`85 Postal Service Golf Restoration: 16V ITBs etc.

Oke, I am just curious about how it is going to look. Being close to the radiator it might be better is the entrances of the trumpet are bent down to allow more air. It just doesn't look like there is a lot of space between trumpet and rad.
The difference with my setup is that I have a manifold and then the ITB's, you have the direct-to-head version. Ofcourse that means the trumpet can be (much) longer.
Your work looks absolutely amazing, as ever!

 

As far as I can tell your manifold is from MTS or MTS style, so in comparison to length my setup is like having your setup with the manifold plus 75mm trumpets.
Your setup is better in terms of fuel mixing since your injectors are further away and so it`s a bit better for making power further up the rev range.
The DTH setup should provide better emissions and better throttle response(in theory).

With the current setup, there is about 15mm space between the closest point of the airbox to the radiator and about 50mm space between the intake trumpets and the inner wall of the airbox. It`s a bit misleading since you have to measure diagonally/ perpendicular to the intake trumpet plane.

The airbox is also planned to get narrower going to the 4th cylinder intake to guarantee good air flow, so that is also playing a role. the intake of the airbox will be offset and sitting below the trumpet intakes and closer to the engine, above the alternator. Unfortunately I don`have any pictures yet but I`ll show you

I know I am creating issues with such a large radiator face, but I want to make absolutely sure that cooling is guaranteed 110% in every situation. I know the 16V can run quite hot, especially with a high CR and high rpms, so I am willing to sacrifice some power in order to bulletproof the setup. This is also new territory for me, and it could very well be that I will change the setup at some point in the future when I realize that the cooling setup is overkill. But currently my mantra is "better safe than sorry"

 

I tackled another quite tedious topic: trunk setup or making mounting brackets for all components located in the back.
That includes battery, compressor, killswitch, fuse box, air tank and airlift 3P valve block.

Started and made this up:


Then I realized that with that configuration, I am only killing terminal 30 for the battery while everything else going out of the fuse box will still be connected. This would be not a concern, however I also want to use the killswitch to disconnect the battery so I don`t have to fiddle with the battery terminal every time.
So next morning out came the angle grinder and I redid everything:



Way better now.
I also had to finalize the bracket for the air tank:


And the bracket for the Airlift 3P:


Airride setup in place. Remeber I don`t have a rear bench. The car has a raised trunk floor from the factory going from the rear to the front end where the bench would sit.


Overview. The compressor is rubber mounted to minimize vibration noise.


Battery cable going to the starter will have a 125A fuse protection, also a cable will run to the relais of the air compressor and one cable will run to the terminal 30 of the relais box under the dash. I have to check again but I think they are around 40A secured.

 

I assuming your kill switch is a simple single switch which disconnects the 12V (+) from the battery? This means that it will not turn off the engine when being pulled, like a FIA 6 pole switch does. I don't understand how the angle grinder solved this, or is it not what you mean?

 

The angle grinder only solved my errors in the setup

On the first iteration, I would only disconnect the terminal 30 to the battery.

Now the electrical layout is like this: From the positive terminal of the battery to the killswitch, and from there to the fuse box in the trunk, where the starter, the air compressor relais and the terminal 30 of the relais box under the dash is connected.

If now the killswitch is disconnected, all circuits are disconnected from the battery. There is a possibility that the engine will keep running due to the alternator.
But this functionality of killing the engine is not the idea of this killswitch (it is also not a competition car). It`s just there so I can easily disconnect the battery.

I don`t really want to run terminal 15 to the back of the car and then back again just to have a killswitch function for the engine in the trunk. If I want to shut off the engine I can use the car key

 

No chance , John, that the alternator charge would keep it going?

 

Exactly, that's why the FIA switch has 6 poles

If your car can't keep running without the battery it will not run long with a battery either.

 

Update due!

Since I am installing an Airride due to idiotic regulations here in Germany, I will also have to route the airlines in a safe way.
I didn`t want to run them on the underfloor for safety reasons, so I set everything up to be able to run them through the interior.
They will now go through the engine bay and into the wheel well just where the brakelines also run.

I did not tuck them away because I want to be able to service them and easily check in on them in case of a fault.
In the engine bay, hardlines are run because heat. I managed to get one set of lines out of 5 meters of piping, this is really a pain in the arse:


I copied or tried to copy the original bracket of the brake lines:


Welded it in, primered in 2K Epoxy, and lines fitted with a rotation compensation in between to guarentee that the lines will not twist:


Also the holes for the wiring loom are drilled ( after a lot of sweating over how and where to put them)



The small one is for the battery cable to the starter, and the two bigger ones are for the ECU loom and for the loom of the lights/tach sensors etc.

 

With the basic layout done, I could pre-install the lines in the car. I covered them with a glass fiber hose to shield them from heat, abrasion and sharp edges. Shrink hose to make it look tidy.


On the ducting holes in the chassis I mounted some rubber grommets



Another quite tedious topic is the pedal assembly. I took it from the donor vehicle, a Passat 35i. This provides me with a hydraulic clutch assembly. While the pedal assembly is basically plug&play, I was aware of the issue that the firewall tends to bend under the pressure of the pedal when the clutch is engaged.

I found that the MK2 pedal assembly does have a ¨support point right above the clutch pedal which the Passat pedal assembly does not have. So I cut it from the MK2 pedal assembly and put it on the one from the Passat. For fitting it properly, I only had to install the whole assembly 5-6 times, so it was no big deal and done in no time NOT
But let`s hope it`ll be worth something and support the clutch pedal a bit more. You can see the support point way above the clutch pedal right where the new sound deadening mat sits:


After all that I need something to push my morale, so I installed the steering I kept from my MK1 when I sold it. It is very dear to me, also covered in buckskin leather (no pun intended). I am really pleased how it fits with the shifter.

 

Long time no see - Update is due!

Apart from some things for the MK2 i was busy with weddings, holidays etc, also I needed to get rid of some cars which were only parts cars but were taking up precious space.
So I had to gut a Mk3 Golf, a B6 A4 (1.8T) and a Seat Alhambra (1.8T)



When this was done, I also had purchased a wite MK2 1.6l, but only because of the almost new ST XA inside. I pulled it from the car and sold the car again for the same price I bought it, that equals free ST XA coilovers, yes!


I also worked on my Audi 100 to finally get it inspected again (last inspection was 1987), this alos took more time than anticipated.


And the Mercedes also needed some love, now everything works again:

 

In between all this I managed to at least work on some topics for the MK2. Last air lines installed:


Finally back on its feet:


New injectors (Bosch 650cc):



I also redesigned the intake trumpets, besides changing the curvature they now have an elliptical trumpet profile and a radius at the inlet edge:

 

Then of course the airbox didn`t fit anymore, so I made a new one from scratch:



Little bit of see-through to check the position of the trumpets:



And the whole charade inside the engine bay:

 

Is there still room for a little engine movement on/off throttle?

 

About 20mm to the radiator Will see if it works, but I guess it should be enough if I manage to get the engine mount stiffness right.

 

Oh that's nice

 

I was just thinking about this build yesterday, glad to see there's still progress being made.

 

excellent Love the 3D scan, as you say 20mm should be plenty with decent mounts

 

Thanks for the comment, I`m also glad I now can concentrate my time a little bit more on the Golf.
In the meantime, I finished up the airbox and a friend of mine was kind enough to print it for me. I made a very messy mockup - we had to cut up the Airbox for printing since the printer bed is not big enough, that`s why there is tape everywhere The big ziptie holds the upper and lower part together.
Unfortunately, some parts need to be printed again as some things didn`t go perfect while printing, but once I have all parts in good quality, I can glue them together and start sanding etc. to create a negative mould.

Also the recesses can be seen where the upper and lower half will be screwed together. Overall it`s tight, but it`ll fit. The radiator can be moved forward a little bit by cutting away some sheet metal off the front clip.



Fitment on the inside was also checked, it was more or less clear that it would be enough, but seeing it in the flesh is always nice. There is some rule of thumb on what place should be available for the inlet trumpets:



In some spots it`s close to the minimum space, but overall it`s fine.


A little detail of the recesses and the overlap running around the front part of the Airbox. the fastening on the front side is planned to be done by some hooks made of stainless sheet metal, I`m not 100% sure how to exactly make it



Then my biggest headache was the air filter, since having an airbox is nice, but it`s only half the story. I have to have an enclosed air filter for german technical certification, and I didn`t want an air filter housing inside the engine bay. I want to place it in the wheel well in front of the tire.
But what airfilter can I use? I searched endlessly in calatogues, online, made calls, but either the filter was too big, or the outlet was to small, or it didn`t have the right shape etc.pp.
It was so frustrating... until I found an aftermarket solution for BMW N55 engines from Burger Motorsports. The filter is enormous since it is for a 3l twin turbo engine, but after getting the measurements from them and creating a 3D model of the filter, I realized it could actually fit.
We now have to make a 3D scan from the wheel well, but I made a quick mockup to see how it could look like. Et voila: