I got rid of the A6 in order for this to take its place Its a 92 Oakey. I have a lot of plans for this car involving the engine bay, and what it will contain. For the time being Ill be doing a few changes, Ill be removing/replacing some items with the original parts : Koni Suspension, exhaust, quick shift, Hids, and maybe fit a set of steels to it. Ill also be removing the power steering because I hate power steering in a Mk2. So far ive given the car a good polish and de-stickered it. Its a very tight car and pulls real well with the 8v engine. Pic for the time being(thanks Jon) Ill try keep this updated over the next yr as developments for it unfold, I can now go back to the casting thread again now that Ive got a car sorted, there harder find than ya think Brian.
is there anyway to make PAS less effective? so its not as light? I take it your going to swap a non pas rack into it rather than just disconnect it lol
brian,i hope your not planning on doing a "cut away" project on it looks sweet,love the pic and the car obviously
Andy Dawson (old school rally/race car engineer) used to put a "softer" spring into the PAS relief valve , something I've been considering for my Rally car tbh...
Thanks! Ya, Pic is done professionally, the last owner got a few taken by h ttp://www.softbox. ie. Hes very good in fairness. @Ripmk3 I dunno, I just want to ''lessen'' the engine bay crap to keep thinks simple down at the pulley region. Plus, I Hate ps in a Gti, Im well able to wind that wheel around, I know there is ways of lightening it/making it heavier but I just want to keep things simple, Ive not had ps in any mk2 Gti yet. @ Neil, nope, wont be cutting this up
I said it earlier but i love that picture, i want it as a poster now... Edit; New desktop background!
Right, time to start this and reveal my plans for the next 18months or so. Its been a while since I posted on here so I thought I may as well put all my doings in one thread to save cluttering up the forum with particular 'how to' guides relating to one part or another that will eventually find its way into the engine bay of this car. Ill be covering a wide range of stuff Ive always talked about, thought about, and wanted to do. I now have the time to do them. Ill be doing everything myself with the tools and machines that I have here, if I havent got a particular machine or tool I need to do the job Ill make it and post up that too. Like most, I haven't got money for throwing away, so doing it this way means the dearest part of all this work is going to be the materials. Materials are pretty cheap, so its then up to me to make them work as I want them to. It will take time though, but my free time doesn't cost me money and in the end Ill have exactly what I want exactly how I want it. For anyone that says ''Sure ya can buy x part for 50euro why bother making it'' fair enough, that doesn't come into at all for me. So, a quick run down of my plans, As the car sits now its fitted with an 8v 1.8L engine, it has a gs2h cam, a 4 branch manifold, and a very loud exhaust system of sorts. The first thing ill be doing is making a full exhaust system from the manifold back out of stainless, Ill also be making the silencers. After that Ill be converting the 8v to throttle bodies, Ill be making the lot, butterfly's and linkages included, It will have a carbon fibre plenum. Ill also be opening up the head a bit more to make it breath a little better and making a vernier pulley for it. After that Ill then have everything in place to start making the 16v head, Ive had a few things In the way the last while slowing things down, and effecting the casting thread also. The last of these obstacles has just left the workshop. Once the head is made(large time scale) Ill also be making a throttle body set-up for it, thats not as bad because they are already designed and drawn out alongside the cylinder head plans. A 2.0L block* will also be going in when Im fitting head. And once again, it will have an exhaust system made to suit. I have no intention of doing anything with the outside of the car bar polishing it and maybe fitting a set of steels to keep things simple. Ill be returning it to the standard suspension too, it has lowered adjustable suspension now, but Im just too old for it anymore I have yet to lose a Mk2 on its standard set-up. Dont expect the body to be minty fresh, Im not that sort of guy Im afraid, Im all about engines. Updates are going to be horrid slow but they will come. Finding particular materials can be hard and some of them are very very far away. So thats pretty much it, I hope to kick it off towards the end of next week, heres a picture of said car for the time being, good luck! Right, here goes anyway... Im still waiting on a few bits of stainless for the exhaust system so I decided to crack on with the intake manifold and slide throttles. Having spent years running in and out checking measurements in engines bay I finally had enough of it so I thought I may as well do a mock-up engine bay that I could model off when making the manifold. Im making the mock-up bay model adjustable at first so that I can get all the bits pretty close, and then when finished, take a few measurements from the engine bay and then lock all the various bits in place on the model. Doing it that way then lets me work off the model and Ill know exactly where things are like the bulkhead, etc, and I can have it right there beside me, so...in the end, the intake manifold will fit right into the bay and not hit anything. The model is also light, and easy to store away, unlike some mock-ups which use the front half of the car, subframe, and actual engine parts. For those of you that are new comers on here, Im a cabinetmaker/joiner by trade so knocking up this sort of thing is very easy for me. For those of you who think seeing how-to's on timber objects in the project section on a car forum is taking the ****, tough! lol, its all part of the process on route to reaching the finished article. So, onto the model, I traced round the cut block to form the out-line for the end templates which will form the block skeleton. I also marked the crank centre. This template was then transferred onto an off-cut of laminate flooring, these will be the ends. Both ends cut. I then cut some spars to form the blocks length. All nailed up. It doesn't really need to be that strong as it will be supported off the dowel rod at crank centre. Next, I screwed two brackets onto a flat base board, the dowel is then passed through these brackets and through block, this allows the block to swivel on the crank centre-line, and also allows me to cant back the model as it is in the bay. I have a fair Idea what angle the engine sits at but I have to double check it tomorrow, I can then lock it off at that rearward tilting angle. Next I made up the head model, while minor shapes and dimensions aren't that important, the length, width, height, and flange faces are important. Im going to fix the head model onto block model with a few toggles like you see on a tool chest, this will allow me to whip it off if I want to. Once I measure out the flange bolt hole spacings I can Insert some studs/bolts into the rear side of head model. This will allow me to bolt on my Intake manifold for clearance checks, mock-up, etc.
The 8v rocker cover face when sitting in car is 10 degrees off level, canted back. The 16v head rocker cover face sits level in car but this is because the head is angled to make up for the amount the block is tilted. The pictures below might explain better. I used an level with an angle gauge built in to check the angle engine is tilted back at when sitting in the bay. It came out at 10 degrees. I then set the mock-up to lean back at the same angle. To double check it was fairly near being right I placed the 16v head on it and checked it with a level, given the fact that the 16v head faces aren't parallel like the 8v the 16v rocker face should come out as being level when placed on the tilted block, and it was. I could then start to work on the bulkhead area now that I could take my measurements off the now correctly set block model. Tacked on with brackets the correct amount back from crank centreline. Once I found out all the sizes from base of block all the way up to the top of head to bulkhead I could lock off the bulkhead panel with a brace. Next, the lip that forms the scuttle area was cut, two angle brackets fitted to form angle for panel. Fitted. Out with the angle gauge again, the block leans down on the gearbox end 22mm, so I elongated the hole for the dowel rod on that side to create the same effect. Another check with the 16v head. Its now nearly done, Ive a few details left to add to the bulkhead panel, the strut tower to to make up as its near the throttle body/pipe to air filter box, and the port spacings/position to mark out on the mock 8v head as shown below. After a bit of thinking I have also decided to make a machine for skimming heads. I plan to to skim a few heads for this car for various reasons, some of it angle skim work, so to save answering questions or having to explain exactly what I want done to the skimmer guys(and hoping they do it right) it will be a useful machine to have. Ive thought it over and it should be fairly simple to make up. Ill post all that in here too as I build it over the coming while. While the milling machine is handy, skimming a head on one requires maximum stroke of the table because of head length, so Ill also use the skimmer on my own 16v head too before it goes to the mill for finer/positional machining. I have to draw up some sort of a plan for the skimmer but I have it pretty much down in my head, Ive most of the major bits got for it in the line of bearings, slides, and motor. I have to work out a few dimensions yet for table up and down travel as I want to be able to get a block under the cutter too for when I want to skim the deck.
Gathered a few bits today for the 8v build. Got an AGG engine which Ill need the block from as its 2.0l and a tall block also. And I got an 8v Digi head to go on that too so I can build the engine fully on the stand. So without further a do I set to work on getting it up on the stand and ready for a FULL rebuild amongst other stuff. I will also be overhauling and porting the head as I want it also. Ill try my best on making it a bit of a how-to with regards stripping engine, preparing it, and rebuilding it, same goes for the head and head work. Im just going to let the thread run as its happening in real time as it easier that way, so theres going to be a bit of a mix of stuff in here but we should be ok. Right... Engine on the winch getting it ready to fit it to engine stand. Before the engine is mounted a few bits have to come off to make crank removal possible while on the stand. Flywheel first, I removed the 9mm bolts holding it on and the dome thrust plate and clip, I can then get at the bolts holding it to crank. I could use the impact wrench to remove these, that way I wouldn't have to lock crank, but its no harm doing it this way to show how it can be locked as not everyone has air tools, lock it with a spanner and two bolts like so below. Bolts out. Few taps and off she comes. You can then get at the 3) 10mm bolts holding on the shield. Out. Its in good nick, the factory milling is still pretty fresh in places, if this was a mk2 block seeing silver milled cast is rare, its usually all surface rust. Next, the metal water pipe has to come off as its in the way of stand, 10mm nut below flange. And the hose clip at pump. My Stand, nothing fancy, but its strong, and lockable at different positions. It looks a bit strange but I add bits to it depending on different engine/bellhousing bolt patterns. Winch her up, bit fiddly but the winch offers good control. On. Next, oil is drained, saves it spilling out breather/head once block is rotated or when the sump is being whipped. Top timing cover pulled so I can remove timing belt in order to whip off head. Few snaps of the 8v Digi Gti head before I start into it.
Time for the manifolds to come off. Heat shield covers some bolts so off that comes first. Off, intake manifold is on with allen bolts as below. Lefty loosey Its free now just to remove engine loom and wiring to injectors. Off. Exhaust manifold off next. One nut rounded as they do, out with grinder.... Off. Next, hoses have to come off. The one onto oil cooler can be a pig as they corrode sometimes and the alloy furs up. Off. Breather pipe off next. Lever up mushroom breather. Disconnected from block breather. Off with cambelt in order to pull head. Out with the two bolts holding black shield. Getting there now....rocker cover off. Splash shield removed, this stops hot oil splashing on the cooler rocker cover and also helps keep the oil away from rocker gasket. Its pretty common for the headbolts to be a bit gummy so it has to come out of there or else the spline wont go into bolt head far enough and it'll just spin, not fun..
All cleaned out and ready for opening. All Open and out. And the washers, Off she comes, bores look good, bit shiny, but no wear step at the top. And the head. The valves in this head are smaller than the Gti head, hence the fact why I have a Gti head to go on in its place. The 2.0l head does have smaller valve stems though.... Ill throw up a few measurements to compare the two when Im that far. Now, I want to find out how much the piston crown protrudes above the block surface when at TDC, or if it protrudes at all so Im going to set up the dial gauge to get an accurate measurement. I need to know this for later. Ill also have to get the correct cubic centimetre(cc) volume of the head chamber and piston crown also so I can do some compression ratio maths in a while. Anyways, onto the dial gauge... Its pretty simple, its just a tiny rack and pinion connected to a dial, the face of which is marked in thousands of an Inch. I cleaned three spots on the head which Ill need as datum points. Next, the main pillar of gauge is bolted to block face. The tip of gauge is placed on the block by adjusting the pillar, the telescopic datum pin inside the gauge can move up approx an Inch so I put a bit of a preload on it against block surface and zero'd the needle. Picture of gauge zero'd, It was hard for the camera to pick up due to dust on the face so I highlighted the points on it, in this case ''0''. The pillar and gauge is then swung in over the piston. It pivots on the arm so its all still in the same place height-wise. I turned engine to put the piston down out of the way while swinging it into bore area. Then, the engine was rotated clockwise to bring the piston to TDC and also contact gauge datum pin. The piston actually sits 3 thou lower than the deck face when at TDC. Just what I wanted to know.
