couldnt leave it alone, mk2 polo runaround gets modded !!

this is my mk2 polo boulevard which i bought as a runaround in the summer of 2004. its given 2 years of daily service, great build quality for such an old car. very fun to drive with the lively solid lifter 1300 HK engine. same engine as the early mk2 1.3 golf.

spanky original interior



i did a couple of modifications not long after buying the polo, or improvements i would like to call them. i converted from the old HK points breaker distributor to a more modern electronic ignition setup. used a distributor from a saab 900, cavalier coil and ignition module, one off hall sensor wiring using the plug from the saab.






poly bushes up front, replacing the 20 year old rubber kit



the original twin downpipe rotted and fell off, so i replaced with a ashely 4-2-1 unit



this summer the polo flipped round to 70,000 miles, the previous 10k of which were motorway miles. it seemed to eke out a few weaknesses over that period. worst of which was a big oil leak from the bottom left hand corner of the head gasket. the oil pump was wet, no oil on the cam belt or surrounding area though and oil cannot travel upwards without being flicked, the cam seal was fine, that only left the head gasket. altenator was drenched in oil, and all under the engine and chassis too.

so heres the work thats taken place over the last couple of month, kicking off..

inlet manifold and carb off





2E3 in the boot, auto choke still worked lol !



thermostat housing off



head off onto the work bench. looked in good condition at first glance, valves and seats in good order. appear have chunky bronze guides as standard, and the valve heads arent magnetic, austinetic stainless steel, bit high spec for a 20 year old road engine !



top side, no scoring or nasties on the cam.



block also in good shape, bores still have hone marks and no lip at the top. quater of an inch of carbon though where the rings dont reach.





after hearing on the polo grape vine about a larger inlet manifold from an equivelant european car, as a cheap upgrade, i did some pictures of the standard inlet manifold

inlet ports on the head with inlet manifold gasket fitted, obviously a perfect match for size



inlet manifold runners with gasket fitted, ouch !



heres the head being stripped down, ready to be sent off for some mild clean up and flow optimisations, and a gasket skim.





just before my holiday in may i took a pop shot at german ebay and came up trumps with an auction for the larger european inlet manifold, from engine code GK (rated at 75 horsepower, compared to our 55 !). even though there wasnt a buy it now price i offered the guy direct by e-mail and he accepeted, but with a lack of mechanism in ebay for the transaction to carry out, i ended up just bidding as normal. i stuck a silly max bid in to make sure, but it went for peanuts anyway.

 

in june i got the head back from my friend who does some good flow work on the quiet. also the GK manifold turned up from germany care of german ebay. excellent :-)

heres the european GK manifold (top) versus the stock HK manifold (bottom) amazing difference in port size



stock manifold with the stock gasket held up



GK manifold with same gasket held up



other than the temp sender top right hand corner i cant see much external casting differences at first glance



heres the mild head work carried out, exhaust side



chambers



inlet ports. no enlarging/porting has been done, just smoothing and improving flow



same for the exhausts



valve throats have been extensively worked, removing all the sharp edges from when the valve seat is machined at the factory, also the surrounding area of the valve seat has been enlarged to create more of a combustion chamber in the head.



inlet manifold heater gets a haircut !!!







while the engine was in bits, i took the opertunity to renew the front wheel bearings which were grumbling, and also change the dampers which were no longer, er, damping !!

after a bit of mincing this is what i came up with to press a pair of new wheel bearings in. big vice, two long sockets, new bearing pressing out the old bearing. and then using a spare old bearing carcass to finish off pressing the new bearing in.





swapping the front dampers for some new gas inserts. i opened up the strut to find the factory oil dampers ! weird setup, the mcpherson tube is filled with oil, and a kind of plunger insert is immersed in it.



both struts with new bearing kits and new gas dampers



heres the head being built up. this was after lapping the valves in, fitting the valves, stem seals, springs and collets, cam and followers and cam seal



GK inlet manifold on, grotty carb fitted, new fuel pump too as the old one leaked oil from its carcass.



heres the head back on and partially reassembled



bit of a wash n wax on the outside, came up really nice havent washed it since the winter, naughty !

 

and heres the money shot, sunglasses at the ready lol ! 8-)



distributor is still a bit manky but thats a temporary one while i get it reconned or replaced for new.

at this point i ran the polo up to my local rolling road and managed an astonishing 69bhp@5449, 77lbf-ft@3516. compared to the factory figures of 54bhp@5400, 71lbf-ft@3300.

whilst all the engien rebuild was happening, in the back of my head i had a major niggle with pierburg carb which was behaving oddly for quite some time. the modifications seems to worsen its effect, stuttering and cutting out randomly, massive lag in throttle repsonse. as a b-side to the engine rebuild i decided to try and track down a weber carb for the engine. webcon have a massive back order on the polo 28/32 dmtr and no intension of starting production [:^(] the only other option was second hand or find some new "old" stock. ebay turned up trumps, kind of. euro car parts had a polo weber carb on auction, which i won only to be gazzumped because they had sold it over the counter a few days before. they also had a golf 1.3 carb on sale, i bought that instead knowing they were almost the same.

the differences are the throttle linkage and cable setup, so i had to come up with something special to make it all work, pivotal part was finding a throttle quadrant from a mk2 golf.

i managed to find a mk2 golf C in the breakers yard and the throttle quadrant was duly liberated, much to my delight after 2 weeks of searching and badgering people on message boards !!

heres the mk2 polo pierburg throttle quad setup



after seeing the mk2 golf it confirmed the linkage is on the opposite (passenger) side of the carb here...



like so...



so, for whatever reason in webers infinite wisdom they decide to move the linkage onto the polo side. which is a bit of a double edged sword, it means the linkage is on the correct side, but it also means allot of stuff in a small area, like the mechanical linkage, helper spring, choke lever and holders.

so i had 3 options

1. fit the carb back to front so that the weber throttle cable holder is at the bulkhead, and linkage on passenger side - discounted that because i dont want to drill a new hole in the bulkhead to satisfy the re-arranged entry point to the carb

2. fit the carb the correct way as per weber instructions, bodge the pierburg throttle cable holster onto the weber base plate and use the same layout as standard polo. - discounted as to do this would mean removing the helper spring and choke cable bracket to allow access for the thottle cable to the carb.

3. fit the carb the correct way as per weber instructions, use a longer throttle cable around the front of the carb like a mk2 golf. - good option but mk2 polo has a different clasp design at the throttle pedal end to most other cars, logical choice would have been the mk2 golf cable, i took this off the mk2 golf donor car as a backup plan anyway

i chose option 3, more details later.

onto the installation, pierburg carb removed, revealing the bare inlet manifold



heres the weber adapter plate, long manifold studs fitted (with stud lock fluid) also the wedge removed from the plate with combo of hacksaw and die grinder



adapter plate bolted to the inlet manifold, carb studs fitted to the plate, carb sandwhich block fitted.



so thats essentially ready to accept the weber carb. after deciding to try the mk2 golf throttle cable route, now i had to figure out how to adapt it.

heres the pedal ends... polo top, mk2 golf bottom. apart from this difference, and the difference in cable length everything else is the same, the the rubber grommets through the bulkhead, the adjuster at the carb, everything.



so basically i had to make the hook end of the mk2 golf cable, into an eyelet, to slide over the pin on the polos throttle pedal lever. after dismissing attempts with zip ties and the rubber eye insert from the polo cable, due to strength, i ended up with this, which is a hose clip. basically the hook went between the bolt and the metal outer ring, and the polo's rubber eye inside the the enclosed hose clip.
bodge tastic oddball inc. but its strong and works a treat.



here it is fitted to the top of the pedal lever



it works great for the time being, but i might see if the mk2 golf throttle pedal will swap onto the polo pedal box as a permenant long term option.

with the carb fixed down, pop the throttle quadrant on, throttle cable looped round the engine and attatched to the webers holder like so...



all that was left to do was basically plubing, water hoses and fuel hoses. the golf carb ditches the fuel swirl pot, just has a simple feed and return.



after some cranking to fill the float chamber it fired into life and idle perfectly !!

last but not least, i got the polo up to my local rolling road for a second time to provide an "after" figure for the weber carb installation.

scores on the doors

before - 69bhp@5449, 77lbf-ft@3516
..after - 73bhp@5795, 76lbf-ft@3816

solid line is the new bhp and torque curve, dotted line is previous run with the pierburg 2E.



the previous spike, which i think was caused by the pierburgs secondary throttle opening and taking a big gulp, has been ironed out. much smoother and progressive delivery, and a marked improvement in torque at higher revs, hence the bhp increase.

as before the test was with standard exhaust, air filter and housing, standard cam, still using 95 ron ulneaded with no change to ignition advance.

very pleased with the results, the engine feels great. now i can turn my attention to the bodywork.

 

Wow, so much for a daily driver. What an excellent little write up mate!!

 

very cool!!!!

 

hmmm used to have a cplate boulavard bloody nippy little car i wanted to mod mine got as far clear lenses on front and destripring it mine had the solid lifter engine wish i had kept it and turned it into a trackday car the hotair pickiup rotted off so it used to ice up in the cold weather . im lovin your engine mods mate.

 

Superb thread,superb work m8

Neil.

 

Just one quick question - why?

 

I think the answer may be "because I can"

 

Ive got a mk2 16v golf and A Mk2 polo coupe S - The coupe not as fast but in a lot of ways the more entertaining to drive! Great effort!

Dan

 

Good work Darren, you must love fiddling !

 

His other car is a 200bhp valver on Thottle bodies !

All a bit of fun at the end of the day, great write up mate !

 

love it

 

doesnt everyone??

 

220bhp now and still turbo and gas free lol

thanks for the kind comments.

and in answer to jolfa, why ? your question is both amusing and baffling in equal portions, especially when you bare in mind where you asked it. on a club based website created and fueled by people like me with a passion for engines, cars, styling whatever.

some people like hitting a nobbly white ball round a field with a lump of metal on the end of the tube.

some poeple like spending a days wages on alcohol on a friday night.

some people like sliding down a hill covered in frozen rain, with two planks under their feet.

me, i like cars and engines and driving.

 

Thats awesome, nice one

 

Top score! Good to see someone else taking the little engines seriously.

 

Fair play to ya.

 

Great write up, makes us 1300 owners proud! Was thinking of doing some work to my golf aswell. And thats a prety good power increase.

The larger intake manifold would fit nicely on a late mk2 wouldnt it? might try and find on and a webber aswell.
What about the exhaust manifold? What type is it?

 

thanks for the comments, i make it about 33% increase in bhp and although 73bhp is not gonna stop the earth spinning its a nice return for a few hundred quid. the inlet manifold cost me 15 euros !

yup inlet manifold fits on the later MH and 2G engines fine. the exhaust manifold is an ashley 4 into 2 into 1, cost me just over 100 at the time.