Thanks @GVK that bracket is now off. It also seems that the supplementary coolant pump is used. I can’t figure out the serpentine belt tensioner. It clearly has a massive spring inside which you would think would make it self tensioning. However, it seems it is adjusted by use of the big bolt you can see. There are also marks on the casing which would seem to be adjustment markers. Now, I cannot find any info on the web as to what is the correct adjustment procedure, is it manual with the bolt or should it be automatic via the spring? Can anyone enlighten me?
For cooling on my 2.8 24v, I used a mk3 vr6 thermostat housing and a full set on my3 vr6 hoses along with a mk3 vr6 rad.
@Toyotec to the rescue The bolt in the tensioner is to loosen the belt when you want to remove it. Once the new belt is in place (or whatever other work has been done) the bolt is removed and the tensioner tightens down on the belt - genius
Not much done today other than discover things that are missing or that should be replaced to be safe. Ordered today are thermostat, coolant pipe o rings, temp sensor, bolts for the coolant pump, blanking plug for thermostat housing. I’ll update the parts list with part numbers in due course. So, to actual achievements. Three bolts cut down to blank the holes where the brackety thing was on the side of the engine. Alternator and PAS pump fitted and coolant pump pulley loose fitted so we could test fit the poly belt. Happy days, it’s correct If it looks wrong to anyone please pipe up
Not much progress due to waiting for parts and the difficulty in getting injectors. So to get something done, today, we removed the sump to make sure there were no nasty surprises rattling around in there. Off, no bits of engine Cleaned Underside cleaned (but no picture) and a few pics of the inside. That will be me then We used Victor Reinz sump gasket silicone to put it back. It supposed to be the best stuff.
And so it begins, a couple of days ahead of schedule. Door off. The reason for this will become obvious if it isn’t already Passenger seat out. And into the garage. As you can see side access is a bit tight and as there is quite a bit to do inside the car and having to manoeuvre around the door constantly would be a right pain. Gearbox ready and waiting. Front end off. Battery removed which will be relocated to the boot. Coolant drained. To get clear access the bumper has to be off but the bumper brackets support the front engine mount so temporary nuts and washers to support the engine. And this is how we left it for today. Loom all disconnected, driveshafts off, exhaust undone, air filter off, cables removed. Just the engine mounts and the fuel hoses and the engine is ready to come out
Nice, hopefully a bit of time to enjoy it before the shit weather sets in. Those wheels look familiar
Some progress yesterday, not too bad. Engine out, brake servo and engine loom removed. Also, clutch and accelerator pedal removed but we now realise the whole pedal box needs to come out to drill holes for the hydraulic clutch conversion. Engine bay has had a general clean. It’s not going to be a show car and all that “bay shaving” is far too time consuming. Some surface rust removed and treated with Hydrate 80. All in pretty good shape
Well the car fought us hard today! Everything was difficult The plan was to get the hydraulic clutch conversion done on the pedal box. It had occurred to me last night that the entire pedal box would need to come out. I did a bit of Googling and found that the steering column needed to come down. This is a pig of a job. Due to the shear bolts the “easiest” way is to undo the four bolts holding the entire mounting bracket from behind the clocks. These were already out but you really have to poke about for the top ones and then access is tight. The two underneath are not too bad. Anyway, steering column down. The pedal box is fixed via the four servo mounting bolts (already off), one of the steering column mounting bracket bolts and then the most difficult, one down behind the carpet. Once you have all these undone you have to manoeuvre it out avoiding wires and the steering column. Oh, and I forgot you need to remove the vent tube from the centre console to the right hand air vent Absolute pig of a job. Anyhoo, the box was out. Box with clutch pedal attached and new accelerator pedal mount from Retrofication. Clutch pedal off and where the accelerator pedal mount goes. The old accelerator pedal. This actually came off yesterday as it doesn’t attach to the pedal box. The old clutch cable runs through this tube which sticks up through the scuttle. This made is even more difficult to remove the pedal box. Also, it is a weak point for leaks into the footwell and I wanted shot of it so I could properly seal the hole in the scuttle. Chopped off And now it doesn’t “foul” the scuttle. So eventually we had the Retrofication hydraulic clutch conversion added to the pedal box. I’m not going into detail here as the instructions are on the Retrofication website.
Getting the pedal box back in was worse than getting it out! Eventually we managed to line up all the relevant holes and bolts and buttoned it up. The accelerator pedal mount fits nicely and bolts in using the servo mounting bolts. And so to some wiring. While the servo is out we threaded the new loom in and down to the fuse box. No actual pictures of that but this is half the loom. It’s a very nicely done piece of work. I then threaded all the lighting, horn and radiator wires though the chassis arms. It’s sooooo much neater. So as I leave this number one son is putting all the fuse box back together
Not bad progress today. New (second hand) bigger servo installed. PAS rack installed. To do this you do indeed need to lower the subframe. It wasn’t actually a bad job since it’s been off in the last two years. New tie rods and rod ends. MK3 UJ used which slipped on very nicely. I couldn’t find the original MK3 UJ boot so we have used the MK2. It’s far too long so will probably cut it down a bit in situ. Old rack and gear shift box. The new gearshift box we have is a Passat B3 jobbie. It fits perfectly up top but the lower flange is much smaller than the MK2 and none of the holes line up. This is going to require a plate to be made to extend the flange to enable the use of the existing captive bolts (unless anyone has any other suggestions?) Other than that it seems like a great fit.
Not a great deal done today due to other commitments, but….. I cut an extended flange for the gear stick box and tack welded it (badly) to the bottom of the box. Holes drilled in it to match the originals and trimmed the box where it fouled the holes. The steel was a bit thin and I was concerned about its rigidity. Also there is a gap, the depth of the original box flange, so I fashioned some side bars to take up the gap and strengthen the flange. These were epoxy chemical metal glued to the flange. New foam seal fashioned from some packaging foam. And paint and ready to fit tomorrow, another job off the list. Ralph made this on the 3D printer, more on this tomorrow Other than that, a little bit of wiring and touching up the paint under the bonnet was all that was achieved.
Mostly wiring and planning the loom and ECU location, and how to mount it, today. Gear stick is in though. It’s 2cm shorter than the MK3 item so we will se if that matters. Remember that bracket from the previous post? It’s for the hydraulic clutch reservoir. That’s about it. No progress will be made tomorrow as it’s going out somewhere nice day. Monday will hopefully see the start of engine installation! Exciting!
the mk3 uj boot wont fit anyway, you need mk2 pas one or like you say trim yours down. corrado pas boot will fit though it same part number nice work on the shifter, most would just install with big washers myself included
A brutal day today. Up at 0545 to take No.1 daughter to the airport so tired already First thing was to tidy the garage and clear space in front of the car. Then we went to our lock up where we have been storing the R32 (300 yards or so) and we loaded it into the back of our Honda CRV. The drive way slopes so this is a precarious job. Drove the engine to our house and Ralph pushed the crane. Then off loaded the engine. This is even more precarious as our drive slopes more and we have less garage space to play with. Anyway with a bit of tooing and froing, engine up, engine down, turn crane and then finally get the engine the right way round and on a board…….phew Before all of that though I cut down the UJ boot and then added some aluminium tape to reflect some heat from what will be a very close downpipe. First stage of engine manouvres. Next was clutch on. We used a Silverline clutch alignment tool which is rubbish but we got there. Pressure plate bolts are 22Nm and the plate only fits on one way. Then the gearbox (having put the release fork and bearing in). We didn’t have any of the gearbox bolts so I measured up what I thought would be the right ones. I had to cut a couple to length but no big deal. There are actually only 5 bolts holding the gearbox on I did them up nice and tight though. So much so I broke my 16mm socket! Clutch slave cylinder added. Gearbox mount Rear engine mount This is when some issues started to become apparent. I need to make a spacer for the engine mount, no biggie but another job to add to the list. At this point I decided I had had enough but to close the garage door the engine needed to be in the engine bay. This presented another issue. The oil cooler will not clear the front engine mount. Engine in, it’s very tight!
Now, oil cooler. If anyone has the solution to this issue please let me know. The cooler is basically too fat to fit. @dodgy suggests that a 1.8T may fit. There is also the issue of the oil cooler cap which makes it even wider. I can’t find a definitive solution on the web.
Cutting down the rear engine mount. Everyone says “cut down the rear engine mount” but no one actually shows how, so here it is. Mount Undo this bolt underneath Remove the big washer disc thingy and the rubber cushion and then the large metal piece. Apply some masking tape and measure off how much you want to cut from the big rubbery bit inside that looks like Swiss cheese. Do the deed with a saw. I used a hacksaw and removed about 14mm. Now you need to shorten the metal tube which goes through the Swiss cheese rubbery bit by a similar amount. Unless you have a shorter bolt to hand you will also need to cut the original down Then you need to put it back together in the order it came apart and hey presto and shorter engine mount.
So, other than cutting down the rear engine mount, to get the engine in there were a couple of tweaks needed. The serpentine belt was very close to the front cross member and I didn’t want any forward engine motion to wear the belt so a cut out was required. The main crankshaft pulley is very close to the chassis rail. I wanted a little more space so I took a club hammer to it. It doesn’t look much different but it gives a little more space. Engine in No hockey pucks were required at the front. In fact we did try with one but the bonnet would not clear the engine. Also done today was……… Downpipe loose fitted (as we haven’t got the right nuts) Driveshafts re-attached, gear change cables connected and hydraulic clutch hose routed. Still huge amounts to do, tomorrow is another day
