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

So, with that out of the way, back to the updates. In order to fit the USRT cam sensor you need to have a hole drilled and tapped in the exhaust cam as this is what the sensor uses. This is not a DIY job as if you're even slightly off, the sensor will be spinning off centre at 3k-4k rpm and will make a bit of a mess. So knowing this, I took the engine to my local garage to have the camshaft removed and taken to a machine shop for this to happen, at the same time a new timing chain and cambelt kit was fitted for piece of mind. Once I got it back, it was refitted to the engine and the engine timed... the mechanic wasn't a fan



Once this was done and I had the engine back home, I spent an afternoon changing the cam cover, fitting the USRT cam sensor, fitting the 02J diesel box and doing a new clutch, or at least I would have if euro's had given me the right one. As it happened I took the pressure plate off and the clutch looked to have enough meat on it so I left it as it was, given I had driven the donor car and it was okay.
Dirty old ABF Box

vs 'new' shiny TDI box



Fitting the cam sensor is a nice easy process too




New vs old cam cover

 

Decided to mock up my new radiator while the engine was out, just for ease. I went for one of the mk1 style top fill radiators to tidy up the bay a bit.



Every garage has to have a little helper



The radiator dropped right into the existing holes in the rad support and required only one hole to the drilled in the slam panel for a bolt to secure it, apart from that it was a direct fit

 

Oh, remember that little helper in the last post? He decided to run behind the bonnet which was against the wall (as it had been since November and it was now May. It came crashing down while my father in law was doing some electrics in the garage, almost fell off his ladder! The bonnet ended up with about 30 stone chips from the concrete floor, so needed a respray.



It went to Matt at MCC Bodyworks in Banbury, who found that the melon who did the respray didn't use any primer/used the lightest coat he'd ever seen, and just laid down layer after layer of blue on top. So at least it's painted properly now.



Fresh coat of Helios Blue looking like glass

 

With that in hand, it was time to install the engine. Up nice and early on a sunny day to get it fitted.

One last time without an engine in it


Ended up being a little back heavy


But in around 20 mins it was bolted in


Rad and slam panel bolted on


And because who could resist, throwing the Jenvey's on there



What a great sight this was after so long. I put the bonnet on just to check all was okay. There was a bit of clearance when the engine was off, but it would likely touch once running.

 

After a bit of searching and thinking, I had a brainwave that maybe the rear engine mount was wrong/iffy. Whipped it out one morning and compared it to the one I took off the donor car that I still had. Very clearly too big.

I cut the mount down in the same way people do for VR swaps and not only did it fix the issue, but also leveled out the engine too

I then popped the injectors in. These are 20vt injectors so easy to replace if one goes, and more than capable of running an ABF on bodies.


R8 coilpacks arrived and fitted


Fitted the throttle cable holder and throttle cable. This is the bracket that comes with the Badger5 kit. Although this was fitted as intended, the cable was not tight and the pedal would not return once depressed. Turns out there is meant to be a spring in the kit which either was missed out/not included but with a return spring on it, it works great


Finally I fitted an oil catch can, stepping down the original breather hose to make it fit.

 

Aha yeah I remember that being mentioned by someone on Facebook when I posted a pic. It's corrected now and should be shown in one of the later pics

 

I had done pretty much all I could now, as my wiring skills are subpar at best. So I had the Mk2 booked into Varatechnik who would put the finishing touches on it for me. Before that however, I installed a new slimline fan and some 16v clocks I bagged on ebay for just £60



Old clocks

New clocks


With this done it was loaded onto a truck and taken to Vara for some TLC, and a new ECU..


I'll do an update post once I have the car back from there..

 

Right then, it was a big day over the weekend as I brought the Mk2 home from Varatechnik. This post will serve as a summary of what was done there for me in future as well as a general update for the thread.

I'll start off with the positives, its absolutely fantastic when driving. It pulls really strong and smooth all the way through the revs and sounds brilliant. It's as rowdy and as silly a noise as I was after and I'm pleased with it in this respect. It also cruised nice at part throttle too and wasn't jerky. It's a bit noisy when cruising though so I think more sound deadening is needed around the firewall and under the bonnet (as I don't have the OEM sound deadening anymore).

A general summary of what was done;

Engine
Fitted vband to the 4-1 manifold and exhaust reducer.
AFR controller kit with lambada sensor.

Fitted a new oil cooler.
General fault finding / leak chasing.
Retiming the engine as it had been timed to 1.8 KR spec not 2.0 ABF spec, and was 1or 2 teeth out causing it to run a bit rough and make the exhaust manifold glow red(!).

Gearbox and Clutch
Swapped the TDi box back for the ABF gearbox.
Fitted a new clutch kit.
Relocated the Fabless clutch reservoir to the scuttle and fitted a new clutch master cylinder.
Set up the Coolerworx shifter.

Wiring
Fitted an Emerald K6 ECU along with a custom ABF wiring loom.
The original 8v engine and light loom was stripped back to just lights/horn/wiper etc and put back in the bay.
Any broken wires were found and replaced.

This is it on their ramp


Dyno
It ran on the Dyno and made 171bhp with the rev limit set to 7k rpm. Once the engine is run in and trusted, this can be raised to gain a few extra bhp, but I'll probably do this when more engine mods are done..



Problems
Here is where it gets less fun though..
While on the dyno, one of the itb's stuck open and rev'd the engine to the redline. After thinking fast and killing the ignition, they found that the throttle blades were open and were making a grinding noise /feeling when closing them. Obviously it is not a good thing to have an engine which decides to take off when it wants.. so Jenvey were contacted and the body sent back to them for investigation and rebuilding. Once returned, it was installed on the car and it seemed like problem solved... however it is not and at the time of writing, the problem is still being investigated.

The other problem we had was the USRT sensor was leaking oil. It appears like oil is getting past the seal and then dripping out the sensor housing. The original seal included as part of the kit was swapped for a new one direct from VW but this is not do anything. Further investigation is needed but the theory now is either
a) the hole in the camshaft is off centre and causing the seal to 'oval' and thus letting oil pass, or;
b) the housing/sensor spacer/seal are slightly mismatched leaving a small gap for oil to pass through.

USRT let me know they have had one other case of this occurring where the outcome was that the hole was drilled off center on the cam. This beat up the seal and polished the side of the adapter. Leaks were the visible result. If this is is my issue there isn't a lot I can do about it, especially as I had the camshaft taken out to be machined in the expectation it would be perfectly centred.. So I guess if that is the outcome, I'll be blanking the hole off and not using a cam sensor, but we will see.

See pics of the issue

 

Why is that oil so black?

And how do you get cool air to the ITBs with the bonnet closed and the radiator filling the front almost completely?

 

It’s probably done 100ish miles already taking into account dyno time, mot test, road test and the drive home.

The itb’s don’t seem to be struggling for air, there’s still a good amount of free space around the rad and air can get through it as it doesn’t have a shroud on the engine side

 

Yeah but after a few trackdays my oil isn't that black at all, that's what I find a bit strange. Could be there is still black/old oil in the pan, if you didn't clean this (there is always a few 100 ml that stays behind).

Anyway, those 171bhp look quite good with this setup, I can't manage over 150 even with catcams fitted. Did you change the cams as well? Couldn't find it so quickly?

 

Yeah that’s a fair point, there could have been some left over. I’ll probably do a change after a few hundred more miles and see how things are.

Nope, no internal engine mods just Jenvey DTH ITB’s and R8 coilpacks. I was pretty pleased with the power given it’s basically just ITB’s on a 16v. As far as I know the engine is totally standard, so your guess is as good as mine

 

Maybe remove the pan and really empty it
You will need a gasket, but one with the oil guard can be fitted directly.

Well there are some reasons possible, either we're not talking about bhp but hp, or the ABF is generally faster, or the intake setup is better (way better), or the dyno has less calculated brake as over here, etc. Here is my graph.

 

Healthy power figure!

 

I was thinking of putting on a baffled sump as I’m thinking of doing the odd track day, so something to bear in mind when I do take it off to inspect the sump.

Seems like there is a few reasons there, it was better than I expected but within the region of what they expected it to make having done lord of these conversions. That’s a good looking print out for yours too

 

Great update! and nice to see it come together. I'm doing a similar conversion with mine, so I'll be watching this thread for some inspo!

I'm sure you will get to the bottom of the teething problems! good luck

 

Yeah I couldn’t complain! Definitely given it a bit more go vs the old 8v

 

Thanks mate! It’s a fun conversion to do and a nice one for a first timer (me) to get my teeth into and make mistakes on. It’s all about the learning at the end of the day isn’t it.

Yeah we’ll get there with it, expected to have a few issues from putting together so many new parts all at once