1990 Golf CL -> 20vt conversion

July 27, 2020, 02:01:07 PM

Afternoon All,
It's been requested that I start a thread for my 20v turbo conversion that I have just begun.
I have had this golf for 5 years now with hopes of keeping it original but with the starter packing up in the original 1.6 engine, I decided to go full send with this conversion that I've wanted to do since before even owning the car. My plans are to try and keep the interior looking as stock as possible but keeping the running gear as functional as possible by keeping traction and ABS.

So first of all we removed the golf dash and went about removing the old 1.6 engine, box and subframe with all running gear attached, this took us almost the whole of Tuesday morning but all came out pretty easily. Only problem is that the car is parked on my front lawn so the hoist is sinking slowly into the ground! Lol

Next I had to purchase the car! I decided to go with a full donor 2001 Ibiza Cupra as my golf guru Tim Gash told me it was almost a perfect bolt in swap! So on Wednesday we had a 6 hour round trip up to Peterborough to pick up this Ibiza cupra with the AYP engine running 230 break! Had good fun and the previous owner gave it a good sending off on the back roads of where he lived!

After spending Wednesday night tearing off the front end we got an early night to continue the next day to get the 20v engine and gearbox, subframe with running gear and the shifter all into the golf.
Thursday all went to plan, subframe in with all running gear attached✓ shifter in✓ engine and gearbox in✓ brake servo in✓ currently deciding whether to go for the vr6 solid front mount or fabricate my own bracket... got a piece of wood between the front mount bracket and cross member at the moment

Any suggestions?

Friday onto stripping the Biza inside and out to reveal the massive spaghetti of wiring that is currently laid out nicely on my bedroom floor lol. Before moving it inside we hooked up a battery, the old fuel tank (on the floor) and all the necessary wires to fire up the engine to check it still runs and success!

Now on the shopping list is:
> MK3 GTi/vr6 fuel tank - any for sale?
>Clutch conversion kit - heard sambos vag conversions are good?
> Immobiliser off
> Brake lines - will be rerouting myself as keeping ABS
> Tach convertor to use original MK2 clocks - any suggestions?

Made good progress this week I think, especially for my first conversion!!

Thanks for reading
Isaac

Ps. Pics coming soon

Re: 1990 Golf CL -> 20vt conversion

Reply #1 – July 30, 2020, 08:51:56 AM

I assume it’s an 02m box, therefore you need to either convert the speedo to electronic (seat Ibiza or something) or buy the £300 converter (the route I’m going to keep my 8k 160mph CE1 clocks)

Re: 1990 Golf CL -> 20vt conversion

Reply #2 – August 06, 2020, 09:52:28 AM

there are plenty of folk who make Tach Adapters for around £40 on Facebook, the guy i used was called James E Looms and its worked perfectly. I think the Ibiza box is an O2J? so a 1.3 speedo cable will work for the speedo.