Another MK2 golf gti 20v turbo build thread

Discussion in 'Members Gallery' started by rydinator, Feb 23, 2015.

  1. rydinator New Member

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    Hi All, Ive been lurking for a while now, but unfortunately Im not a serial poster, I try to look at others build threads etc. and try work stuff out myself.

    Anyway, I thought I would try and give something back in return and start my own build thread on my MK2 golf 20v turbo, hopefully it will give others confidence if they were thinking of doing the same type of conversion. Please bear with me, this first post maybe abit long as its from the start to where I currently am at the moment.

    I never thought Id get another chance of doing an engine conversion let alone being able to afford it after having my son last May. Luckily I have a fiance who is into VWs and now my son is in a routine at night time and sleeps the whole night, I can spend several hours working on it in my garage in the evenings after work etc.

    My other pride and joy is my T4, I have spent many hours converting it into a camper etc, anyway that build thread is on the t4/t5 forum. I have carried out a 20v turbo conversion into my MK1 golf a few years ago and always wanted to do it a MK2 golf, I have also done a 1.9tdi conversion from a mk3 golf into one of my T4s so Id like to say I know my way around a spanner and the wiring side of it.

    This was only ever an idea and I never thought Id actually be able to do it again (explained above) but the chance arose to purchase a mk4 golf gti turbo with an AGU that was in perfect running condition and literally 2 minutes from my house, I drove it to make sure everything was spot on, it boosted nicely, didnt overheat, gears were nice and smooth so I thought Id be cheeky and offer him half of what he wanted expecting him to say no, but he said yes as he needed the space. I ended up getting it for 300.

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    I start getting itchy feet with stuff like this and I think it was the following evening I started to strip the engine out, so I removed the front end and wiring loom and disconnected the driveshafts and anything else that was connected to the engine, the evening after that the engine was out. I advertised the rest of the golf for breaking and within a few days I made my money back plus a good profit so I was happy with that, so it turned out this conversion was going to cost me hardly anything.

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    Before I started stripping everything off the MK2, I stripped the AGU down to a bare block and repainted everything and inspected the turbo, valves, pistons etc and all was fine, as this is on a budget I didnt want to go the whole hog and replace stuff that didnt need replacing and I knew the car drove perfectly, I did replace the Cambelt and water pump and various gaskets though. I had set aside a budget of 150-200 for clutch and flywheel, turned out it had been replaced recently with a G60 Clutch and flywheel so even better, that was money spent elsewhere.

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    Bodgey repair by previous owner, good job i was removing all this. Also replaced the pipe going into the oil filter housing as it was brittle and broke in two...

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    Whilst I was rebuilding the block back up, I started ordering various parts, bought all new mounts and a new g60 rear mount, purchased a low mileage 02A gearbox, seat clutch actuator and cable, oil catch can and I was on a work trip up in Birmingham, so I thought Id pop into toyosport and purchased a front mount intercooler kit, again this didnt cost me anything as work pay for fuel and this ended up paying for that. So 2 of the more expensive parts of the conversion didnt cost me anything.

    Now the engine was pretty much back together, I attached the 02A gear box, this went on relatively easy, I did however have a stupid 5 minutes and was wondering why the 02J bolts werent going in, turned out they were the wrong size so bought some corrado bolts and these went straight through into the front g60 bracket. Now the box was attached and as I am using the 02j shifter cables, I went to put the 02J shifter tower into the box, I was sat there trying for ages and I came to the realisation that it doesnt fit, at this point I didnt bother checking the net to see why it didnt fit, so I laid the 02A and 02J shifter towers next to one another, I then took them both apart and built a hybrid from the 2, this then slotted straight in.

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    At this point, the engine was ready to bolt in, instead of sitting on it for ages, i went ahead and removed the MK2 lump, this was more painful than removing the AGU, wires everywhere and bolts were rusted solid, luckily the driveshaft bolts werent rounded off. Eventually the engine was ready to come out, I removed it with the downpipe attached as this wasnt coming off in-situ.

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    Now the engine was out, I removed the servo to gain access to the wiring loom. I was only going to remove the engine loom but looking at the condition of the lighting loom, I thought Id remove that at the same time and repair it, I wished I never done that now... With everything removed and the engine bay was bare, I degreased the bay and washed it down and inspected for any rust, I was dreading looking round the battery tray, but to my surprise, there wasnt any and the rest of the bay was rust free. As this is never going to be a show car, I spent a few hours painting the bay with some VHT paint, this was more of me being anal than anything, its not perfect by any means but compared to the before and after shots, its made a world of difference.

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    So, I was at the point of what shall I do now, I didnt want to do something that might hinder something else, I went ahead and bolted the AGU into the MK2, this was a pain in the A*** as getting it to line up on the mounts and keep the driveshafts out the way on my own was proving difficult, anyway I managed it, I was jumping for joy afterwards as I wasnt 100% that the brackets I bought were going to be right as I used the standard rear engine bracket, if I went for the longer G60 rear engine bracket, I think the mk2 power steering pump wouldve hit the front sub frame as its quite close now but clears it ok. Some people might find this funny, at the time I didnt As I was concentrating on getting the engine bolted in, I bloody forgot to bolt the servo back on!!! I tried getting it in with the engine in-situ, but the angle it had to go in was making it impossible, you guessed it, I had to take the engine out again, got the servo bolted back in and engine bolted back in all in the same evening, I was glad that was over. Whilst i was at it, i modified the servo to accept the ford focus stubby master cylinder, i had to take a bit more than 3mm off the pin, but the pedal feels ok though...

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    I was pondering what to do about the wiring loom for quite some time, do I send it away to be modified and spend 150+ or do I save that money for something elsewhere and try and do it myself. I went for the second option and had a go making it myself. I have to thank Rubjonny for his guide and my constant questioning on Facebook, if it wasnt for him, I dont think I would even attempt it, so Im very grateful to him! I got all my electrical kit together, got some heat shrink from work and bought loads of rolls of tesa tape, I think I have a fetish with that stuff now, started covering everything with it, makes any wiring look OEM. Anyway, I set about stripping both looms and removing any wires that I didnt need and went and put both looms in the bay to see where they needed to go, once I got a rough idea, I taped it up, I then spent the following evening making the one loom. I started at about 730 and before I knew it, it was 2am and I had work at 8am the following day. I dont know why it took so long, I didnt want to rush it, so I think it was due to the fact I was triple checking I had the correct wire from both looms before cutting and soldering them together and a lot of checking continuity to ensure they were connected correctly, anyway, I finished making the loom that same evening/morning. One thing I would definitely recommend to anyone else thinking of doing this, is buy a vw pin extractor tool, this came in so handy as I was able to re-use the pins and I didnt fancy cutting the wires. There were a few difference I made to my loom to that of Rubjonnys guide and that was, I connected all the grounds at the 14 pin plug and soldered a length of wire directly to the battery instead of having several wires going to the head etc. Once made, I wrapped it in tesa tape, it looks almost professionally done. I havent been able to test it yet, so it might not even work yet, fingers cross it does as I dont fancy removing that tape!

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    As I had both the engine loom and lighting loom inside, I thought Id remove all the old tape from the lighting loom and repair any wires, I then re wrapped the entire loom in tesa tape, it looks so much better. The old dusty tape just fell off it was that old.
    I didnt work on the golf for a few evenings but was doing the odd bit here and there at home, I bought a set of MFA 16v clocks off eBay, was told that they hadnt been tested and he was selling them as spares or repairs, I only wanted them for parts, so set about taking them apart and I removed the clocks from the golf. This needed doing anyway to make it easier to get the speedo drive in. My clocks had the MFA screen leak and this was the only reason I wanted the other clocks to replace this, so set about sorting that out, so thats one job ticked off the list.

    Next evening, I went to put the loom back into the car, as you guessed it, I had to unbolt the servo to get it in, luckily I was able to move it out the way enough without completely removing it, fed both the looms into the car and then around the bay. I followed the original route, so Ive attached the looms under the scuttle panel where the original mk2 looms were and then fed the plug through the scuttle and next to the wiper mech.

    Once I had done that job, I needed to fit the 02J shifter cables, I tried ages to find a guide, found one on vw vortex, but this was for fitting into a corrado and the underside was different. So I cut the original brackets off and fed the shifter up inside the car to see what I had to do, turned out it was really simple. Took the shifter apart and removed the old torque screws and replaced with 2x m10 50mm bolts, had to drill the holes out to make them fit and done the same for the rear but using shorter bolts, placed the shifter back inside the car and marked where the bolts needed to go through and drilled 4 holes. The tricky bit was keeping the shifter inside the car as I was doing this on my own, so I used an axle stand and bolted them shifter into place from inside the car, fits perfectly, cables dont hit the tunnel and it selects the gears perfectly fine. I did have to use the diesel geek alignment video to do this though as it wasnt going into any of the gears to start off with but its fine now. I think it was the same evening, I fitted the catch can just next to the washer bottle and routed all the pipe for that.

    I think thats where I am with it at the moment, I have ordered a few other bits and pieces, like fuel lines and a t piece for the oil pressure switches. I am also waiting on the bracket from vw heritage that holds the clutch cable as this is NLA from seat.
    Any questions then fire away and Ill try and answer them. Its one of the main reasons I have created this thread to help others out as I spent literally hours researching and trying to find stuff and it can be abit daunting as a lot of stuff I have read contradicts other stuff and it started to frazzle my brain abit so I just done it my own way
     
    erreesse, Ari, Toyotec and 2 others like this.
  2. Richard Mk2

    Richard Mk2 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Nice to see another 1.8T build in progress :thumbup:

    Great to see you went in a done the wiring loom yourself. I was lucky when Rubjonny did my loom, as his list wasnt as big back then as it is now ;)

    Must be a great achievement once the loom is finished though.

    All the best with the build. And im looking forward to seeing some more pictures of the Mk2 ;)
     
  3. fasteddie

    fasteddie Banned

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    Good work mate ..watching ;)
     
  4. Nige

    Nige Paid Member Paid Member

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    300 ! Fekking bargain ! Nice one.

    Certainly makes the conversion affordable. Good work on the loom, I`ll keep an eye on this one :thumbup:
     
  5. rydinator New Member

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    Thanks mate, it was your thread that gave me the boost to pull my finger out!

    Yea im glad i made the loom myself, it was easier than i first thought it was going to be...

    Ill get some more pics when its light, only get a chance to work on it in the evenings.

    Thanks mate, ill try and keep it updated as much as possible. I tend to forget about build threads and dont update them for ages
    I made double that back breaking it up which im happy about and like you say, makes it affordable. Similar thing happened when i done my mk1 golf a few years back.

    Thanks about the loom :thumbup:
     
    Richard Mk2 and Nige like this.
  6. rydinator New Member

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    Not much of an update, eventually got round to connecting up the fuel lines, bought some new braided line off ebay and also fitted the t piece into the oil filter housing for the 2 oil pressure switches, fits perfectly.

    Also Connected my throttle cable and clutch cable and bolted the driveshafts up last night. Unfortunately i didnt get any pictures.

    I'm slowly working through the list i wrote.

    I think the next task will be plumbing in the water pipes, does anyone have any pictures of where they need to go? Im more concerned about the 2 pipes in the bulk head and also the pipe that comes round from the back of the block on the drivers side?
     
  7. Joe16v Forum Member

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    One of the pipes for the bulkhead(heater matrix) goes to the back of the coolant flange, the other to the end of the metal pipe. The hose lengths to the matrix should indicate which is which but it doesnt really matter.

    round the back of the block i think is the expansion tank. There will also be the turbo coolant feed line.

    But well done. Been way more productive than me over the 3 years I've been doing it. Agree with you about the wiring loom. Looks much harder than it is once you have good instructions to follow and can label things up and work through.
     
    rydinator likes this.
  8. rydinator New Member

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    Thanks for your reply!

    Makes sense now regarding the pipe coming from the back of the block, it originally connected to a t piece didnt it? I am planning on moving the coolant bottle to a similar location of the mk4 so should be ok... Not sure ive seen the turbo coolant feed line though?

    It was so easy once i had both looms out of their original tape and next to one another, i just hope it works ok as some of the wire colours were different to the guide, but they matched up on the engine wiring loom so not to worried at the moment
     
  9. rydinator New Member

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    I haven't updated this for a few weeks so i thought it was about time that i should.

    I have been busy working on the mk2 most evenings, sometimes it has felt i haven't got anywhere with it, i guess all the little bits add up.

    As i am running the seat clutch cable set up, i ordered all the parts new from seat, i weighed up the pros and cons of going cable over hydraulic, first of all it was easier and cheaper than hunting down the right pedal box etc i also had to wait 5 weeks to have the bracket to hold the cable on from vw heritage classic parts...

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    I ended up relocating the washer bottle to the drivers side, used a mk4 golf one and the fit is perfect, i did have to extend the water pipes but that was easy and expected. I also used the mk4 golf washer pump so this meant i had to make up a loom to attach to the old wiring as the original wiring needed extending to reach the pump, doing this meant i could now run the standard airbox.

    My original plan from the start was always to keep it OEM looking and this meant using all the engine covers, airbox etc, i think i have achieved this now, it was tricky in places, especially the intercooler piping. My brother also collected a one of qpeng downpipes for me at the weekend so i am going to try and get that fitted this week.

    I have also had the car started and ticking over along with the rev counter working correctly and the diagnostics all working as well, when i had it fire into life for the first time i was relieved that all the wiring i done was right.

    Ill let the pictures do the rest of the talking and these are the latest i have of the conversion, although i do have the grill back on as i was a little worried that the inner lights were going to fowl it but they dont.

    This brings me to the intercooler, i have put it at the same angle as the radiator, i don't know if this is the right way of doing it or not but it fits ok once i modded the front panel, i shouldn't have any problems with it being like that should i?

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    erreesse likes this.
  10. Big phill New Member

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    Hi I'm looking to convert my mk2 golf into a 20v turbo can any body pls help with a list of parts in need to do the build thanks phill
     
  11. 1990

    1990 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Sweet!!! I think they look really neat with the OE air box :thumbup:
     
  12. Mark Allen

    Mark Allen Paid Member Paid Member

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    I know this is an old thread, but I’m about embark on the same journey. Information is scattered everywhere and I am struggling to get answers to some stuff, or I find multiple answers that contradict one another!
     
  13. cupracraig

    cupracraig Paid Member Paid Member

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    nice one dude! looms are never fun but its good that you just cracked on with it
     
  14. jshep73 Forum Member

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    Nice build, just finished mine. Don't make the mistake of thinking it will be a cheap conversion based on the donor car being £300!!
     

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