked the sump and it was dry so I started it up and let it get up to temp. No leaks so far. Took the car for a local drive and stopped every 10 mins or so to check for leaks. After an hours worth of driving I was happy the sump was sealed and safe enough for more laps.

Laps were 30 euros each, Friday – Sunday which was twice the price from a few years ago when we first went. The ring seemed quiet this year and no closures due to accidents. I wonder if the increased rate for laps has put people off.

 



The Famous carousel. You get sucked into your seat if you’re going fast enough here.





The finish line



Managed to hit 140mph on some of the straights. Needle pass 130mph on the clocks ..



You see some strange things on the ring. I overtook this on one of my laps ..



The Nurburgring is a petrol heads paradise. I would recommend anyone who is into cars to pay a visit to soak up the atmosphere and breath in the fumes. You see some of the world’s best cars being driven seriously hard and everyone is on the level. UK drivers are always up for a friendly chat or wave as they drive past.

You have to be vigilant when driving on the ring though. I back off when approaching cars to ensure they have seen me so I can overtake safely. At one point a GT3 RS came around the corner behind me, didn't wait for me to move over and instead overtook me half on the grass and VERY close to my passenger side.

Apart from the Sump giving way, due to my heavy right foot, the car ran perfect with no issues. Now back in the UK I have to look at replacing the sump. Here is a vid of one of my laps ..

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Sh-QIgAR3TU[/youtube]

Been a while since I posted on here. Actually, It's been a while since I touched or even looked at my golf since I broke the sump and put the car under a cover. Spell of Home DIY and bad weather has kept me from working on the car.

Had the odd peek now and then to make sure I still had a car



My hoard of old bolts came in handy during the snow though



Finally the weather was good enough to tackle the Sump. It started leaking quite bad so needed attention pretty quick.



2nd hand sump was sourced from an R32OC forum member. First point of call was to give it a good clean and to remove residue of the old sealant.

Wet and dry used on the face and drill for the bolt holes





popped into my uncles garage to use the solvent bay then rinsed off with water and dried



nice and clean





Got the car up in the air and drained the remaining oil





I noticed the chemical metal stuff was blocking one of the sump bolts so I removed the repair I made. Surprisingly it came off very easily. Probably because the sump was still leaking while I applied the chemical metal so it didn't bond to the sump properly. I really should have drained the sump and keyed up the surface before applying but you do what you can in an emergency.  :wink:

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #3 –






Looking at the damage. It's quite bad and we were lucky a chunk didn't fall off the sump.





Wonder if it can be repaired to keep as a spare. Looks like that bottom corner section needs removing and ally plate welded in or might not be worth it?

Next step was to remove the old sump by removing the 26 5mm Allen key bolts. Started at the front of the block, one rounded off already, no bother as I can hammer in a Torx to remove. Bigger problem are the 3 bolts on the gearbox side. The Allen key socket won't fit in the gap between the gearbox and Sump!  :frustration:

I guess the original R32 gearbox/mount bracket is moulded in a way that you can access these bolts easily?



Two options popped into my head after the standard swearing...

1. cut a groove in the bellhousing for clearance.
2. get a longer Allen key socket





I went for option 2 and ordered some long Allen key and Torx sockets, threw everything into the boot then went inside for some Doritos, Jalapenos and Salsa dip



Hopefully the weekend weather will get a little better to tackle this again once the new sockets arrive.

Change sump Take 2.

Set of long Allen key and Torx sockets arrived so all systems go to change the sump. First I made sure the new socket was long enough so measured up against the replacement sump



Looks good to me. Jacked the car up and started to prep.

3 bolts on the gearbox side needed the longer sockets as seen here ..



Got the socket into position and tapped it in with a light hammer then proceeded to undo it. Came out straight away so proceeded onto the others



One bolt fell off the socket and landed in the bellhousing. Luckily I could see it so manoeuvred it using a small screwdriver and out it came.



Worked my around the sump but one bolt was inaccessible because of the aux belt



This was simple enough to resolve by removing the belt so released tension from the belt





Then took the belt off the power steering pump pulley and out of the way



With all the bolts off, sump was hit with a rubber mallet a few times to release and it fell straight off. Looks quite clean inside.



Cleaned up the old sump to reveal the damage from the inside. Not worth getting this repaired I think



Next task was to make sure surfaces were spotless for re-sealing. Old sealant was removed with a blade, lightly went over the surface with some body sand paper and cleaned off with brake cleaner and a lint free rag. Brake cleaner was used until no dirt or oil was left on the surface.





One thing I noticed was the surface of the Crank seal was a bit eaten away so thought to add a little more sealant on this side.



Quick comparison between new and old sump



New bolts and VAG approved sealant to go on



Sump Allen key bolts from VW have been superseded by Torx bolts. I compared lengths before installing to ensure they were identical in length. New bolts are a couple of mm short but that’s ok

Always nice to replace bolts where possible.





Applied the sealant to the sump. This stuff is very sticky. Weather was a little cold on the day so I wasn’t worried about it drying up too quick. I also went around the outside of the bolt holes to stop any dirt or moisture getting to the bolts



Sump was slowly moved into position being careful not to matte the surfaces until the sump was square. All bolts were threaded by a few turns then tightened in a crisscross pattern. I did this carefully so the sump went onto the block as square as possible.



At one point I thought I had the socket in the bolt but was actually jammed in between the sump and flywheel so when I went to tighten it – it shattered the socket, oops!



Car had been off the road for about 8 months at this point so battery was completely flat. No juice registered on the charger



Battery was left on charge overnight. Next day, engine was treated with new oil filter and fresh oil.

Engine fired up with a bit of coughing and spluttering but was ok after a few seconds. Engine was left running until up to temp and no leaks observed. Happy days. Forgotten how good this engine sounds !

Just have the Master cylinder to replace next then I can get an MOT!

Back again for more updates.

Been busy with home improvements over the last few months but time was nearly upon us for our annual Europe road trip so had to start prepping.

About a month before we set off I thought it a good idea for a little track day to ensure the car was tip top for the long voyage so I booked myself in to a session at Brands Hatch during Deutsche fest.

Brake master required fixing as it sprung a leak so this had to be rectified before the track day.



Brake fluid was leaking from the reservoir seal so I thought it a good opportunity to change the master for a 22mm 16V item. Fluid had leaked onto my nicely painted Servo and ruined the paint. It was too much effort at this point to remove the servo and repaint so decided to change the Master only.

First I drained enough fluid to empty the reservoir bottle from the driver side wheel



Once drained, I removed the bottle



Then went on to undoing the brake lines



Not sure how it happened but the seal had a horizontal split in the middle. These seals weren’t even that old. Maybe the rust cut into it or something.

Brake lines removed then fitted a new polished master



One thing I liked about the new master was that it came with a reservoir securing pin unlike the original one I took off. The MK3 reservoir has tabs that secure the reservoir to the master via the pin



The pin was a bit of pain to get in but once it went in it really secured the bottle



Brake system was then bled using an Eezibleed kit and some ATE Typ 200 fluid. This fluid replaced the popular ate blue racing fluid. I’ve used this fluid on various track days and has never boiled over or squeezed past any seals.

Fuel filter was also due a change so this was done. Replaced the barb adapter for good measure. This adapter is required when using 8V fuel lines on a 16V Pump/filter setup.



Car was ready for an MOT which it passed with no issues.



A week later I arrived at Brands Hatch with a friend who is also running a V6





Both had a great day with a mix of cars and met a number of other MK2 owners



Cars ran really well. Nothing broke which is always a bonus!

Now onto the Road trip!

The plan this year was to go from UK to Cannes, spend a few days on the beach working on our tans, make our way to Geneva in Switzerland through the French Alps then onto the Nurburgring via Germany Black forest, Phew!

Hotels booked and route planned out.

Getting to Cannes from Calais took approximately 11 hours and 2.5 fuel tanks. Spent around £100 on tolls! The drive wasn’t too bad, mix tunes, big bag of skittles, loud exhaust and sweaty back kept me company. My friend in his R frequently reminded me how cold it was in his car with AC!



Cannes had some interesting cars as well as other things







Drove to Nice one night for Diner then to Monaco.



Once we finished up in Cannes we had a 3 day drive to Geneva on the following French Alp passes..
Pass 1 - Col de Castillon
Pass 2 - Col de Turini
Pass 3 - Col Saint Martin
Pass 4 - Col de La Couillole
Pass 5 - Col de La Cayolle
Pass 6 - Col de Vars
Pass 7 - Col d'Izoard
Pass 8 - Col de l'Iseran
Pass 9 - Cormet de Roselend
Pass 10 - Col des Saisies
Pass 11 - Col des Aravis
Pass 12 - Col de La Colombière



There were a number of other passes on the Alps but would have been too much driving If we covered them all so we broke the days down as below ..

Day 1 –


Day 2 –


we had to avoid some routes to reduce driving as it would have been too much. This day was quite scary as the heavens opened up at the top of the mountain pass. We were all on edge as there were no barriers on the end of the road to a vertical drop. Worse still, My Golf is missing the power steering belt cover so steering was intermittently slipping when the rain was real heavy. Hotel at the top of the mountain was a real treat though. We stayed in some ski resorts which don’t see many people in the summer months so were virtually empty.

Day 3 –


What I didn’t prepare for was the poo my pants factor!

Some of the mountain passes were barely wide enough for two cars with no barrier to a 1000ft fall of death!
Luckily not all the passes were like this. Majority of the passes were smooth windy roads with spectacular views.





















We spent a night in Geneva before we set off the next day to Black forest in Germany. Black forest is lined with silky smooth fast flowing roads and like-minded car enthusiasts.



Amply supply of Ice creams were on order.



Next stop was a 4hr drive to the Nurburgring.

Spotted a rather nice B reg MK2 from the UK



Surprisingly lots of Corvetts this year. They sounded monstrous!
Managed to get a couple of Paddock passes to the GP circuit

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #4 –




Got some really good snaps from the photographers around the ring ..







The Mk2 once again was such a joy to drive and didn’t miss a beat. As all good things come to an end it was time to go home. On the way to Calais I noticed my brakes were making a funny noise. Braking efficiency was still there but the noise was quit concerning. I looked through the spokes in the wheel and couldn’t see anything out of place on the discs or pads. The car drove home ok apart from the intermittent noise.

Next day I removed the wheels to take a closer look and found this. Bit surprised to be honest as the Ferodo DS2500 pads are designed to take a beating. Maybe it was the mix of Hot/Cold/Rain that did this



I had a spare set of DS2500’s so changed out and bedded in.

That’s it for this episode. Thanks for reading

So a Europe road trip wasn’t enough. My wife had the brilliant idea of driving up to the Scottish Highlands for a week in the Golf. I wasn’t going to say no, any excuse for a road trip in the MK2!

We booked a nice cottage just north of loch ness and to the west of Inverness. It was a good 10hr drive to the place we booked so decided to break up the journey. Don’t think I would have survived once the battery ran out on the iPad with the kids in the back. We stopped half way in Carlisle for one night then continued on towards Loch Ness the next day.

Next few days were spent around the Highlands and Isle of Skye. Roads were spectacular, views out of a post card and virtually no traffic. Summer Holidays are offset by a couple of weeks compared to the rest of England so roads were empty.







Had a bit of rain one day and remaining days were nice, slight overcast but pleasant.



Fairy Pools in Isle of Skye



Virtually empty roads meant I could open it up a bit.





We visited a number of Castles. The most memorable was Castle Menzies in Aberfeldy. We went to this particular Castle as the last Sikh emperor of Punjab, India lived here in the mid 1800’s when taken from Punjab during British rule. Nice they had a plaque to Honour him





His one day old Son is buried in Kenmore Church which was 15mins from Castle Menzies so paid our respects with some flowers





Maharajah Duleep Singh himself is buried in Elveden Church, Thetford.

We then drove to Edinburgh for a day before returning back home.



Absolutely loved driving through the Highlands. That’s 4000 miles done in August alone! I’m now planning the Scottish North Coast 500 for next year, right after watching Braveheart  :D

Been a bit quiet on the build thread lately. Needless to say I’ve been working on odd bits on the MK2.



Power steering cover




For a few weeks I’ve been hearing this progressively worse noise from the driver side door when the central locking is working. Immediate thought is the solenoid is seizing up. It still worked so left it as is.

One day, some of the kids from the local neighbourhood carried my mothers groceries all the way home, you know why, because the central locking packed up!

Door card off, It’s funny, I’m so used to taking the MK2 apart it’s like second nature. Few screws later the door card was off

Solenoid had split appart like something out of Hostel!



Ordered a new generic one from eBay and replaced. All working again



Car was going great until one day I noticed a clackety clack noise from the engine bay. I drove to work and noise was gone. Hoping it was another car making the noise I ignored it. Later on – on the way home the noise returned with a vengeance. Something was broken. When I put pressure on the clutch pedal the noise would go away and return with the pedal released. Immediate thought was release bearing or clutch fork. Now thinking about it, my clutch pedal had been making a springy noise for a while and the biting point was erratic of late.

Only option was to remove the gearbox. I decided to do this on the driveway as there are a number of brackets that need repainting/chroming so thought I’d take my time with it.

The Start



Gearbox paint is looking a bit sad so will have to key it down and paint later on.



One thing I always dread doing at home is the hub nut. I always see people online with 10ft scaffold poles trying to undo them. This was one of the reasons I bought an impact wrench. Cordless ones with good power are very expensive so I opted for a corded Clarke gun which cost around £70. It has a power rating of 450Nm which proved no problem (I know, I should have used an impact socket but I live dangerously)

Only downside to this gun is that it's the size of the Titanic





Next to come off was the Balljoint. I replaced this not so long ago so it came off with ease



Driveshaft bolts were removed with a smaller impact wrench. Electric tools make these kind of jobs easy peasy



Driveshaft was out. Not looking overly healthy I might add. One of my coolant pipes had a leak for some time and looks like the coolant seeped into the shaft. I’ll have to give this a real good clean and re-grease



Diff cup looks a bit crusty too



Other shaft bolts were removed with the help of the gun. This shaft can stay in place



Next was to start on the engine bay so battery was disconnected



Airbox off



Gear selector cables were removed and bracket removed from gearbox




Clutch actuator was next to come off



I decided to remove the gearbox mount bracket for extra clearance. One of the bolts had rounded off but luckily my friend bought me a set of these bolt removal sockets which removed the rounded bolt with ease.







Highly recommend these sockets!

Starter motor off. I’m going to try and remove the back later to see if I can get it chromed



Front mount off. Looking tired so will be sent to the chromers



All bolts holding the gearbox removed.



Manoeuvring the gearbox out the bay is tricky. Those annoying diff cups get caught on everything. I should have taken them off but couldn’t remember if they were bolt or push on. I was worried about the rust on one of them so decided to leave them on









Blasted diff cup stuck again. Not much fun doing this in the freezing cold!







Finally after much swearing the gearbox was off





Time to inspect the bearing and fork



As suspected, it’s Forked!







Common on O2A and O2J boxes. This will need to be replaced and will get a reinforced one.

Next was to remove and inspect the clutch





Clutch doesn’t look bad at all, bit of wear but looks healthy. This will also be replaced





Forgotten how Light the flywheel is





Time to order lots of new goodies and start piecing back together !

So got the Gearbox indoors and started scrubbing off the flaky paint.




Next I decided to drain the gearbox oil. Why I didn’t do this while it was still on the engine eludes me. I got the Gearbox onto my prebuilt gearbox jig  :thinking:



VERY carefully tapped in the drain key





And drained the oil





I can make up these jigs for anyone that’s interested. I hold no liability for the box falling onto your foot though  :lol:

Once drained, I started to remove the shift tower



Took a few knocks with the hammer but it came off



I noticed there was no Bush in here  .. 



I’m sure there is supposed to be a brass bush for the starter rod in here

Next was to clean up the box with some brake cleaner, mask it up and start spraying





Doesn’t look so bad. Can finished so I’ll get another one and give it a few more coats. Need to get this back on the road asap!

Been a while since I looked under the cover and did some work to get the Golf back on the the road so time to pull my finger out and get on with it. Sunny weather and lack of MK2 make me sad.

With the Gearbox still off the car I decided to collect up all brackets, nuts and bolts to get chrome plated or painted.



These need a re-plate

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #5 –

 


Decided to get the Steering rack bracket done which is now obsolete from the dealer





Driveshaft bolts and brackets will be Zinc plated



I also decided, instant regret when I started to take apart, to have the starter casing chrome plated. Not done this before and couldn’t see any guides online so blindly started taking it apart and seeing what happens
It all kind of fell apart then realised I should have removed the two long bolts first then work backwards. At least I know how to put it back together










Next I decided to remove the diff cups so it’s easier to refit the gearbox.

Angle grinded some aluminium to make spacers




Cups started moving relatively easily



Bingo, cups removed. Cup seals aren’t very old and are nice and soft so left them as is.



Changed the Release bearing guide for a new one







While all the above was going on I decided 145mph was not fast enough so looked at how I can keep my current ratios and have a higher top speed. Most cost effective route was to purchase a 6th gear kit from EuroTuning. They have developed a kit for 02A boxes that can be fitted without having to take the whole gearbox apart. It’s not cheap but should serve well.
 
This is the Gear kit. It should give me over 160mph whilst retaining my current 1-5 (5th will be a little shorter than I have now)




Now the fitting. Quite a nerve racking experience




Original shift rail had to be removed and replaced with a custom unit. The circlips holding the rail can easily fall into the gearbox



Tissues were used in case the clips fell



I hacked up an old screwdriver so it was small enough to fit into the clip



Circlip was then removed followed by the washer. The clip isn’t under too much tension so comes off relatively easily.




Then the other side




Next was removal of the 5th shift mechanism and gears







Now the gears.



Bolts to secure the Gears are on 120Nm. This was the only way I could undo them.




Bolts out





Now onto pulling the gears free.

As usual, nothing is ever easy when using universal tools. Gear puller hooks were too fat to fit under the gears so had to grind them down. Hacked up a piece of aluminium for supporting the centre.









It’s coming



Voila



 
Now the drive gear which required more modifying of tools after I tried counterbalancing using a spanner. Failed miserably








Now for the point of no return. The Shift rail I released earlier had to be cut out otherwise it meant dismantling the gearbox to remove it.

Gearbox crevices were covered up and the rail was angle grinded off. Shift rail was then able to come out the shift tower hole







New vs old Shift rail. The new item is much shorter but has an extension which bolts on later



Refitting the new rail was quite tricky as I had to refit the small circlips. Luckily the instructions for the kit gave me a good trick as to not drop and lose them but for good measure I stuffed loads of tissue into the box again











Wire was then unravelled and removed from the clips. Next was to fit the Shift rail extender with Loctite





Ordered and replaced the needle bearing.




Now the fun part. The gears. First 6th goes in with it’s drive gear then the synchronising hub, another needle bearing, 5th gear, spindle, 5th drive gear, and finally the bolts torqued to 120Nm with a stronger Loctite




















Next was to fit the new shift mechanism. Instead of a pivot point like the old mechanism, the new setup is a simple up and down shift as you move the gear lever. This means the new 6th gear fits in place of the original 5th and new 5th sits on the end of 6th. The ‘feel’ of changing into 5th and 6th probably won’t feel like the other gears but hey, worth a try.

Had a couple of trial and error attempts as the shift plate has to be level and central to the shift hub.








Finally the end case can go on. I’m not sealing this until the box is back on the car and I can cycle through the gears.



Next job is to get this back onto the block!

Thanks for reading  :smile:

Time to get the gearbox moving and back into the bay. Really wasn’t looking forward to this bit as the box very heavy, odd weight distribution, no ramp, no help (except a 7 year old who’s trying to help) and trying to be careful as to not scratch the paint.

First a new clutch kit was put in place with new bolts torqued to spec. Clutch was aligned by eye and bolts done up in a progressive criss cross pattern.  I wish the next bit was as easy as this. 







Next I manoeuvred the gearbox into position on the floor and slid it under the car. This is where kids come in very handy. My 7 year old pushed the trolley jack into position under the gearbox as I lifted it … the box…not the kid.





Now the fun begins. The kid operated the jack while I balanced the gearbox and prevented it from falling and smashing. It got caught in a few places like the subframe but came free with a little wiggle. Shockingly! the gearbox went on relatively easy, I felt like I had achieved my goal of 2019 when the input shaft connected with the clutch.

Removing the diff cups made all the difference.








All the nuts and bolts are still at the chrome place so used some old bolts for temporary measures. I have one month before my trip to Isle of Man so really getting nervous! Hopefully I can get them back before the long weekend



Been an eventful few months with some wins, some fails and one catastrophic failure!

Finally received all the chrome hardware to bolt the gearbox back up, the initial 10 days turn around ended up as 30days! Still, this gave me some time to get the car back together for my trip to isle of man then in August my annual trip to the Nurburgring.

Chrome came out amazing, almost too clean to put on the car. Shame a lot of it will be hidden bar the starter bits which look soo good.

Zinc plating came out good too. I didn’t go for chrome on these bits as I was worried the smooth coating wouldn’t ‘bite’ properly when tightened and may work their way lose. Still, looks shinny.






First thing to go on was the steering rack bracket, relatively simple to get on





Next was the front mount, the actual bush sleeve was painted with Black Hammerite. I made up a spacer which was chrome plated. This sits between the block and front mount and replaces the massive pile of washers.






Gear lever bracket was treated with new bushings and inserts






Rear mount I was told couldn’t be chromed because of the type of aluminium – probably why the old chrome had crumbled away. The Chromer kindly polished this for me, it turned out really nice




Actuator went in with no issues

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #6 –



Found someone had cross threaded this bolt in the head and it snapped so had to drill and tap it out.




Aux pump bracket fitted after chroming



Fitted the driveshaft bolts and torqued to 45Nm which seemed very tight for a fairly slim shank.





As I was pushing the car back and forth I noticed a driveshaft bolt head on the floor! Must have over torqued this one. Luckily I had a replacement bolt but not in zinc so replaced it. The broken shank came out fairly easily with a mole grip


 




Pretty much done. Just the Hub nut to do up which I did with my Torque wrench then clicked with 300Nm using a torque wrench. Not good for the back at that angle, I’m getting old




Things were looking good and all was going well. This is the point where things usually go bad.

I dry mounted the end cap for the 6th gear kit and noticed a tiny gap between the gearbox and end cap. Sealant would have filled this but according to the instructions there should no gaps so I dropped the supplier a quick email. While I was waiting, I removed and inspected the end cap and gearbox and found there was a tiny mark on the casing which was getting caught on my metal ruler. Wet and dry sorted this out. Soon after I received an email from the supplier to check the small bolts in the end cap that hold the needle bearings in place. One of the heads was catching on the gear so this was removed, ground then refitted. End cap seemed to fit much better was so sealed and torqued up










Tensioner bolts were re-chromed so put these back on




Next big challenge was to put the starter back together. First the magnets were put in place with their respective spacers.






Brushes were a bit of pain as they are spring loaded so I tied them back with some wire, put in place then cut the wires off





That’s one nice looking starter



Finally, everything was back together and in time for Isle of Man.




Fresh Gearbox oil went in



Turned the key to fire it up and all I could hear was a spinning noise. It sounded like the starter was spinning but not turning the engine. Damn, I must have done something wrong when I put it back together. Quick call to my local VW breaker and I got a replacement. Shinny one will be looked at when I have time.



Again, when I was moving the car back and forth by hand I noticed yet another driveshaft bolt head on the floor! It must be that the bolts are soo old and maybe overtightened in the past that they are breaking.

As a precaution I swapped all the bolts for some new OEM ones.






That was it, time to turn the key again, sit back and have a drink.

WRONG!!!!!!

I turned the key, engine fired up straight away and I nearly cried! There was a god-awful clacking noise coming from the gearbox. Pressed the clutch and the noise went away. Initial thought was the new Fork was touching the pressure plate.

I literally sat on the floor starring at the car for an hour. I was defeated! No way this was going to Isle of Man so I had to take plan B, the Wife’s much cherished M3. So gutted! The Golf will have to wait until I get back so left it under the cover.

Anyway, it can only get better from now on . . . . . so I thought

It was the first time, and last, oh no, I took the M3 out for a drive like this. I can see why these cars are so popular. Amazing machine …… wait for it






Yes that Porsche was on a whole different level of awesomness. Driving home on the motorway I was thinking about all the nice things I’ll be treating my Golf to when DISASTER struck.

Doing 75mph I noticed an odd rumbling sound coming from the car so I let go of the accelerator to be met with a soft jolt and alarming engine stop warnings from the dash. I pulled into the hard shoulder as quick as I could while flooding the motorway with smoke. Came to a standstill and the tyre pressure warning light came on, thank god, it’s just a blow out. Looked at all 4 tyres which were intact, then I looked under the car and was presented with oil and water pouring out the engine. My heart sank and I thought the worst, it must have thrown a rod. These V8 engines are prone to excessive rod bearing wear.

Called the AA and argued over the phone for 2 hours as they were adamant that someone had to come to inspect the damage first before recovering to a garage. I only argued because last time the car broke down the AA man said they can’t touch high end cars like this so have to tow to a garage. Took nearly 2 hours to get me off the M40 only to be told I’m being taken to the services which was literally ½ mile down the road. Took another 6 hours to recover the car and get home!



The next day the mechanic called and gave me some very bad news. He literally said I can hear bits of engine falling into the sump when I turn the crank by hand. WTF! BMW ultimate let down. This is a low mileage very well looked after car. Only option was to source a replacement engine. New engine from BMW is £25K!! yes, Twenty Five Thousand Pounds !  :boke:  :bad craic:

Luckily, if you can call it that, I managed to find an engine from a later M3 with very low miles and 3 month warranty for allot less than what BMs wanted.

While waiting on the new engine to arrive I decided to take the old one apart and sell bits to recover some monies.

What a shocker. Both Heads, block (now with 3 new holes), sump and crank were completely destroyed






Nothing was salvageable from the engine. It lost 2 pistons. One rod went through the top of the block and snapped the starter motor off the block. I couldn’t even get surcharge money back for the Starter.

Replacement engine turned up so left it to the mechanics to sort out. This engine is way too complicated for me



Some good news, with the Golf that is, to diagnose the issue and prove the clutch fork was fouling I backed out the clutch solenoid to expose the solenoid rod, put a screwdriver against the rod and started the engine. This confirmed the noise was the pressure plate hitting the reinforced fork as the rod was vibrating like a popular womens toy. I dropped the supplier a message and he couldn’t believe it. He measured up a few forks he had lying around and confirmed most had different thickness. He had an Epytec fork on the way so sent it my way as replacement.



Back to square one so I started undoing the gearbox again. At this stage it was like second nature.



Managed to snap the shift cable clip off the tower so have to replace



Once the box was off it was easy to see where the pressure plate was fouling the fork.



Fork was removed and compared against the Epytec item. Plates on the new item are welded inside the fork whereas the fouling one had plates on the outside. It was only the bottom that was catching so I could have ground that off for clearance but I had the replacement so swapped it out







With everything back together. Fired up the engine again, Bingo, no heart breaking noises or anything. Clutch was smooth engaging all 6 gears perfectly with no issues.

Literally had 5 days before going to the ring so I took the car out for nearly 3 hours everyday for test drives. No issues whatsoever
6th gear makes a huge difference on the motorway. Engine is just under 3k rpm at 70mph so much quieter than before. Rev’s aren’t too low so can easily accelerate in this gear.

That was it, car was ready so gave it a good clean and made my way to the ring. Nearly 5hrs from Calais to our Hotel because of roadworks but was a good test drive. 80 – 90mph was much quieter than what I was used to. On a stretch of the Autobahn I hit 150mph on my clocks with some rpm yet to go. Didn’t track on GPS but before the conversion I used to get 145 max. MPG was also up, 300 miles and just under 1/3rd of a tank left.

Met a couple of guys from the Netherlands on the trip. They had two incredibly clean MK1 cabs, one which was powered by an R32. Couldn’t resist some snaps





Got a good pic of my car. I’d like to say I was overtaking the RS but that thing was FAST!



Got the car home without a hiccup. More than what I can say about a certain M3

Only other thing I have done is coloured the Recaro stitching with a fabric pen. It’s the small things…





Next things on my list are

1.   Finally fit my inner sunroof panel and trim
2.   Tidy up the engine wiring

Thanks for reading

Last update of 2019. It’s been quite an eventful year and it’s time to the put the MK2 to sleep for the winter but first, a few things to fix. Main ones being..
-   Window regulator
-   Door membrane replacement
-   Roof panel
-   Reverse lights not working.

After many years of the window not sounding too healthy it finally popped and got stuck. Black bag look engaged.



So, aim was to replace the window regulator and also the door membrane which I know is a bit of a mess. Perfect time to do it
This little screwdriver on the back of the wheel brace can literally remove all interior screws so no fancy tools needed here.



Told you, what a mess! Can’t be having that


As soon as the door card came off I could see where it had broken from


Luckily I could still move the window by hand so lowered to undo the bolts


Next I used the infamous blue tape to hold the window up while I replaced the window mechanism


I got lucky, the blue tape gave way and I nearly ended up as an extra in Final Destination 8. If blue tape fails, add more blue tape



Bolts undone and mechanism removed.



New vs old regulator


I fitted the new regulator then realised I didn’t see any wiring. Looked at the new motor to find the plug was completely different. This is quite typical of aftermarket parts. Making up a fly loom is easy enough



Getting the window inside this guide is super important. The window will never stabilise without this


With the window now working it was time to fit up a new door membrane. The stuff I used was what VW now sell as replacement. I would have preferred the original style plastic sheet but I worked with what I got. For the glue I use Butyl tape which is very close to the original stuff.
Started mocking up the membrane



Butyl tape I ordered was a bit thick so I’ll get something thinner next time.


Membrane stuck on. I push the bottom of the membrane inside the door to prevent water sitting inside the membrane.

Door card back on and looking good


I had the roof lining covered in Alcantara a while back but didn’t put the roof panel back on as it’s not an easy job so been putting it off for aaaaages. This is what I have been looking at for a while ..


I fitted the panel but the roof kept getting stuck. On closer inspection I noticed the sunroof guide was cut and bent. How does this even happen! Defo not something I have done and I think the thicker material of the panel was getting caught on it.


Guide was bent downwards to prevent any sharp edges pointing up.


Scene tape applied and wind deflector removed.


All top level screws were removed. Have to be careful as to not upset any alignment otherwise it’s a hell of a job to get right again. Panel slides in ….

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #7 –



Once the panel was in I started clipping it to the sunroof

A couple of the clips were lose so I decided to spread to get a tighter clip. Not a good idea as one snapped! I’ll leave the rest alone for now.



Panel on, looking much better already



Next was to get the original seal back on. The seal was squashed before refitting so it clamped on nice and tight.


One thing I should have done was undid the alcantara around the roof lining where the sunroof cut out is and wrapped the fabric around the metal where the seal sits. This would have made up the gaps you can see. That will be another job for another day. For now it looks much better. Might even put some beading around the seal for now.


Last thing to do was fix my reverse lights. It was either a wiring fault or the switch was broken. Easy enough to diagnose. Remove the reverse switch connector and bridge the pins..


The lights turned on so I bought a replacement. Easy to install with jut two bolts.



Yeay



That was it. Time for a cover up. Bought a new cover as I was fed up with the stormforce. It’s a good cover but not very durable. It started cracking where it drapes over the car from the roof, loads of fibres come off when moving the cover and it’s too long so picks up dirt that gets blown around. Not good as that dirt ends up on the paint. That was my second stormforce!

New cover from Specialist covers. Not cheap, it’s almost double the price of the old one but very well made. The top coat is very thick and inside lining feels quite durable. It’s tailor made so the fit is spot on



Let’s see how it performs over the winter


Damn cat !!!! few days on and a cat leaves a nice present


That’s it for this year. Thanks for reading.

Have a great Christmas and start to the new year all !!

I’ve seen soo many people working on their cars during this Covid-19 lockdown. I bet there will be an abundance of new cars at next year’s shows!
I’m taking the opportunity to tidy up my wiring. Main purpose is to move the squashed ECU out from under the centre console, check the crank wiring as the engine has these random moments of hesitation and get rid of the extension wires from the original loom to the ECU. The extension loom does not have any shielded wires so suspect the crank wiring is interfering somewhere.
What started as something small turned into a rework of the whole loom.
First part of the puzzle was to order new parts so I placed an order with Emerald and Vehicle Wiring products for a load of wires, terminals, connectors, tape, and other stuff I probably didn’t need but that ‘buy it now’ button is too easy to press.

I listed down all the OEM wire colours and ordered cables in the same diameter and colours



I wanted to fix wiring like this where someone had cut an original wire and extended with a random one instead of using the oem wiring


Once I started moving and cutting things out of the way I started coming up with ideas of where to mount everything, being aftermarket I had to find space for
-   ECU
-   Power distribution
-   Map sensor
-   OBD2 bluetooth dongle
-   Wideband lambda controller
-   Map switch
Toyed around with a few ideas including getting rid of the passenger shelf



I sat in the car for a while thinking ‘do I really want to open this can’ but then picked up the side cutters and thought what the heck and started chopping things up
Before taking the cutters to the first wire, all wires were labelled and noted down.


Then the chop shop,




Old ECU plug, it’s like severing arteries



Once all the old wires were chopped off it was time to work out what went where and to rewire everything back in.
Flag terminals used as to not obstruct the carpet



Wires for ECU power, oil pressure switches, oil temp, taco, fuel pump trigger, e.t.c. were fitted with a new plug for easy fit and release. I made sure same colour wires were used for easy identification.


Next thing I did was try and extend the Lambda wiring into the car so the controller was no longer in the bay. I tried to get hold of lambda plugs but the male end is difficult to get hold of, James E Looms recommended generic waterproof timer plugs. Again, original wire colours used for the extension.




Bought plenty fabric loom wrap for inside and oil/chemical resistant stuff for the outside. It does look real nice with fresh loom wrap



not really liking this setup so will rework


Next I started labelling and crimping the ECU wires for the new plug

And plugging them into the new plug


Love having a full set of original fuses


Next big thing was to relocate the power distribution for the battery in the boot to make space for the ECU and other components. Looking around the passenger side, there is a bit of space between the dash and heater box above the heater motor. Bracket was made out of stainless and mounted to the side of the glovebox.




Had a bit of an accident drilling into the bracket. I pressed too hard and the drill bit snapped, drill then ran against my other hand causing two gashes! First thought as I clenched my hand was that the drill bit  was in my hand but realised it was on the floor. Luckily I manged to clean up and hold pressure until it stopped bleeding. Last thing I wanted was to put pressure on the already stretched NHS!

Few more modifications to the bracket and it was mounted, well out the way from anything



Extended, crimped and a small amount of solder to the fusebox power cable


Fairly easy to get to and looks neat



With all that done I decided I wanted to retain the passenger under tray so mounted the ECU just under the heater box. Under tray will still need to be modified but it won’t be very noticeable


Cool little tool for that heat shrink


What needs to be done next is power for the coils and injectors. Initially this came off one cable but I wanted it split like OEM. Wires were extended towards the fusebox and I ordered some OEM relay and fuse holders that clip into the CE2 fusebox. This is as far as I got for now. Very close to firing it up then wrapping and boxing everything up.



Hopefully this rain won’t last for long and the tropical weather returns.

Hope everyone is keeping safe. Thanks for reading

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #8 –
Wow that was a pain lol

Thread now moved. More updates to follow once my copy paste finger stops hurting
 

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #9 –
Love it, great spec all round! I need two more cylinders.

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #10 –
Time to bring this thread up to date!

So the bad weather didn’t last long and I could really crack on with getting this bit complete. With the OEM relay and fuse holders wired in, I clipped them onto the fusebox.


hand is healing up well



Definitely worth getting these holders for that oem look. It puts the relay and fuse in easy reach.

At this stage I was ready to connect the battery and test power to everything. Even at this bit I get worried there may be a short or something somewhere. Once power was on, I used a meter to check power to everything I touched. Fuel pump was priming ok and ECU light was flashing away so looking good so far. Coils and Injectors have power and Lambda status light is flashing away. Getting excited now!

Before turning the key and firing it up, I connected the ECU to my laptop to check all sensor readings. All looked good apart from the coolant sensor, it was reading -6 ! That’s not right. Could I have messed up the wires for it? Is the sensor bad?

I did a continuity test on the coolant sensor wires and seemed ok, feeling confident in my wiring, I just ordered a new one. In the meantime, I could fire up the engine anyway so proceeded to do so. Literally with the turn of the key it fired up straight away. I could see the coolant sensor playing shenanigans on the ECU screen. It went from -6 to a positive number then intermittently jumping around.




Engine was left running to properly warm up. Once the fans kicked in, I started looking around the other sensors and found the Wideband was not reporting to the ECU. Odd, I’m sure it worked ok before I ripped it all apart. Looking at the LC-1 controller LED, it was giving error 5 which points to sensor cable fault so I checked the cable like 1000 times and did a continuity test. Nothing, it all seemed ok but the error was still there. Only thing to do was try to re-calibrate the sensor. Easy enough, unplug the sensor, ignition on until some lights on the controller flash, power down, sensor back in and reinstate power. Error 4 then error 5!!!

At this point I didn’t know what to try so emailed Innovate. After a couple of email exchanges, the support guy said the controller is probably dead so will need a new one. Innovate don’t support LC-1 so bought a new LC-2 controller and sensor.



Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #11 –
Once it arrived, I wired up a power plug. The LC-2 is much easier to wire up, calibration and status LED are integrated opposed to separate wires and components like the LC-1. The controller is much smaller too so mounting would be easier.



Old lambda out




Fitted and calibrated the new sensor. ECU is now showing AFR.

New coolant sensor also turned up so fitted that. Easy to change with minimal coolant loss.




No more odd readings for coolant.

With everything wired in and running, the engine didn’t sound right. The exhaust note was ‘boomy’ compared to before. The AFR was showing over fuelling and there was a noticeable smell of fuel and black smoke on hard throttle. I gave Emerald a call and they advised me to do a throttle calibration over the phone. Just those simple steps fixed it and all was well in the land of nod.

Getting very excited now as I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. In my excitement I decided to have a go at fitting an electric aerial. I haven’t seen many MK2’s with electric aerials so I was anticipating a battle.

Firstly, Inner arch liner was removed. Inside the arch looks really clean and no signs of the wing ever being off the car. Drainage holes look big enough to accommodate some extra wires without impeding drainage so wiring won’t be an issue.




Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #12 –
What will be a problem is the aerial hole. The wing moulding covers a majority of the hole so space is going to be very tight



The aerial kit came with this fitting that is supposed to sit under the hole. As you can see it doesn’t fit so I used a Dremel to cut it away into a usable shape.





Even after modifying the fitting, there was not enough space for the aerial to sit with this fitting as the bulk of the mechanism hits the inner wing. I didn’t want to give up so looked around at something else to replace the fittings. Luckily I remembered I had a round bar for such an occasion, it was the same bar I used to make a spacer for my engine mount bracket a while back.

Unbelievably it was a perfect fit so angle grind a piece off for a test fit




Without much effort the aerial now slides into place with easy. The top of the new adaptor was angled to match the wing.




The adaptor was painted with Hammerite and coated with a chemical resistant tape to avoid metal against the wing and potential rust



If you’ve been following this build thread you may remember I fed through a couple of spare cables for such occasions. Those two spare cables are now Live and antenna switch.





Bonnet earthing point was used as the earth. I need to replace the broken bonnet cable at some point



To secure the underside of the aerial mechanism VW conveniently placed this stud here for us. The aerial kit came with a securing strap so that was bolted to the stud then screwed to the underside of the aerial.



This is the aerial I used



Next I wired the antenna switch feed to the head unit. Live feed was left permanently live so even with the key out, the aerial will come back down. What I didn’t realise was that the Alpine head unit, probably others, switch the antenna ON as soon as it powers up, even if not on Tuner source. This is annoying as I don’t want it up all the time. Antenna dash switch for MK2’s are impossible to get hold of and they go for silly monies when they do appear. A spare fog light switch I had lying around will do for now



Had to buy an aerial cable adaptor




Size does matter




In my excitement I didn’t take any pics of the underside fitted. What I can say is that the arch liner leans up against the bottom of the aerial mech but not enough to cause an issue.

It's proper retro and love the look!

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #13 –
Moving back to putting the undertrays back on. Driver side goes on with ease



Before moving to the other side, vehicle speed signal from the MK2 clocks was wired into the ECU. This should give me clock speed in the ECU settings and on a Bluetooth reader.



Passenger under tray needed a bit of trimming to clear the ECU



Then mocked up a sheet of textured plastic to cover the hole






To fit the panel and trim I used some Araldite adhesive. The idea was to use this to hold the panel in place while it was trimmed then fibreglass to secure.




While waiting on the glue to dry I looked at what needed to be done next. New bushes to fit while the KW's go on  ;D



Once the glue dried, Dremel was used to trim off the edges




The glue was strong enough so fibreglass wasn’t needed. To refine, one day, I’ll carefully remove all external glue but for now, I’m happy. 



Last thing I did was change the door switch seals. Super easy with one screw. Seals are readily available on eBay




That's it for now. Next updates will include my KW suspension swap and all new front bushes. For now, I'll pump Flex FM and watch people gasp at an electric aerial  ;)

Re: Pearl Grey with R32 power, Lockdown updates, Insta: mk2golfr32build

Reply #14 –
Back again for more updates. Forget the KW’s, I’m installing some new gauges today



I was after a set of Duostyle gauges for while and joined in on the mailing list and new forum with the original guy who made them so long ago. Re-manufacture wasn’t going well, wasn’t going anywhere, then these from Digifiz mini popped up. I was instantly hooked; the look is perfect for the MK2.

After all the rewiring it was time to open it up again



New relay was installed to power the gauges. Digifiz mini do a plug and play kit but the spare slots on the fusebox to hold additional relays and fuses were taken up with my rewire so I opted to create a custom loom


 



The terminals are tiny for these gauges. My crimp tool was too big so soldered them instead.



Different wire colours used for easy identification



Loom was wrapped with loom tape



 

Test fitted the connector with wiring before threading the loom through the dash





With everything fitting well, the loom was threaded through the dash



First power up, no senders on the other end yet



Loom was pushed through the bulk and wrapped in a chemical repellent loom tape



The original senders needed earthing to stop the oil light flashing on the dash so added a new earth from the engine into the loom





Once the loom was in place it was time to cut the loom at the right length and start to add the connectors. Before that I decided to fit the senders for the correct wire length.



This is where I miss my 16V. There is literally no access to the front of the engine to get to the original oil sender.





Front end of the car had to come off. I was able to manoeuvre the rad for access without draining the system.








Original low pressure sender out. The idea was to move the original low oil pressure sender to the T piece, earth out high oil pressure and place oil temp in the original low oil sender hole.

Problem! The pressure senders were too long for the T piece! I could have hunted for a thick copper washer but wanted to use the car that evening, so, T piece was removed and replaced with the guage pressure sender.









Wires were cut and connectors wired in


Front end was put back together then realised I left the bonnet pull cable out



Grill back off then reassembled WITH the bonnet pull



On first start the low pressure dash light started flashing. A quick chat with the oracle RubJohnny, he told me the low pressure wire does not need to be earthed like the buzzer. Removed that earth and it stopped flashing

The gauges are lovely!. Look right at home and the correct level of light during the day and night. There is a dim feature but left if off so I can show them off at night.