Mk2 Golf IHI track car... Rear body work and door catches

Time to bring this old girl back to life me thinks...

 

you have updates?

 

Hard to sell a Mk2 Golf for 20k eh?

 

How easy was it to fit the pro alloy set up mate?


Nas

 

VAT's going up again. Better do your bit for the economy

 

I've also somehow missed this thread, what were you doing with those clocks....I'm planning on sacrificing some for my speedo issue......into my mk1!

 

I do indeed! Just trying to work out where I put the camera with the photos on it.

 

Yeah was priced at a "yeah I'm going to sell it but dont really want too but if it sells then I'll sell it" kind of price

 

Was a really easy mate! I droped the car off on a Monday and picked it up on the following Friday

The rad setup you see on the Pro-Alloy website was developed on my car. I'm not sure if it has changed at all but mine has two mounting points welded to the front cross member ( OE rad support X-member removed) and two locating holes drilled into the front pannel. The bottom half of the front panel surport also has to be removed. To use the OE bonnet catch the setup has to be mounted at a slight angle but still works fine, or you can use bonnet pin to get maximum air flow.

Is a fantastic bit of kit though and even when the turbo is glowing red hot the intake temps are still kept nicely chilled

 

I know just planning the next big spend up! Got some goodies in the pipeline just waiting to get them back as they didn't fit first time round

I was trying to get the tacho to work by using parts out of the old clocks but found I didn't need too. Just needed a bit of brain power and 13k resistor.

My speedo was also a nightmare but I'll tell that tale when I find my camera and upload some picks.

What clocks are you running in your mk1???

 

Well I wanted to use the standard Mk1 Clocks and was thinking about using the mk3 speedo from some mk3 16v clocks and fit the speedo part into the mk1 binnacle by hiding the mk3 16v pcb under the dash and running some wires from that to the mk3 speedo if you get me!

(because of the electronic speedo drive I need for the mk4 18t ecu)

 

That sounds like a tricky one mate, you need a cable drive converter like some Fords run but I dont know if the signal would be the same even if it fitted the gearbox.

 

Cheers for the reply mate

Yeah i bought one of them pro aloy set ups about 5 years ago but it's slightly diffrent mine doesn't have the mounting points wellded do you have any pics when you was fitting your set up please oh and i haven't fitted mine in yet i went back to using the Rallye intercooler


Nas

 

Quality build thread, loving that cage!

 

Finally found the camera with the latest snaps on it...

After fitting the oil pressure and the oil temp sensors I decided it would be a good time to fix the front engine mount after it cracking down one side due to using a solid alloy front mount. As the alloy was not doing a great job of absorbing the vibration I decided to make up a mount using some mk1 golf rear sub frame polly bushes I had laying around.

(You cant see it in the photos but the engine bracket has an extra layer of steel welded over one side )



I made up the first one with 3mm steel...




I lowered the position of the mount to give a little bit more clearance between the cam belt cover and the master cylinder which was good!

but...

After fitting it all back together found the fans now hit the inlet manifold!

So back to the drawing board...





As you can see the mount is now a little bit longer and a little bit stronger. Overkill I know but it should last longer and be less trouble.

After fitting everything back together and a test run found that with all the engine uping and downing fitting the new mount I had opened up a crack in the downpie

This now meant that the rear engine mount and O/S drive shaft had to come off to get the downpipe off. After much swearing from start to finish the downpipe was sorted and the engine started again. It now doesn't rattle the out of the front panel and is a bit more forgiving on the gear changes!




Next up was to sort the speedo....

 

Mine just has two studs welded to the X-member that the intercooler sits on then the top just has two studs which poke though the top of the front panel. Not very high tech but very reliable so far.

Cheers mate

 

A high volume of mods has taken place in the last 24 hours but a low rate of photos puts a stop to all the good.

so in brief, they are:

1) Corner weighted the car weighs in at 1040KG with a 60 / 40 split to the front.

2) Caster checked for current temp mk3 / mk2 hybrid.

3) Camber adjusted

4) Toe adjusted

5) Front indicator side lights re-wired

6) Moddified and re-fitted front upper strut brace + colour coded

7) Fitted crude temp. lower strut brace

8) Refitted front grill

Pictures to follow...

 

Looks like a sterling effort!

i love the dash setup

where in hertfordshire are you?

 

Cheer mate, I'm not far from Stevenage.

 

Finally found a bit of spare time for a proper update...

Firstly a few pics of the refitted (very adjusted in its time) top strut brace, the new speedo pick up and the turned down rear spacers due to the rear track being to wide :-








After getting the car back on the road this year I have been having a few handling issues. I put the majority of these down to the hybrid mk2 hub / mk3 VR wishbone setup I was using. As the plan was to change to a full VR setup I wasn’t too bothered at first but after having a problems getting the AP brakes to fit and a trackday at Snetterton looming I had to check it out to see what was going on.

With the mk2 hubs fitted on the mk3 wishbones the track rod arms are moved about 25mm towards the front of the car. I came to a conclusion that the extra angle on the track rod was affecting the ackerman steering. I have yet to draw this out on paper to support the idea but I did swap the track rod ends left to right which put the arms back to somewhere near their original position.

This had 2 outcomes: the trackrod arms now missed the roll bar on full lock and the steering was a lot less vague on the road. A step in the right direction but there was still a lack of feedback from the front end.

After checking the front & rear track, camber, caster, toe, corner weight and ride height with my mate Rick, who helps set up touring cars, we found that nothing was out by much to cause the problem I was getting. By now there was only a few days left to make any changes before Snetterton so any changes could only be fairly minor.

After having a chat we deduced that the car was too stiff and that the cheap road tyres didn’t have enough grip to make the suspension work. So a change of spring rate and roll bar was needed. Easier said than done! I knew that one of the front coilovers was seized solid but I had soaked it in oil / grease and penetrating oil about a month before so it shouldn’t be too bad too do. Wrong! Still couldn’t move it and would need to cut the collar off the strut but didn’t have another to replace it. So that ruled out changing the springs. The other option was to change the front VR6 Neuspeed roll bar back to a standard GTi bar. I managed to find one at a local breakers yard and got it fitted the evening before going to Snetterton.

Just a slight difference...




I knew that this wouldn’t solve the problem in full but hoped it would at least make it a bit more driveable. The morning came and it was a damp start, not good for my over stiff suspension but never mind. The trip up there was good and the car seemed a lot happier in the corners so fingers crossed the day will not be a total waste. Did the sighting laps and then got black flagged for noise! Last thing I was expecting! Spent the next hour or so with Rick trying to find some suitable metal to make up some kind of baffle or we would have to call it a day before we’d even started. After our first attempt with a coke can was rejected we had a quick scrounge about and came up with this...




Also had to turn the boost down to 0.5 bar which equates to about 200bhp but we made it back out under the limit. By now the track was drying out nicely and the car was going well, right up until the last outing when I had a slight concentration lapse and almost put it on its roof but there was no damage and I got a 10/10 and the “at least you were trying“ speech from the marshals when we got back in the pits.

All in all it was an awesome day and we had some epic battles with my mate in his mk2 Golf 20v running a K03 which was dead frustrating because I knew the car should be a lot quicker but at the same time really good fun. It still needs a lot of sorting out in the suspension department but has defiantly given me some motivation to keep working on it.






I do have some video and will try and get it uploaded at some point.

Currently I am in the process of fitting the freshly ported JNL racing small port head with Ferrea valves and Supertech valve springs that I've had on the shelf for the past year but i've yet to decide on which inlet cam to install.










Also waiting for the modified disk bells to turn up so I can update the front hubs.