Going German FTW?

[_a2coupe2a_]

in case you were curious...

drivers seat srd . pass seat lx-b

[DocWalt]

in case you were curious...

drivers seat srd . pass seat lx-b

I was actually, thanks! Much appreciated

reminds me, I need to fix the driver's side seat. Same problem that the evo x recaros with the seat fabric pulling out of the harness holes.

[candyvr6]

very nice interior too, damn you got a good deal, i've always loved the recaro velour interior and they're rare in good shape watching the progress

[Dan821821]

were in ny did u get this car?

I can't wait to do it up right! I'm planning on tearing out all of the dead Aktiv stuff (there's a reason I didn't take interior pics yet, lol) and rewiring some new speakers in after I get the basics finished up. Body work for fenders, hood, and roof this winter. Only minor body work, but the car is entirely rust free so I want it to look as great on the shiny side

PS

Do work.

[DocWalt]

Near Albany. It was on CL for all of a day, lol.

Found some rust on one jacking point today, need to scrape the undercoating and clean that up before it gets worse. Replaced my rear motor mount and swapped in a new header. Didn't get much else done because my brother stuffed his mk2 into some trees and totaled it.

[DocWalt]

Got it all back together yesterday afternoon. Replaced the bad tie rod end and still have the suspension clunk. I think it's the LCA bushings, the ball joint seemed tight. Gotta drive more to see if I fixed the coolant issue. The exhaust doesn't leak anymore, seems to run kinda rich still, might need to replace a temp sensor.

[DocWalt]

I still had coolant disappearing, so I swapped in a new water pump and t-stat. The old t-stat flange was warped, so I swapped in a metal one. I hope this cures it

[DocWalt]

Blah, still have coolant leak somewhere on the front of the engine. Time to swap a ton of hoses that I just had apart, all with awful spring clamps.

[DocWalt]

Not sure. Found the leak anyway, didn't take a pic though. One of the hoses to the oil cooler must have been disturbed when I was doing the work on the water pump, because it's leaking like crazy.

On a better note... I fixed my awful headlights! The original owner had installed H4 housings but never did the wiring correctly, so the high beam and ground wires were swapped. Fixed it and now my headlights are MUCH brighter. Swapped out my power steering belt for a new one, so now I no longer have chirpy belts. I also fixed my dome light. It was corroded internally, and the door switches were bad. I swapped in the switches from my brother's crashed Golf and it now works perfectly.

What's left of my brother's Golf...

[Hombre3000]

Just awful!

[DocWalt]

Yeah, he's found a candidate to replace it though, so that's good. Just needs to get 100% healthy again so he can tear this one down.

[DocWalt]

Went to climb in my car to go to work and the seat was halfway reclined. Crap.



Replaced the foam rubber bits with a couple foam donuts from a new stack of CD blanks.

Got home from class and adjusted my headlights... Not bad at all for being Autopal lights, nearly as good as my brother's Hellas.

[DocWalt]

So, the O2 sensor... It should cycle at idle, right? I get a steady .8 volts at idle Never seen an O2 sensor fail like this, but at least it was a recently installed O2 sensor, so it should come out easily.

[DocWalt]

Cat is completely gutted... Damn it. The O2 sensor was crossthreaded, thankfully it destroyed the O2 sensor and not the bung. Had to chase out the threads using a spark plug thread chaser, lol. Worked from inside the cat and cleaned up the threads nicely. Tore off everything on the front of the engine again to replace the coolant lines. I officially hate spring clamps on hoses.

Random pics from the other day:

[DocWalt]

Got my car back from inspection finally. Damn door molding fell off. At least I can finally drive it.

[DocWalt]

Finished swapping a friend's clutch in his 16v swapped Jetta. Not sure if my coolant leak went away, level was low but I guess it's burping itself... I hope. I spent a few hours today fixing all of my body trim. All black now, looks fantastic.

[DocWalt]

I managed to blow up both oil pressure sensors today... First one blew up and coated the underside of the car and the entire back of the car, as well as the engine bay. Fixed it and did an oil change, went to the car wash to degrease the engine bay and the bottom of my car, cleaned up really well. Went out and took some quick pics of my car. Got home and the second sensor was blown up. Awesome.

Video of the failure of the first sensor.


Pics I took today (don't mind the water lol):

[Project_2501]

If those are your low beams and the car's nose isn't much higher than the rear for this picture, your lights are aimed much, much too high. If you've already corrected it, sorry I saw this pic and had to write something.

[DocWalt]

My car was on a hill. Headlights are aimed properly

[Project_2501]

Word.

Your car looks good.

[Rod Ratio]

[DocWalt]

New metal coolant flange, hurray!




Hopefully this is the last of the leaking coolant...



Wow, brand new flange a few weeks ago, warped already:


Even more craptastic flange. This is terrible quality:

[DocWalt]

Long weekend... Fixed the antenna (it was broken off at the base), fixed the vapor barriers (no more leaks, woot), recovered the headliner (yay, no more sag), wired in a radio and door speakers (yay, music) and fixed a lot of rattles.

[DocWalt]

I was having some issues with the ECU sporadically pulling timing so I swapped in a new knock sensor a couple of days ago, and found this....

Oil cap:


Really clean cam:


Crankcase breather:


Back to driving the truck for a couple weeks.

Good news though... This is on the way!


Gasket set + some extras are on their way as well

Since the car's down I tore apart the heater box and repaired the blend doors today. I have blistering heat now, woot.





Before anyone asks, I have no clue why the screws are there, but everything works so I'm leaving them alone.

[Hombre3000]

Before anyone asks, I have no clue why the screws are there, but everything works so I'm leaving them alone.

They're supposed to be there. I'm about to aluminum-tape my heater doors too! Glad to hear that tape alone is enough, most people use the foam but I have no idea how they do it!

[DocWalt]

They're supposed to be there. I'm about to aluminum-tape my heater doors too! Glad to hear that tape alone is enough, most people use the foam but I have no idea how they do it!

They really just screwed in some chintzy screws at a wonky angle? Go VW. If you take it apart I guess you could use foam. It was hard enough getting to the back of the doors with the stiff metal tape.

[DocWalt]

1.8 16V head with Autotech Sport Cams. All cleaned up and ready to drop on. Got a new oil cooler, and a bunch of other bits to go on at the same time. Going to clean up the intake manifold and valve cover and paint them up, they should look fantastic. Can't wait for this weekend!

[Rod Ratio]

Cars coming along great duder! Keep up the good work

[DocWalt]

All cleaned up:


Not bad for 161k:




New oil cooler:


Head on:






All wrapped up:




The power increase is noticeable, to say the least, haha. Better bay pics and videos coming later.

A big shoutout to my brother, Trainboy414, for handling the painting of the manifold and valve cover.

[Trainboy414]

looks good and is plenty fast LOL

[DocWalt]

[DocWalt]

#3 rod bearing was toast. #2 was down to the copper. #2 main looks decent, #4 main looks decent. It has new style main bearings for sure, replaced recently-ish. I have two rod bearings left to go, and three mains to check. I'm waiting on parts I didn't order/found damaged. My new rear motor mount is trash, one of the bolt holes stripped out because I didn't loctite the bolt in and it vibrated loose. Woops.

The two rod bearings I've replaced are well within spec now, no journal damage that will affect anything. Super stoked about that

[DocWalt]

#3 main


Hans @ Ground Zero Performance got me new main bearings in a day, thanks Hans! Mains and rods are done. Installed the windage tray and new oil pump baffle. Packed the oil pump with assembly lube to help it prime. Started it up and it had a knock and was running rough... First thought was "oh sh*t" then the lifter pumped up and it smoothed out and idled away better than ever. Gave it a few revs and there's no noise

I'm going to take it easy for a hundred miles or so, then I'll let 'er rip. Good vids will be incoming, probably over winter break

[Rod Ratio]

Taking it easy is no good on break in. Rings seat better when you pound the snot out of it.

[DocWalt]

Doesn't have new rings, or I'd go beat the hell out of it right now. No point in new rings when compression was so good, and no oil consumption.