Exhausted !

I spent a while trying to find a decent exhaust, I didnt want a stainless system just yet as I want to see how loud it is then get a custom one fabbed up. I thought I would stick with the Golf system as it was already suited to the engine but obviously I had to really modify the shape to get it all to fit.















I found a nice Ashley 2.5 inch one from a MK2 GTI. It didn't take too much effort to change all the bends and I added a rubber hanger to allow the box to move a bit. Its quite short and its a straight through box so I think it will be quite loud. I managed to get most of that sorted in one day, then I moved on to mounting the fuel pump.






I added new rubber mounts and new filter, the mounting bars are just bent metal. Its a Golf MK2 8V Digifant fuel pump, with just the swirl pot. No accumulator like the 16V but this is plenty enough to stop fuel surge.













I quickly added a return spring to the accelerator pedal fashioned out of a spring from some garden loppers, just the job and gives the pedal a good feel.

I sent my ECU away to get the immobiliser deleted which hopefully will make the wiring a lot easier.
Unfortunately I forgot to take the OBD port from the Golf so I wont be able to talk to the ECU.

Recently started the wiring loom from the Golf engine, and started to separate and identify all the wires I need and don't need. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to this part but I did enjoy it after a while. I am currently still on the wiring and struggling to trigger the fuel pump relay.
Close but not quite ready to hear that exhaust note.

Engine in !

I cleaned up the block and fitted all the necessary diesel parts, I used new gaskets and seals where I could and a new water pump, cam belt and tensioner including a new tensioner stud.


The diesel alternator went on because I managed to just use one v belt from the crank to drive the water pump and alternator, way better than the weird diesel setup with 2 v belts and shims and stuff.

The diesel dipstick is annoying and I'm not sure if I like it but time is ticking and I just want to get it going now.


Finally got the engine in ! It went in nice and easy, I re-used the diesel clutch so ill see how that goes, and fitted a new spigot bearing. I tested the starter and it works fine but I'm going to re-locate the earth lead from the gearbox mounting to the starter bolt as suggested by Aiden Talbot


I started putting all the water hoses on and used the original AGG water flange on the head. I reckon I can make this work all I might need to do is block off the small 8mm pipe or connect it with a T-piece to somewhere, I haven't got that far yet so I will see.


While I was doing this I cleaned up and fitted the engine wiring loom to all the injectors and sensors.


There is plenty of room on the inlet manifold side. It looks really tidy and I kinda like the freaky tilted 50 degree look. Also means any parts are easy to change in the future. I fitted the drive shafts with new CV joints, boots and bolts and fitted the original clutch slave cylinder as it was in good condition.

The throttle body went on then I had the problem of the throttle cable. I didn't want to have a joint with a few inches of AGG cable on there so I bought 10 meters of bike cable with all the nipples and ferrules to go with it and its done the job nicely.

Another thing that was bugging me was the exhaust manifold, I looked at several different ideas but most of them used the AGG cast manifold. I thought that there has got to be another way.


I didn't like the idea of having a 2 into1 joint at the manifold with a 90 degree turn at a length of about 4 inches. The original Golf GTI down pipe has a runner length of 18 inches and this contributes to the torque curve. After a lot of searching I found an ADZ manifold from a Golf mk3 1.8 8v it was perfect and had a lambda sensor with it that was the same as the AGG.


The bores are the same size and shape and the cast shape is very similar apart from the ADZ one has less material around the tubes and obviously the lambda boss is directly on the flange. Sweet.



This will make building an exhaust much easier and the flange is angled away from the engine slightly so I can make a much smoother flow. 



The only problem was the lambda probe was so long that it interfered with the nearside rubber engine mount but this is easily solved with this.


Next up is new fuel pipes and I got a Golf mk2 gti fuel pump to mount underneath somewhere.

Its been a while !

Well its been some time since I last posted any progress but lots of things kept getting in the way.

Ive been playing with my wheel fitment and bought longer rear studs and longer stud conversion for the front hubs. I worked out that I would need 10mm spacers for the rear to clear the large hub nut.

The front hubs were going to be a bit of a problem because the alloys were ET35 8J and without spacers they interfered with the front control arm and the standard grease caps were never going to fit without having the center bores machined to 66.6mm.

Much head scratching later and I developed my own grease caps, they seem to work quite nicely and the nearside has the speedo cable drive in place and the alloys fit on the front with no clearance issues, this saved me from getting the wheels machined and I could use the centre caps that the wheels came with.

The wheels are close to the front control arm but there is between 6-7mm of clearance. If they ever touch the control arm then something else has already failed. My mk4 golf has less clearance on the front so I'm not going to worry about it.
As it stands now the wheels have 10mm spacers all round making them ET25, a little bit out of factory spec but hopefully not enough to notice.

I also completely rebuilt the front and rear brakes including brake pipes and unions and lacquered the drums and calipers in Hemi Orange (seemed like a good idea at the time)

I bought new back-plates and stainless front back/splash-plates from the brickwerks. Amazingly I snapped off two bolts on each control arm holding the splash-plates on so I had to drill and tap new ones on which took so much time. 

The bleed nipple in one caliper was seized and snapped off and after trying all the easy-outs I had to end up drilling and tapping a new bleed nipple which took a lot of time and was really annoying, I gave up at one point and almost ordered a new caliper for £100, but I went back to it the next day and got it sorted and fitted stainless steel bleed nipples hoping they wont ever seize again. 

New upper ball joints and track control arms were fitted and I changed everything that was starting to look crusty.

I fitted new 60mm lowering springs and shocks, although the front shock length is the same as the old ones I'm worried they will bottom out even after cutting 3 ribs off the bump stops.

 I think I will have to get shorter front shocks. Ordered some KYB GR2's for now although a friend of mine has these on his hightop T-25 and says there harsh its gotta be better than no suspension travel at all.

Got some part-worn tyres for the alloys fitted. 

205 55 16 Goodyear Eagle NCT on the front  

215 55 16 Bridgestone Turanza on the rear. 

The rears work out the same ratio as stock and the fronts are a little undersized but only 1%

I'm chuffed with the stance, the rear will drop a bit when I get the engine and gearbox back in I reckon.

Tyre size calculator (at the bottom of the page)

Wheel fitment table for VW T25

up on blocks

Bessie is up on blocks while I get the engine sorted, I can repair the cab steps, fit the drivers door and generally tidy up the body work.

I've already fitted a new sliding door as the bottom was totally blown on the original, also got a sliding window to go in it.

I've got a new tall nearside rear arch repair panel to go on and a short offside rear, and apart from the odd patch that's it for panel repairs.

New door seals are yet to be fitted including the sliding door seal, I might fit these after paint and I have a bit of sliding door adjustment to do.

I might also need to do the sliding door hinge mod to clear the rims on the rear but again i need to check this when its all fitted.

Diesel Out !

The time came to remove the KY 1.7 N/A Diesel which was a shame really as it was a reconditioned unit with only 47k on it but I couldn't live with this sort of power or lack of it.

The engine flew out, it was really easy to drop, no problems and lowered it onto my professional engine moving device (skateboard) I made a note of where a lot of parts went and made sure I didn't damage anything.

I tied all the electrics neatly out the way and completely stripped the engine bay so I could patch a few holes and respray it all.

I rubbed the bay down to bare metal and sprayed it all in primer for now but I'm going to spray it in the main body colour before I start re-fitting the engine and components.

It did have a diesel battery tray which I removed because I want to tuck the battery away behind the offside light cluster, I might put the AGG ECU in there as well away from most of the heat and moisture.

Stripped off exhaust and inlet manifolds, next I need to fit new water pump, cam belt and tensioner various gaskets seal including crankshaft seal.

I'm only doing a light rebuild on this motor as I'm happy with how it was running when I removed it from the golf, but I still need to replace every component I can without taking the head off.

The sump and oil pump pick-up will be swapped for the diesel and the diesel engine mounts will be fitted.

I'm still hunting for a non air con model alternator mounting bracket so it wont poke above the engine lid and I can use a serpentine belt.
I could actually use the old diesel alternator with a bracket from an early golf but tensioning it might be a problem.
I haven't got this far yet so I will see what I can come up with.

Donor car

After much research, and I mean MUCH research, a 2.0 VW AGG engine was needed, this had the best torque output at low revs which would best suit my gearbox. There were some other engines I could have sourced but there were a few good build threads on the brickyard and retroride proboards that I could follow with success.

A mk3 Golf GTI was found nearby and was way too cheap to pass up, a bit of MOT was left on it so I snapped it up drove it around a bit and was absolutely chuffed. The engine was sweet and really smooth, it had been quite well looked after and the owner was sad to see it go and when she asked " so are you going to fix it up" I must admit I was a bit ashamed to say " well actually I'm gonna rip the engine out, fill it full of scrap and weigh it in"

Getting the engine out was really easy especially with my trusty skateboard, I wasn't going to cheat and cut the drive shafts like the scrappers, I took my time.



The only problems I had was one stubborn gearbox bolt right at the back which was partially covered by the diff.
I also had to get the loom out intact with the ECU fuse box, transponder, key sensor ring, relays any cool bits, tool kit, badges, loads of rizla papers and about 64 pence.

The loom had to be passed out through the bulkhead under the dash which sounds easy enough, but the brake servo was in the way and there was no way I could get it passed without getting the servo off. I got brutal with a huge iron bar and just bent the thing out the way, not ideal or professional but way fun and by this point I knew this car was destined for the KIA factory.





I was in two minds whether to keep all the brake calipers and discs but the day was getting long and I had to tidy up the place before work next week. Maybe I should have kept them.