Build Thread: 1987 Scirocco 16V Garage Find

[JohnBarleyCorn]

All the new silicone hoses are on (if you decide to get some from Gee Bee, expect a long delay. Took about 4x longer than he said and he's not good at updates or customer service..hoses are decent, though, and should last forever). Axles are in with new cv bolts. New control arms are in with the new ball joints and new poly bushings. Engine is wired up. Exhaust needs some minor modification to fit right, no big deal. Front brakes are complete. Rear brakes still need to be done, a couple hours work. I need to tighten down the crank bolt correctly and tighten up all the v-belts. I'm heading out to see if the hardware store has the correct allen head bolts for the pulleys. After the crank bolt is tightened down and the intake nuts between upper & lower are installed, it should be good for a test fire. More later...and pics. I'm also waiting on my new driver seat to get here....it's a near new Recaro Expert M in black leather. I'm swapping in the good passenger side Rocco leather seat I have so it will 'match' the Recaro. Not sure how good the rear leathers I have are....we'll see about that later.
Teaser:

[JohnBarleyCorn]

It's alive!!!!
Took a while (probably a little sticky from sitting and needed to get fuel through the new filter), but she runs! Sounds horribly loud running nothing but the header right now, but that's easy to fix. So I still have a few things to do (finish replacing the wiring to the coolant level sensor, do the rear brakes, bleed the brakes, adjust the coils, etc.....), but she's on the way. Here are the few pics I just took of her after I rinsed her. Looks way better wet, rather than tornado pink.









Yes, I'll be sealing up those open solders once I find my shrink tubing or some tape.

[MetalMessiah666]

good work Petey!

[Angrygilmore]

good work Petey!

I should have gave you all my cis stuff that was laying around for this guy bob dur

[MetalMessiah666]

I'm sure Pete still has a nice little stash of parts that we don't know about.
I still have the cis crap off my PL too.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Me, parts stash? Whatever do you mean?

[Angrygilmore]

you wouldnt happen to have tail lights?

[JohnBarleyCorn]

That I do not. I'm assuming you mean 16V Rocco tails?

[JohnBarleyCorn]

I'm in the process of pulling the rear brakes apart. I'm hoping I can have it on the road tomorrow. Albeit with a very loud exhaust until I get that buttoned up...

[Angrygilmore]

yeah in the rain/hurricane be careful hooch

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Man I don't like the look of the tree branches over the Rocco, but I have nowhere else to put her. Fingers crossed!

[Angrygilmore]

Man I don't like the look of the tree branches over the Rocco, but I have nowhere else to put her. Fingers crossed!

I parked mine inside my shop but im on long island and live in a flood zone so shes 8 ft up on a lift

[MetalMessiah666]

all my crap is parked under trees, just for fun

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Another update:
Brakes done (pretty much) on all 4 corners. Got the cross-drilled rear rotors on this week with new pads and some new caliper parts. New bearings and installed the lower braided stainless hoses. I'll get to the ones over the rear beam later...they're kind of a pain to get to right now. Blasted & painted caliper carriers both sides. The pass side caliper was frozen so it's junk so I swapped in a slightly damaged caliper that I ha blasted and painted and it'll work for now. The bleeder broke off and I was a bit overzealous in drilling it out and kind of drilled too deep and killed the bleeder point mating surface. I've got a bolt in there now and since I power bleed, it should work fine. I'll replace it down the road unless I come up with a better fix. So I'll bleed it tomorrow and tighten things up and test drive it.
Old:


New:

[JohnBarleyCorn]

I'll be swapping out the alternator. Noticed it wasn't charging well and there's a good wobble to the pulley. Luckily I have another one sitting around. And of course the one on the car is a duralast, but I don't have the receipt and I didn't buy it.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

OK, yesterday I got the exhaust mounted up somewhat correctly (need a new clamp on the two-arm hander to the over axle pipe...) and drove it about a mile and a half to my work, where it will be parked for a bit. Gotta install the new rad fan switch (never turned on) and make sure the fan works. Temp sensor also didn't register so I gotta check that out too. Not bad for a first drive, though. The JOM's aren't too bad. A little bouncy, but for $400....

[ziggirocco]

[New:









I think you may have mixed up the left and right rotors, looks like they may need to be swapped, as far as I have always seen/ installed the x drilled rotors the pattern needs to follow the rotation forward.

I could be wrong but I do not thing so....

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Yeah, I got varied opinions on it and I said screw it and just threw them on in whatever way I had them. I could make the argument either way. The rears are pretty much glorified parking brakes anyway.

[jokeandcolor]

How deep are you into this budget wise if you dont mind my asking? Maybe you have a list?

[JohnBarleyCorn]

I'm about $2500 into it. A little more maybe. Could have saved some money here and there and spent more on the parts I got free or in trade. Definitely would have gone way higher if I didn't do the work myself. Helps to have friends who work at machine shops and repair shops. (Thanks guys!) If I were to sell it, I'd be asking about $3500. After all, it is still a 1987 16V Rocco. Bottom line is they're not that expensive unless you go crazy and even then you don't get your real money back out of them. Solid runners are only about $1500-$2000 from what I've seen. This is definitely not your run of the mill Rocco though...and it's a 2.0L which does make a bit of a difference. 16V engines are cheap to find used and parts for them are equally cheap, but it's the machine shop work that adds up. If I had put the completely remanned engine in, that would have been @$1500 on its own, even with the friend deal at the shop. I just lucked out on the engine I found.

[Angrygilmore]

Im like 6 grand into mine and its not even into body yet

[jokeandcolor]

Well 2500-3500 makes me feel a whole lot better . Considering that i wont be getting into any machining work and what not. future plans for a 1.8t down the road so for now suspension and basic maintenance is as far as my scirocco plans go.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Well, since I'm a dumbazz, I had to get new keys made for the Rocco. Work better than the crappy one I used to have. Thanks AAA for getting them made at my work for a grand total of $44.25. Started her up for the first time in 3 weeks due to the missing key. Ordered a new wedge bracket for her but they're 2 weeks back-ordered...dang!

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Still tinkering with her. Key-off drain that I have to run down. New Autozone alternator to install (found the PO's receipt in the glove box..free alternator!). Need to install a PS belt. Just bought a TT exhaust with a Magnaflow since the Borla was way too loud for me. I'll install that this weekend. Gotta get her on the road since someone wrecked my daily a week ago. She still is bogging down sometimes so I'll have to figure all that out too. Only other thing is figuring out why I have no coolant temp sensor signal. Might not be connected...I'll have to trace the wires.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

OK, coolant temp is coming through fine now that I actually connected the wire
Tightened down the clamp on the upper radiator hose so now it shouldn't leak (loose clamps do that). Exhaust will go on this weekend as well as the new alternator and the ps belt. We should be good to go then.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

And the Recaro is in...sits pretty high. I might have to rethink the driver seating...fine for me, but I'm just a little guy at 5'8" and ~170. OK it's winter time and I'm a fat lazy bastard...more like ~180.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

New TT exhaust is on and I'll start her up later today after tightening up the new alternator and throwing the ps belt on and filling up the coolant reservoir. Then just fix the broken coolant level sensor wires and off she goes for final tinkering.

[JohnBarleyCorn]

BTW it's an aluminized TT cat-back (actually header-back ) with a magnaflow muffler. Should sound fairly good but not quite annoying. Borla system was just too loud.

[ziggirocco]

And the Recaro is in...sits pretty high. I might have to rethink the driver seating...fine for me, but I'm just a little guy at 5'8" and ~170. OK it's winter time and I'm a fat lazy bastard...more like ~180.

If you have recurs from a mk2 jetta glior golf gti with the welded on brackets then you will be high, if you have the recaro from a corrado or a jetta trophy then you will sit lower, let me clarify the last statement;

Corrado recaro direct fit and low.
Jetta recaro from a trophy edition can be unbolted from the tracks, then you can get a set of corrado tracks.

Otherwise only cutting and welding will get you lower.


Misspelled by my iPhone using Slaptalk!

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Yeah, I know about the various VW Recaro models, but this is an aftermarket Recaro so I needed a bracket to mount it on. My old Rocco had my early GLI Recaros in it and they were perfect for me, but still too high for anyone taller. And Corrado seats are hard to come by in black leather (especially the driver seat).

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Still has a key-off drain that I'll have to track down and it still wants to die when returning to idle, but that may be an easy fix. Maybe a new ISV and track down any vacuum leaks..
Feels good otherwise.

[ziggirocco]

Yeah, I know about the various VW Recaro models, but this is an aftermarket Recaro so I needed a bracket to mount it on. My old Rocco had my early GLI Recaros in it and they were perfect for me, but still too high for anyone taller. And Corrado seats are hard to come by in black leather (especially the driver seat).

Ya you would need to mix trophy seats with corrado tracks, that is what I am doing tight now actually, just finishing there-upholstery as we speak.


Misspelled by my iPhone using Slaptalk!

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Nice. I might have to find a Rocco seat to re-wrap in leather (after I rebuild the bolster, of course).

[JohnBarleyCorn]

Crossed my fingers and took her out for a test drive to the coffee shop at lunch and she runs great. Pulls hard and is actually idling much better now. Maybe just needed the cobwebs blown out of her? Anyway, I think she's pretty close to done with the exception of installing the PS belt and connecting the coolant level sensor and tracking down the key-off drain. I forgot how much fun a 16V Rocco is.

[hussdog426]