Mk2 Golf 8v GTi to 16v ITB Build Thread (Pic Heavy)

Discussion in 'Members Gallery' started by mk2_benj, May 8, 2020.

  1. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    So, I retrieved the Mk2 from the barn in June 2020, only to find that while in the barn, mice had moved in and made a nice home in my engine bay, chewing up my sound deadening in the process. What a lovely treat that was for me.

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    With that taken off and burnt, I drove the car back to where I lived. Went for a back road blast and gave it the beans down a back lane and suddenly smelt petrol, like, R E A L L Y smelt petrol. Quickly pulled over and found that the return pipe had come off the injector rail and poured petrol all over the engine and the hot exhaust manifold, how it didn't catch fire I have no idea. I had no tools and no signal, luckily a couple in a new bmw drove past and gave me their tool kit as they were late, he said he'll just take one out of another car on the forecourt!! I found that the jubilee clip had rusted away, so i rigged something up and limped it home, still stinking of fuel.

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    While fixing the fuel pipes I also found the vaccum lines were shot, so set about fixing them. I hoped it would cure the crappy idle but sadly it did not.

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  2. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    With this near miss in my mind, I got myself a fire extingisher for the car. I know it wont save me from a serious fire, but it could stop something getting worse which could make the difference. Looks nice on the centre console too I think

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  3. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    It was now time to fix my Kamei lip. I got no fitting instructions or bracketry with this, or a box for that matter, but luckily a couple of guys on Facebook copied their instructions and even sent me measurements of their brackets so I could make my own, legends.

    Drilling into my NOS freshly painted part was less than fun, but I'm so pleased with the outcome.

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    Put on my scene wheels and dealer plate on, which really set it off

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    Then went to London for the first Mk1/Mk2 cruise in a long time, and got a lot of compliments about the lip. I did sadly smash it on a speed bump at about 3am but thats life!

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    My favourite picture of the car

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    And finally, how it and the Canary Wharf skyline has changed

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  4. dodgy

    dodgy Paid Member Paid Member

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    We had a split fuel hose on the green golf when we got it started after the big pause, thought it was choke sticking at first!
    Great looking car, like the spoiler.
     
  5. Vinnie Paid Member Paid Member

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    I had a rs turbo Cab and one of the pipes split flames everywhere passer by stopped and put my wheel out :cry:
     
  6. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    Yeah it was less than fun, still count myself luckily it didn't spontaneously combust!

    Thats lucky, although it's a Ford so should be expected ;)
     
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  7. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    End of 2020

    After this fixing the fuel mishap and various other things, the rest of 2020 was spent just enjoying the car. Headed to some local meets and bought myself a camera and took some of my own pics
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    Another favourite ever photo
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    2020 ended with the nice bits (wheels, splitter etc) been taken off and stored as the car was to live outside this winter as..
     
  8. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    .. We'd bought a house, with a garage! Took ages to save and months to get the sale completed, but we finally got it done and had our own place. I finally had a place to keep the car dry all year as well as my own garage and driveway to work on it.
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    It spent most of winter away waiting for better weather, but when that came, I was able to get it up on jackstands, take off all the plastics and treat any surface rust under them before it got to bad. I also took the chance to roll the arches a little more, so I could drop the coils down a bit. A wire wheel saw to the sealant I'd put behind them to prevent water trapping in there, and I resealed them.

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    I also took the chance to delete the rear wiper and washer jet. the rear wiper was faulty anyway as it never turned off, and the washer jet didnt seal to I was happy to remove both. They're just blanked temporarily but I'll get the bootlid smoothed/a replacement at a later date.

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    I retrieved the scene car starter pack from the loft and put it all back on, then set off for London for another Retro Cruise

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    Coming out of Shoreditch that night, while slightly distracted, I smashed the Kamei lip into a speed bump, luckily the damage was only some scuffed paint, not what it sounded like thats for sure!

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    A week or so after this, a mate of mine sent me through an ad for a set of Compomotive TH Mono wheels that were cheap and nearby, by the afternoon I had secured the loot and test fitted them. They need a refurb but that'll come another day, I think that they'll make nice wheels for a set of semi slicks and maybe some future track action?..

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  9. Savagesam

    Savagesam Moderator Staff Member Moderator

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    I want these wheels. More than anything!
     
  10. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    I was keen to see how the comps actually looked on the Mk2, so I had the tyres swapped over from my old BBS RA wheels to the comps, as I had handily sold my RA's to a bloke in Australia. The RA was apparently not sold there so they have to be imported, and are seen as quite a show off wheel because of it. It worked out that I was able to sell the RA and buy the comps within the same week, making profit and getting a set of comps.. win!

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    Join the queue :lol:, seems like everyone wants a set of comps but theres so few out there. I secured these by being happy to jump in the car and head to just outside Portsmouth that morning :lol:
     
  11. Savagesam

    Savagesam Moderator Staff Member Moderator

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    Compomotive are in the works of remaking them I believe. Which will be fantastic!
     
  12. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    Next on the list of thing's I've been wanting to do but haven't been able to, was to fit a better head unit. I had been using an old Sony Xplod (remember those?) head unit ever since we built the car, a head unit that may have been rescued from another car at some point. It was an alright unit but it was getting on a bit, only having a 35mm jack and no bluetooth, and with everything becoming less wired, it was becoming outdated. I was looking at new ones and fancied having one with car play for the additional functionality and the ability to have maps displayed which is handy for some of the longer trips I do in the MK2. These come in double din (bar one single din flip out one which didn't do it for me). So I decided to put a double din in the centre console. After measuring it up (photo's for reference if anyone needs them) I went shopping.

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    I ended up with a Pioneer SPH-130DAB, a nice double din unit with car play and amp and sub outputs. A nice unit for a decent price that still feels modern. Handily, my head unit wiring had been converted to the modern plug setup, which saved me a lot of time and hassle.

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    I started by cutting the cubbyhole and drawer out of the centre console with a Dremel, creating a lot of hot plastic shavings which were just lovely to still find in your hair two days later.. I had a spare console from Dubstock just incase I fucked it up...

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    I wasn't sure how I was going to attach/hold in the head unit so cut some wood up to make a shim, to aid making a proper mount.

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    However, the wood worked well so I ran with it, covered it in felt to prevent any scratching or friction. I set out two batons on the reverse of the console and two screws covered in plastic pipe to act as prongs to hold it in place. Seemed to work perfectly and the finished result looked awesome.

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    I rerouted the head unit cables and fitted a 30cm extended cable to make it all work, bloody 25 quid for some wire and plastic plugs!! When fitted though, it looked the part

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    You'll see in that last photo I got some VDO gauges to fill the hole, they're the Audi 80/Cabrio gauges in a single din holder

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    Here's the *finished* product. It still needs a little fettling to be perfect as the unit touches the air vent tube behind the dash, so that might need to be cut out and a different shaped piece fitted. However, as I have a new shifter to go in, see a future post, that job can be done then.

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  13. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    That would be brilliant if they are, hopefully they'll be like B Star and offer different width and et's, I'd love a staggered set.
     
  14. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    Rest of the summer of 2021 was spent doing shows

    Players Classic
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    Goodwood Festival of Speed
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    Rollhard
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    After Rollhard, the MOT was up. So I faced a choice, MOT for another year and have a working car to use, or let it lapse and force myself to do something to it, as I had struggled to bring myself to take apart a running car without realistically having the knowledge to rebuild it. So what did I do, well..
     
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  15. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    .. I bought a donor car. A Seat Cordoba 16v SX, with an ABF 16v under the bonnet. This thing looked like a solid basis for a donor, just over 108k miles, solid underneath and didn't have any signs of really heavy abuse, for a 16v anyway. I found out that it had previously been in a small smack by researching the cars history online, but many of the bits I took off looked new so it had been repaired well. Not that this really mattered because I only wanted the mechanicals. The plan for this was to run it with a set of Jenvey individual throttle bodies (I know the thread is called Road to R32 as thats the end goal for the car, this is just a fun middle ground.. anyway).

    I mainly went down the ABF on ITB route for four main reasons:
    • It's easier to do mechanically for my first engine swap vs an R32 (only a bit easier mind)
    • A 16v on ITB's sounds awesome
    • Trumpets just look cool
    • I drove my brothers Mk2 rocco with a 16v on carbs and was surprised how hard it pulled and the noise it made.
    And why a Cordoba you ask, well one reason was because it was available and cheap, the second is that the Cordoba is the holy grail of donor cars for a Mk2. They come with, as standard:
    • Mk3 subframe
    • Mk2 wishbones
    • Mk2 ARB
    • 16v hubs
    • G60 calipers
    • 280mm discs
    • 02a CDA gearbox with cable clutch
    • Corrado front engine bracket (fits onto a Mk2 crossmember whereas the Mk3 abf one does not).
    • CE2 wiring loom
    My intention was to drop the entire subframe from the Cordoba and wheel it under the Mk2 as it will just bolt in. However, when I looked under it, the subframe and arms were in worse nick than the ones on the Mk2. As I had a Mk3 subframe in storage for some time, I chose to pull the engine, box, brakes and wiring and leave the car as a rolling shell. This decision was made easier by many people wanting the shell, turns out these things are pretty rare and loved for their ability to take a 16v/1.8t or PD diesel with ease. Below are some pics of the donor before it was stripped. It looked awesome on the comps and part of me wanted to keep it as I'd grown to like it after having it around for a while, maybe thats the Stockholm syndrome talking?

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    Yes, you are reading that sticker correctly, someone felt the need to brag about 150bhp...
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2022
    erreesse and dodgy like this.
  16. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    With the Cordoba secured and parked to one side, I decided to strip the Mk2 first, getting the 8v out the way to swap the subframes and bits over.

    Bonnet off

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    Front end and bits and bobs off. Most of the time here was labelling up the wiring loom. I hate automotive wiring so the loom would be getting set away to be sorted. As I was planning on running the ABF with throttle bodies, I wanted a custom and standalone engine loom made for it. This isn't essential and to be honest, might be more work and hassle, however, it would mean that I could put back the original lighting loom with some other bits from the Cordoba loom into the Mk2 and have the engine running on it's own loom, own ECU and anything that needs running back to the fuse box can be done afterwards and outside of the loom which would in theory, stay with the car whatever engine it had, or at least thats the theory?..

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    Point of no return

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    One liberated 8v engine and 020 box, sold to a lad to go into this Mk1 caddy

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  17. Vinnie Paid Member Paid Member

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    Looking forward to the build
     
  18. Toyotec

    Toyotec CGTI Committee - Happy helper at large Admin

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    You will have to make a decision when fitting the ABF engine from the Ibiza.

    Either you are going the full hog and running ITBs+SEM, which will need a simple engine control loom to be created, that does not affect the current MK2 engine bay loom.
    Or you use the standard ABF engine with Ibiza loom and the ECU de immo'd.

    The stock ABF engine itself, will propel the car night and day from an 8v engine, as has been written many times on this forum.
     
  19. mk2_benj Forum Member

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    The plan is to run it on a Haltech ECU with custom made loom. There is a tuning shop a few miles from me who supply and fit a number of standalone ECU's including Haltech will do it for me, went to see them and they reckon it should be one of the easiest looms they've ever had to make :lol:. I really am not one for auto electronics so the loom will be made by them, and I have the old Mk2 loom going off to get stripped back to just what I need with some extras like the 12v light loom and manual fan switch (not essential but I like to be able to just turn the fan on in traffic) integrated once I know where everything will go and what rad I have etc.

    A mate of mine had an ABF with Dbilas ITB's on a standard Mk3 ecu but I recall him saying the guy who built the engine had trouble getting it to run nicely all the time. My assumption was by running the Haltech, we're starting from scratch in 2022 rather than adapting year old electronics so it should work better? [:[]
     
  20. Toyotec

    Toyotec CGTI Committee - Happy helper at large Admin

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    The stock Digifant ECU is not great with ITBs as there is little load resolution, when there is no post throttle plenum.
    While I have ID's most of the maps in one of those, it is not worth the time, when it will be a hack with ITBs.
    Hence the need to run a SEM and in alpha N.

    I have that option on my Megasquirt car and a development loom, allowing me to swap from standard plenum manifold to Toyota ITBs.
    Haltech is very popular in various parts of the world, but as the ITB engine is very basic to control, most SEMs do the same job.
     

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