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

Been a while since I updated this thread, and it's still not up to date!.. Anyway,

After the 8v engine was removed, I made a start on getting the ABF free'd from its home in an old black rusty shed, ready for its new home in an old blue but slightly less rusty shed. The old Seat actually came apart surprisingly easily, very few rusted bolts which was a surprise. I had planned to take the subframe and lower arms off this car as well, but it turned out that the Mk3 subframe I had was in better condition (well... see future post), as were my existing mk2 lower arms, so I left those on the Seat.



Couple of hours later and it was free. I had picked up a 4-1 Milltek manifold for a MK2 ABF a couple of weeks before which I put on for the photo as well.



Dash out to liberate wiring loom



With the engine gone, I was prepared to send the shell to the scrappies given its an old Seat that surely nobody wants, but on the off chance I wacked an ad up on Marketplace and to my surprise, my inbox went mad! Among the endless 'is this still available' messages was a lad who was dying to get his hands on it as he loves them and wants to put it back on the road. So a deal was done and he became the proud owner of the black beast.

One empty engine bay ready to receive its new 1.9 tdi with a truck turbo, looking forward to seeing it.



Off it goes

 

Next up was to get the wiring out of the Mk2. This will be stripped back (by someone who knows what they're doing) to just the bare bones of lights, horn, wipers etc.



Took a couple of hours with many swear words and ruined knuckles but I got it free.

 

With the wiring out, it was time to swap the subframes out. While a 16v in a Mk2 doesn't require a Mk3 subframe, it opens up the ability to mount a wider variety of engines in the future, including an r32 which is my end goal for this car, plus I had a MK3 subframe in storage that I got years ago. Anyway.

I was preparing to jack the car up outside to give it a once over before going on axel stands in the garage. It was around this time I noticed that the steering rack was knackered when I pulled up the rubber boot and a litre of red ATF coated my foot, the subframe and the driveway.. great



This would clearly need a rebuild or a replacement and I found there are surprisingly few Mk2 racks out there, so I ended up getting my one rebuilt. At the time of writing it's still untested so I'll make another post once it's full of fluid and has been tested..

Anyway, it was subframe out time






Overall it was in ok condition, probably thanks to the layer of ATF grease that was covering it.. the new one would look a lot better though!



Yeah that top seal is busted..

 

As I had some time over Christmas with my steering rack being refurbished, I decided to have a go at refurbishing my G60 brakes. I'd done a couple of sets before so I was looking forward to bringing these back to a serviceable condition, as you can see they were pretty nasty.




I don't have a compressor in my little garage but this little tyre inflator did a good job of popping out the old pistons



Gave the calipers and carriers a wire wheel and they already looked better





Few coats of red all over, wasn't sure about red or silver for these but I've always liked coloured calipers.




Rebuild time. I followed a youtube video for this and not only did it help but I managed to keep time with it which I was pleased with, got to take the wins where you can get them! So much better!




Looking good with the new discs and new brake hoses

 

Also gave the old anti roll bar a fresh coat of red as well as the Mk2's lower arms (which were only a few years old), as they had some flaking paint and I had a spare half hour, little jobs that don't achieve much but are very satisfying

 

With the painted bits looking good, it was time to get the new subframe ready for the steering rack. Id given the new subframe a few coats of paint to both protect and make it look nice, and got to reassembling. Putting the lower arms on was going well until one of the bolts refused to go in, I had a look and found the remains of a snapped bolt in the hole. Great. Tried to extract it but to no avail.




Thankfully, Brendon at Dubstock came to the rescue with a new Mk3 subframe the same day, that man is forever saving my skin..



Gave it a refresh the next morning and we were getting close to reassembly time (again)




New Steering rack came back, but somehow (and lord knows how) they managed to bend the track rod end, like how do you manage that?




With that replaced with a new (as arrow straight one) I put the subframe back together and under the car. As it was all apart I replaced all the old rubber bushes with Powerflex purple polyurethane bushes. It's the classic case of it's easy to do now or a real pain to do when the engine is in.




New 16v hubs, bottom ball joints and track rod ends completed the front end refurbishment and allowed me to install the brakes (what was meant to be a quick subframe swap ended up being a 6 week long refurbishment of everything on the front end.

 

Now it was back on 4 wheels, I could get the engine in and start stripping it down. I didn't have an engine stand and I don't really have space to store one once this is done, so I nabbed a pallet, whacked some casters on it and it worked a treat, fully moveable engine and I can chuck the pallet away afterwards. Got some of the bits off and took the intake manifold off, apart from being absolutely filthy, I assume from a leaking rocker cover gasket, it wasn't in bad nick.



Ew



It was a good job I had these bits off as very soon after, the postman came and brought second Christmas to my door




I called Alex at Badger 5 to discuss their setup rather than going to Jenvey direct, this meant I was able to discuss my plans, get advise and get some of the Badger 5 bits like the throttle cable holder and their 20vt fuel rail setup which is not on their website. This is an inhouse design which uses a 20vt fuel rail, adaptor bracket, fuel pressure regulator and injectors to replace the Jenvey fuel rail and aftermarket injectors. I'd heard mixed reviews about the Jenvey rail (including that you need to cut it and join it yourself(!)) so this was a great option. Overall, I was impressed with the kit and couldn't wait to get it fitted, so I had a trial fit.




Damn thats a good looking lump!

 

Among this happening, I'd installed the Fabless Manufacturing hydro clutch adaptor kit that I bought a while ago on black friday. It uses a T4 master cylinder mounted on a bracket that attaches to existing holes on the pedal box. It was a right bastard to fit when the pedal box was installed in the car and it is recommended to take it or the steering column out to do it, but it is possible to do without. You may also notice the shifter the the below picture, that was another black friday bargain that I will go into in another post.




I ran the hose through an old grommet, it wont be staying like this forever as I plan on having the bay resprayed and smoothed in the future, but for now this will work.

 

I'd also got my hands on a USRT cam position sensor that sits where the distributor used to go on the 16v head. As I plan to run coil packs I will not be needing the dizzy or the coil so this was the opportunity to do something with the open hole rather than put a blanking plate on. It isn't absolutely crucial to have one of these on this engine, specially as the ABF has an inbuilt crank position sensor (whereas you need an external one on kr/9a blocks) but this then gives 2 points of reference for engine position vs one, for better tuning when the time comes.

It's a nice looking kit that uses a MK4 golf cam sensor so if it ever fails it's easy to replace and the wiring tail is easy to obtain as well.




The sensor uses a billet piece that fits into the end of the camshaft, secured with a bolt. This required the cam to be taken out, drilled and tapped which again was more hassle but once it's done it's done.

 

Great update, load of work done.
Just a question regarding your clutch hydraulic conversion, what slave cylinder are you using? I've got similar with a transporter master, and a mk3 slave, but gives a low pedal, so will change to a mk4 golf one due to the bore sizes, just got to get a new pipe with a conical fitting one end.

 

That's a serious update!

That steering arm... Like wtf?

 

I’m using a new mk3 golf slave. If it does the same I’ll look at changing it out for something else. I’m mainly using this slave as I bought the kit a while back and opted for the mk3 threaded hose vs the mk4 o ring hose. They have use released new mk4 hoses available by themselves so might go for that if I need to.

I have also read that these can be a faff to bleed so I’m looking forward to that

 

Yeah I’ve been trying to keep busy on it, I’m just really bad at keeping this up to date so that was a bit of a whistle stop tour of the last 4 months or so, but I’m almost there!

I have no idea how the arm managed to get that bent, there was a hole in the box so potentially happened in shipping? But you’d do well to bend it like that in transport. In fairness to them, they did refund the difference when I called them and said I’ll sort it myself. Showed the local garage and they couldn’t believe it either.

 

Used a pressure bleeder on mine, but also unbolted the 2 cylinder body to bracket bolts and held it vertical so outlet above inlet.
Initially thought was air in system, but then discovered last week the transporter and mk4 master cylinder are same size bore, mk3 is bigger so effects the ratio, mk3 slave is 23.8mm, mk4 is 19.05mm, but all kits seem to mix the parts similarly.

 

Ahh should it?? Just had a look back though all my photos and found that the old rack didn't have one, what does it do and why is being in front of the rack not good? I assumed when it came back and had a pipe on the front it was meant to be like that Luckily the engine isn't in yet so I can correct it but I was hoping to not have to take it apart again

 

It allows for the passage of air between boots, as one compresses, the other extends (inflates?) so neither get blown off or vacuumed.

 

Hmm interesting, wonder why it never had one when I took it apart? Seemed to work fine, although I do think it had boots on it without the little hole so possible someone removed it at one point?

Ah yeah I see what you mean. I’ll have a look at it this weekend and see if I can swap it round, good to know that if I can’t for whatever reason it will still work fine

 

They say build thread updates are a lot like buses, you wait for one then six come at once.. Didn't intend it to be over 6 months between updates but I've been busy/lazy.. anyway where were we?

One of the jobs I wanted to do was bin off the old AC pump as I don't have AC in the Mk2 so it's surplus to requirements. To delete the AC on an ABF with this belt configuration, you need to use a T4 waterpump pulley (part no.028121031K) This fits onto the water pump on the ABF and uses the sepentine belt, rather than the aux v belt, so you'll need two new belts as well. I managed to find this belt from the vw main dealer for about fifteen quid, bargain.

Old pulley


New pulley and belt



Around the same time as this, I received my machined cam cover allowing the use of R8 coilpacks on the 16v engine, rather than the distributor and leads. This came from GDF Autofab on an exchange basis, as they took my old cam cover in px. Once received I gave it a healthy coat of crackle black to match the itb's and popped it into bake in the oven (don't tell Mrs Mk2 Benj).






Very pleased with the outcome and for resisting spraying it crackle red..

 

Coolerworx shifter

This section is a bit out of chronological order but easier to keep the saga in one place

With that done, I set about trying to fit the Coolerworx shifter to the car. This shifter has been a right pain the arse to get sorted, partly my own fault and partly from their non existent customer service and lack of instructions. I had picked up an 02A/02J shifter on black friday, assuming that because it said 02J it would be fine with my 02J tower, but no. Turns out this one only works with the early 02J shift towers (the ball and cup type) not the later clip type. The early 02J cables look like the 02A cables but have different ends on the gearbox side, on the interior side they are the same, hence why the shifter works with both types. This is not made clear on their website as they use the same picture for both the 02A/02J and 02J/02M/02Q shifters. To remedy this, I mocked up then got made a conversion plate for the back allowing the shifter to take the later 02J cables thinking this would work. This did eventually fix the issue but I'll get to that later.

Mounting it in the car
I went for the top mount style shifter, as I liked the look vs the more subtle under car shifter. To mount it, I drilled 4 holes around the existing hole for the old shift box where I wanted the shifter to sit. Best to sit in the car and get a feel for it as you are not restricted where it goes (unless you keep your centre console)

There is a small lip on the existing hole that needs to be ground off as the tower sits on top of it without


Prime and paint any cut metal

I then placed rivnuts in the holes and fitted the tower with stainless bolts. I do love the way these shifters look once fitted.


Interior Trim
I decided to make life harder for myself by retaining my centre console and trimming it around the shifter. I like the CarPlay headunit I put in previously so wanted to retain that, but also have the shifter. As I had already cut apart this centre console, there was nothing to lose by doing this. I started out by marking the position to get a rough idea of what needed to go

Then got some long bolts so I could hold it in place and move it up and down to make sure I didn't cut too much off


Ended up cutting away a decent amount of plastic, but she was in


I will be working on a way of tidying up the edges for the final install but for now it's in and solid.

Cables and gearbox
This is where things get interesting. I had intended to route the cables under the car and have them go via the tunnel by the exhaust, but once I had them I found they were not flexible enough to turn down right from the shifter, so I decided to run them on top of the tunnel in the interior and then through the firewall. This was as simple as using the plate on the back of the shifter as a template for size and separation, then going to town with the step drill. Annoyingly, as the 02J cables do not come apart, you need to drill holes far larger than the cables. When I get the engine bay smoothed and repainted, I'll have these holes filled to fit around the cables.



That is the cables and the shifter installed. However adjusting it was a bit of a nightmare as I could only get first to fifth or reverse, not both and sometimes not all of the above either. I spent a fair while going in and out of the car to try and find the sweet spot. In the end this was found right at the end of the cable and required a new cable end as the one I had was a little past it and the plastic grips were worn. But it did now work. Result.