MK2 Golf GT TDi Conversion 6 speed PD, Dash and Wiring

I'm sure most of you on here have driven many different VW's and although they're all great in their own way, if there are bits you like from car to car, take them and build your perfect dub. That's what Volkswagen want!

I have always had Mk2 golfs, and i currently drive a Mk4 GT TDi as a daily which ive had for two and a bit years.

I love my Mk4 but i'm never without a Mk2 as a second car. As i do a fair few miles between my Mk4 and my bike i thought, why not build a PD TDi Mk2? Then i can have the Mk2 shell i love with PD power and all the mod cons from the Mk4. So that's what i'm going to do.

A friend of mine had a Mk4 GT TDi for a year or so and loved and cared for it, until it unfortunately ended up with a dent in the rear from a post and he wanted rid so he could get a Mk5 GT Tdi.

Anyway i bought it off him, its a 130bhp 6 speed TDi, just what i was after!

Here is it when i bought it (can't see the damage in this pic obviously!)


So I've had this a few months now, but as i sold the Mk2 ABF i built and the Mk2 VR6 i've had for ages in a sorry state, i thought long and hard about the perfect Mk2 for my TDi conversion.

After months of searching i found just what i was after:




I know its dirty (and has a wonky numberplate, these photos are when i picked it up)! It's not perfect by any means but this is a project!! But as you can see its a BBM big bumper gti, it's currently got a strictly dubs ABF conversion in and it does go well but needs to be an oil burner!

So i got hold of some unit space off of a mate and put the Mk4 in there to start stripping it down. I need all of the engine bay, wiring and dash basically. My plan is to run everything the Mk4 had so ABS, ESP, air con, cruise control (not currently fitted), digital climate, heated seats (not the Mk4 seats though ) so yeah you get the idea by now, functional Mk4 in Mk2 Shell.

I'll try and stop boring anyone whos managed to get this far down and start with some progress. I wont be working on it all the time as i'm working full time and have to make time for other commitments but i will try and update whenever i get something done and i'm sure once i get stuck in i won't be able to keep myself out of the unit.

So first job was to strip the Mk4.

Removed the bumper, grille and bonnet


Removed the impact bar, radiator and air con rad


Removed washer bottle, coolant bottle, battery and air box


Unplugged and labelled everything i needed to, the engine is now only held in by the two chassis leg mounts and the driveshafts (forgot to bring my spline bits )


And this is where i'm up to. Next on the list is to take the engine crane and spline bits down the unit and take the engine out!

 

You have already made good progress and you've only just got started

I like the colour of your mk2...what is that blue called? Might get my syncro sprayed up in that colour

With all the parts you already have fitted to the mk2 (G60 brakes, VR6 Rad and fans) you shouldn't need too many more parts. Probably a front mount intercooler, a mk3 fuel tank, an 02m gearbox mount and turbo hoses. The rest you can use from your mk4

Keep up the good work and keep the updates flowing!

 

Bright Blue metallic, or BBM as everyone calls it.

Going to be interesting!

 

Yeah the sycro would look nice in Bright Blue Metallic!

Yeah i'm pretty lucky with the brakes and rad/fan already present. I might need a corrado vr6/passat pedal box apparenlty the Mk4 pedal box isn't going to fit in a hurry and its better/easier to use a corrado vr6 pedal box and weld the DBW pedal from the Mk4 to the corrado set.

Cheers i'm hoping to pop down tonight to atleast get the engine out, stupidly i disconnected the clutch pipe from the gearbox so now i have no brakes, going to be fun getting the driveshafts undone!!

 

Thanks chaps - will look into it once I've finished the mechanical side of things.

Yeah the later pedal box makes life much easier for the hydraulic clutch. You'll see how I installed mine on my thread. I'm trying to use the S3's pedals in the syncro and it's not an easy task...I may well just give in and get myself a late mk3 or Passat pedal box. The VR6 one won't be right as they had different pedals...as I found out at my expense

Lower the car back onto it's wheels, put it in gear, apply handbrake and bobs your auntie!

 

Yeah apart from cost, paint is a minor worry compared to the rest of the project!

Yeah i will have a look back, i guess the S3 is cable throttle again?

Thanks for the info, so late mk3 non vr6 might be useful? i thought all mk3 pedal boxes were no good?

I was going to undo them from the gearbox side (6 spline bolts each side) so cant lower it to the floor, il think of something later and post up!

 

I think you might be right. Mine came out of a 16v corrado but I thought the late Mk3 GTi (ABF) had a hydraulic clutch...the pedals might be too short for the mk2 though? Stick to the corrado or passat one. I'm going a little senile and forgetting stuff lol

The S3 is fly by wire so I'll need to weld the pedal mount to the corrado pedal box if I do it that way.

Can you lower one side at a time? The spline bolts won't be anywhere near as tight as the hub nut so you should be able to undo them without applying brakes.

 

Ah yeah so its any corrado pedal box or certain passat (1995 era?) i know the mk3 gti ABF won't fit as it was completely different to the corrado one in my vr6. i used the cable clutch rod change box on my ABF conversion to save spending a fortune on a corrado pedal box.

If i get to the DBW pedal first i'll let you know how i get on! I have seen someone graft that part of the bulk head and weld it into the Mk2 but i dont feel confident doing that. Main thing for me is i'd love to be able to keep the height adjustment. Are you planning on having the height adjustment on your syncro?

Thats another good idea, i will try later and let you know which option i took!!

 

Last night i took the engine crane down the unit and remembered my spline bits this time for the driveshafts.

First job was to have a quick tidy up and move the rubbish that was in the corner


Then as i was on my own and the car has no brakes (and couldnt be bothered to lower one side down to the floor), i needed to find a way to hold the wheel still so i could undo the driveshaft bolts from the gearbox.


And voila that done the job perfectly!

Quick check round under the bonnet to make sure i had undone everything and i had forgotten about the gear selector cables so i unclipped them.


Time to strap the engine up and take the two chassis leg mounts off.


I started to pull out the engine but realised the aircon pipe was in the way, so rather than struggling to get it out with the engine half in. i removed the two chassis leg mounts from the block and lowered the engine down below it.


And she is out


Nice fairly empty engine bay


and how the engine will sit for now while i strip the rest of the car


From this picture you will be able to see the clearance issues im going to have with the turbo and mk2 rear mount (and my shiny new actuator looking bling)


Does anyone know what this does? i'm guessing its a clutch booster to make it easier to push the clutch down? or am i completely wrong?

 

that is the clutch pipe for your 6speed gearbox so you will need it

it should connect to slave clyinder on the bulkhead next to the servo/mastercylinder and the other end connects to the slave cylinder on the gearbox, that circle thing has a see thru lenses on it to check fluid levels etc so give it a clean before refitting into the mk2

btw nice project i think there will be more diesel swaps in older cars in the future due to money reasons etc for people. looking forward to seeing more progress

 

Your bang on there!!!

Project looks excellent!!! Are you using the mk2 at the minute?

 

I agree, modern TDI engines in old light weight cars are fantastic

 

Thanks for the info! I think i will end up spending many evenings de greasing and scrubbing everything with a toothbrush and big pot of elbow grease! I will try to keep the project flowing

Glad you like my thinking! The Mk2 is sat on the drive, have been using it but not very often, this month is going to be a tight month with christmas and getting paid early last month so i've been driving the TDi mainly. Hopefully the Mk4 will be gone by the end of Feb and get the Mk2 in for some serious attention!!

I've never been in one but i surely hope it will be!!

 

Will watch this thread with interest, personally I would go for mounting the engine using the mk4 style side mounts....

The way I would line them up Is bolt the engine in using mk2/3 style mounts without turbo, cut out the mounts from the mk4 bolt these to the engine side mounts and work out how to weld these to the chassis legs.

The reason I would do this is to give as much space as possible at the back of the engine if you ever want to change turbo etc...

 

Thanks for the input, i was originally going to use the mk2 rear mount and mk4 gearbox mount onto the chassis legs but i'm unsure how much strengthening the mk2 chassis legs would need to hold the torque from the tdi as currently they have no kind of weight on them.

I understand what you mean about the mk2 mount without the turbo so i can see exactly where it should sit and i will have a look at where the mk4 mounts will sit on the chassis legs. The other reason i wanted to use a mk2 rear mount is it took me an absolute age to do the cambelt on my mk4 because of that stupid mount!! i know i wont have to do it for 60k 4years but it ****ed me off that much i dont want to use it!! Definitely worth considering with future turbo upgrade, although its not a current plan i won't replace the standard garret like for like if it does go and then my custom rear mk2 mount will be useless!

I will decide when i get the mk4 engine in and see where they line up and if anyone knows how much strengthening or how to go about strengthening the chassis legs let me know

Anyway today was fairly unproductive, as i stupidly didnt undo the hub nuts before disconneting the gearbox and having no brakes i had to improvise a way to hold the wheel still, and these nuts are tight!!


Well it worked perfectly and out comes one shaft. This is going to be very short on the Mk2!


The other side was less successful, it undone fine but i cannot for the life of me get it out! lump hammer and socket on it but it just won't go! After cutting my thumb with the hammer i gave up with that for the day.

Next job was disconnect the abs sensor and brake pad sensor and label them up, i couldnt remove the abs sensor itself but whole sets are on ebay new for 17 so going to leave them and not worry about them.

Whilst labelling the abs sensor i managed to drop my labeller into 5 litres of oil, brake fluid and coolant!


I fished it out as quick as possible and dried it off, then placed it infront of the space heater to see if it would recover.


After about an hour, it was pretty much the same (oil and brake fluid don't dry like water they just hang around forever!!) so i thought i would try it anyway. Heres the result


Not good!! It would print whatever letters it wanted to, nothing made sense and after about 4 labels it died completely!! So a quick trip to staples and i came back with an upgrade!


Apparently pink ones prints faster (and was cheaper than blue!)

Next and last jobs i achieved today were; removed brake assist pipe from servo, remove aircon pipes, remove clutch pipe from clutch slave and removed the abs pump.


I don't want to forget where each hole on the pump go so i made myself a quick diagram (havent got to the rear yet so not sure which one goes which side)


And thats it for today, here's how the engine bay looks currently.

 

nice to see some more progress bud

regarding using the original engine mounts have a look HERE the user PAB did a full 1.8t swap including all the interior dash etc into a mk2 and used the original 1.8t mounts so it will give you some idea's etc

 

Thanks pricey,

I have been reading through your thread, you've done really well and i'm excited to see how it turns out!

Thanks for the link to Pabs build, i don't know how i've missed it! i have started reading through it but havent gotten through all 55 pages yet!! i like the idea of the chassis leg mounts but dont fancy a dogbone mount (will become lowest part of the car and my mk4 dogbone has caused so many problems!). Maybe if i man up and my welding skills prove decent i could tackle it (main part strengthening the legs).

One question for you, was it hard to take the Mk4 dash out? I havent started with that yet!!

 

cheer matey, i'm currently stuck waiting for this snowy/rain to bugger off so i can go do some more work as my car lives outside as i don't have a big enough garage or workshop to use which sucks

taking the dash out is pretty damn easy tbf but take your time and 100% take the steering wheel and stalks off it wont' come out otherwise i nearly ruined my stalks at first lol, there is a guide i've seen in the last couple of days about removing the dash if i find it i'll link it for you

 

forgot to mention be careful with the vent on the top of the dash for the windscreen it's very flimsy and i broke mine also there is a couple of bolts under the scuttle panel which you need to undo

 

Looking like some good progress there. If i had the time i would probably do something like this. Here's a link to removing a dash from the mk4 forums, might be of some use for you: http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/p/254098/1658586.aspx#1658586