No updates as I'm 4000 miles away from my car again. I do have an engine harness to build when I get home and I have to build my new fuel system.
Sorry but I dont have access to the laser etcher anymore but if you like you can have mine. Yeah, I thought it was appropriate
I ended up taking her to a shop because I had almost given up altogether. It ended up needing a new coil and ignition module plus the contacts of the dizzy were corroded. It also had a fuel leak
If you haven’t seen the other thread I started in the mk2 section, I’ve decided to put a 24v vr6 into my mk2. Well this weekend I pulled the vr6 out of the mk4 donor and labeled the wiring.
So we finished pulling all the wiring from the mk4. Then we pushed the mk2 into the garage and started taking it part. Got the dash out and the bonnet is safe inside my flat. Lol. Tomorrow the plan is to get the vr6 set in the mk2 so we can measure the wiring. And I’d like to get the pedal boxes swapped as well. Sorry the pictures are out of order, I haven’t figured out how to put them in order using my phone.
Well the day started off slow having to drive an hour to get the rear engine mount. Then is was all work. We go the 8v pulled along with the subframe and lower rad support. Then I got the steering shaft dropped and the pedal box out. Next up we mounted the Fabless manufacturing lower rad support/front engine mount and vr6 rad in to check fittment. Tomorrow we’ll be mounting the vr6 to start measuring wiring and getting the pedal box installed.
It’s been a few weeks so time for updates. We got the engine and gear box set in so we could measure all the wiring. I had to stick the grill on just to have a glimpse of what she’ll look like Then I ordered some new parts including this aluminum vr6 rad, test fit we pulled the gear box to install the clutch in to discover I don’t have the pressure plate bolts and no one in town had them so I had to order them I installed the new fabless manufacturing control arms and new ball joints. Then we set the front down on the wheels to jack up the rear. We pulled the mk2 fuel tank and underbody pump assembly an put in the mk3 vr6 tank and fuel filter assembly. We have to cut off one of the tank strap mounts and get a “new” strap, then we just put a bolt through the boot floor with a spacer and locking nut. We got the wiring all measured and ready to be joined with the ce1 harness but we ran out of weekend. Next time we work on the car we’ll be finishing the engine harness, running the battery cable from the boot, installing the brake booster and clutch master cylinder and installing the clutch and gear box. I know there’s stuff I missed and I didn’t take too many pictures but we got a lot done.
Well this weekend started out with hopes of getting her running so I could drive it all week for a shake down before a road trip to the other side of the state next weekend. First problem to over come was the oil press sensors as I was being told by my mate we needed all three but as I read and was informed by RubJonny I really only need two because the third one of for the MFA, which mines never worked so I can sort that out later. Next we decided is was time to fit the exhaust. Next problem to solve, LHD mk4 vr6 exhaust manifolds are shaped slightly different than RHD ones. To solve we broke out the deadly death wheel of death and went to work. It might not flow the best but it’ll work until I can get one from trackslag. Then we put some heat wrap on it and installed to measure for the mid straight pipe. After the exhaust problem was solved I decided it was time to run the clutch line. Should have been as simple as going to the auto parts store and getting the fittings and some hydraulic hose and just build one to suit. Nope, because I need metric sizes and I live in the US I couldn’t find what I needed so after some stressful minutes I just ordered a US spec mk3 vr6 one. Then we bouoght a bit I’d brake pipe for a GM and a coupler to make it work. Then I rolled her out to see how low the oil pan was from the ground, it’s a bit lower than I like but shouldn’t be a problem We also got the pedal box and steering column installed Sunday we got up early and just got on with final assembly so engine start. Got an intake for it though I don’t care for the chrome but I’ll fix that later. We mounted the battery in the boot and when we first connected power we discover the started was stuck on so a new one was sourced and we continued with trying to get her started. We had a 100w fuse for the battery which immediately blew when I turned the key. We jumped the fuse and everytime I would turn the key the starter would turn the engine but the stop of thin metal we used would start to glow red after a few seconds. But before we could look into that we noticed that the pump wasn’t running, we ran power from the battery to the pump and still got nothing so a new pump was ordered and won’t be here for a few days. We finished up the weekend by instslling the drive shafts and bleeding the brakes and clutch. I put the bonnet on to make sure everything would clear then we for food. I can’t wait for the fuel pump to get here so we can fire her up. Videos will be posted.
So quite a bit has happened since my last post. We found that the squealing noise was being caused by the cam timing bridge being gouged so we called VW and the the part was more than I spent on the whole donor car so off to the scrap yard we went. we got lucky and found a head with about 160k on it. So off came the old head turns out we were only running on 4 cylinders. Lol Luckily I still had the new head gasket and head bolts so we got on with putting it back together only to find out that I had the wrong head bolts so everything was put on hold while we waited for the correct bolts to come in the post. This last weekend we finally got everything back together but now we weren’t getting any spark. We hooked up a code reader to find that the cam sensors weren’t getting a signal. 2 newish cam sensors and still no spark so we called it for the day as it was getting late. Sunday morning we decide to check the cam timing and discover that the cams aren’t timed correctly so once we get that fixed and everything back together it fired right up. We ran it up to temp to make sure the fan would kick on, which it did, then we did the track rod ends and steering rack boots. Then it was time for her to move under her own power For now I’m just driving it to see what small issues still need to be addressed, like the fact that I have an oil lift that flashes unless I have the headlights on with the high beams.
So I never got around to sorting the oil light on the dash but I made sure the oil levels were good daily. I still had an oil leak so we took the gearbox off to find the rear main seal had twisted so I ordered a new one. I swapped out the old clocks for newer old ones and my mfa started working. We tried to figure out why my rear fog light didn’t work anymore and we are pretty sure it’s becuase we used a US spec CE1 digit fuse box so I’ll worry about that later. I still need to change a coolant temp switch because I’m sure that’s why it doesn’t like start when cold. I would be working on it now but I’m 5,000 miles away for the next year. The Airforce decided I needed to move to South Korea for the next year but there’s a chance I’ll be moving to the UK next year but I won’t know until next year. I also took a chance at making some projected headlights. I got one done but didn’t get the chance to finish them before all my stuff got packed up. That’s all for now so here’s some pictures.
US and Euro CE1 fuseboxes are the same, often when you're messing about with the fusebox the fog light switch grey/yellow power wire with female spade gets plugged into a matching grey/yellow male spade from the fusebox. If you do that but don't also fit a 53 relay in slot 7, then you loose your fog lights. Reason is, the male spade and 53 are only used if you have front fogs. if you dont, then the female spade from the fog switch goes in M/1
