91' Mk2 ABF Digi GTI

Right I see, in that case I'll make it fit and strap it down then. I bought an Ibiza ABF box as I thought that would be direct fit, didn't realise the Toledo ones differed. I assume the additional hole on the rear of the box stays open? Mk2 digi box didn't have this.

Will need to extend the cold air feed into the mk2 plastic surround by the headlight but there's a few ingenious methods in this thread here

Cheers for the help.

 

Good to know RJ, cheers. See what you mean about the synta cap just the job. I've blocked it with one of the bungs the rad came with for now though which also fits well.

Had a couple of weekends away from the car but picked up progress again today. Engine bay is now completely finished bar the engine loom. All the plumbing is done, lighting loom wrapped, cables connected up and brakes and lines are finished bar bleeding.

Fitted the 280 discs and goodridge braided lines. Only 4 fitted at the mo but will do the ones around the beam later in the year when it comes off for a refurb. I just kind of want to get the car on the road for the summer now.











Also picked up some HEL stainless nipples:



Whilst the rear of the car was up in the air I decided to whip the back bumper off to check for rot and to see if I could align it any better. Turns out the inner brackets are broken but I have a new bumper to go on at some point anyway. Really pleased to report none of the usual rot and its clean as a whistle.



Before:





After:



Sitting a little better:



Also realigned the exhaust tips so they sat better:



Decided to clean out around the filler cap. It's amazing how much **** can collect here. Fortunately all clean and rot free.







Back to the engine bay - sorted out the top rad hose and cut it down to fit:



Had a bit of a mishap with the rewiring the coolant level sender wires. Needed to remove the pins from the Mk2 plug and refit into the Mk4 one. After 30 mins of trying to prise them out with various screwdrivers, hairclips etc I gave up and smashed the plug off . Unfortunately it STILL didn't want to give up its precious pins and one of the wires broke . After thinking sod this popped up the scrappy and robbed a mk4 of its sender with the pins already in place and a length of loom. Bit of a faff but at least I get the proper housing cover. Anyway all sorted:



Just the loom to go now really, can't wait to get back behind the wheel. Only issue I have currently is the clutch cable. It's an auto adjust jobby and seems too loose. I can get all gears but 1st is a little tricky. Whats concerning is I can get all the gears even without the clutch down. I have a 1.3 manual cable kicking around somewhere, I may try that on it instead.

Right, beer'o'clock, that's all for now.

 

Good work, I bet mine wont have made as much progress after 3 years.
You need to swap your rear wheels round, your tyres are directional, the arrow shaped tread should run with the direction of travel.


Unless you normally reverse everwhere

 

Thanks - no I don't reverse everywhere I've just boshed the wheels on loose for the mo as they are all coming off again to bleed the brakes. Mix of the Ronals and space savers at the mo.

 

Made a bit more progress over the bank hol weekend although progress was a little half arsed if I'm honest lol. Enthusiasm is waining slightly but picked up again when the loom arrived after RJ worked his magic on it. He's done a spot on job - all in place roughly but couldn't tape it up as ran out of loom tape.





Quite a lot of loom to stuff up into the scuttle



Best routing I could see for the ECU vac line - this correct?



Plugged the airflow sensor in on the airbox. Thought I'd lost this little bugger.



I think I just pop the ABF transponder wire onto the column instead of the black collar already on there?



Any tips on getting this to sit properly in the bulkhead appreciated. The biggest **** of a job I've done for a while, gave up for now lol



Slowly but surely getting there - front end and lights back on, all connected up





Hopefully crack on with plugging the rest of loom in one evening this week.

 

i have some silcone spray if you need it buddy

 

Time for an update! After spending the last 2-3 weeks trying to figure out why the car wouldn't start it finally fired into life last night

The first problem was a lack of fuel getting to the injectors. After stripping down the manifold etc again I realised muggins here had put the fuel hoses were on the wrong way aroundlol (note to other ABF conversions - fuel hoses are the opposite way around on the donor 16v to the mk2 8v). That saw fuel getting through and a glimmer of hope as it turned over. Unfortunately the factory immobilser kept cutting in despite using the correct chip/coil reader etc from the Seat. Few evenings spent getting to grips with VAGCOM and multiple different coil readers and chips from the scrappy and still no joy. Decided to give in and send the ECU off to Stealth Racing to defeat it. Came back yesterday and the car fired first time.

Have to say a massive thanks to Rubjonny for answering many a PM and general ABF advice, top chap



Wired up the VDO senders



Part numbers for the Audi sender in case anyone wants it



Up and running





Front end near enough complete again now with bonnet, bumper, grille etc all back on






Now it's running I have a few new problems to sort out but nothing too strenuous with any luck. Things to do:

Engine

Battery - for some reason my battery light is on permanently

Idle - Idle seems too low and won't idle unless I hold the revs up for around 5 seconds

Water temp sender - ABF sender seems to be reading too low for the Mk2 clock temp gauge

Fueling - Mixture smells very rich

ECU bracket - hack up the Seat bracket to fit the Mk2 and try and make it look neat


Brakes

Full check over of the system and a bleed


After a general tidy up putting trim back on etc it should be ready for a test drive then. Can't wait.

 

Not sure if it goes up when revved will check. I think it was pretty much static at that reading. The VDO pic was taken after the car had been running for 10 mins or so (was still running when I snapped the pic).

Good to know on the temp reading cheers, a fair point, I forgot about the ABF stat using a lower temp. Fan kicks in just after that first marker on the dash gauge.

Is the coolant temp sender on the side of the head? Can remember a white plug there but will have a look. Will have a scout about through the search on here. Need to find my Seat Haynes manual again, it's lost in the abyss of the garage somewhere lol

 

Cheers had a look over the weekend and found the senders. Cleaned them up a bit but still under reading a fair bit. Instead of sitting at the middle 90 mark the dash water temp gauge sits on the first marker (70 ish I guess, the one after the cold white zone - pretty much where it is in the pic above). Is it worth getting a new sender or is it more to do with different ratings?

Phantom earth issue is now sorted and I've realised what I've done wrong with the battery light and blue alternator after taking a look at my mates mk3. Should be easy to rectify.

Only niggle after that to sort is the idle. It's a bit tricky going for a blast as I still haven't bled the brakes and it's not MOT'd etc. It'll sort of idle if I hold the throttle up for a bit but dies as soon as I touch the accelerator again.

I've left the ISV soaking in petrol to rule that out. Other than that I may be looking at the ECU temp on the side of the head perhaps. I've replaced all of the vacuum lines etc so there shouldn't be any airleaks.

 

Pretty confident the stat is fine, lower hose stays cold for a fair while, it's only when the engine gets reasonably hot it opens so all seems ok there. Hard to say on the gauge reading though with the incorrect readings.

Oil gets up to around 80-90 indicated on the MFA, around the same on the VDO's.

Just to check: MFA temp (oil cooler) is white and genuine (came from the 8v lump). Coolant temp (side of head gearbox side, furthest back) is black (not sure if gen, will check). ECU temp (side of head gearbox side, one at the front, white plug).

Measuring blocks is new to me but cool will give it a look

 

Yeah, pretty much - where it is sat in this pic is where it stays. It does go slightly past that mark that it's sitting on which is when the fan kicks but no higher.



Will peruse the linked thread.

 

Spot on ta

Just ran it up to temp for 20 mins or so and the gauge went a bit higher this eve. Boshed Vagcom on it and according to that the coolant temp settled around 90-94 degrees, fan kicking in when it hits 98 degrees. All of that was with an indicated oil temp 86 degrees on the MFA.

All senders on the car are genuine and it idles a little better when warm but sounds like it's missing. Revs nice and freely though

Forgot to take the deets of the linked thread with me but ran the measuring blocks on Vagcom - no idea what any of this means lol



I'll rob the necessary 2 pin alternator plug from a mk3 somewhen this week so I can wire up the alternator properly and bleed the brakes at the weekend. As you say RJ probs needs a damn good thrash to blow the cobwebs out