1990 Mk2 Golf GTi 1.8T - Coronavirus Progress!!!

I dropped my Daughter back to her Mums at about 12.30 today and then lazed around the house for an hour or so. Once I’d got the lazing out of the way I headed outside to do some more to the Golf.

I decided to whip the engine out so I can give the engine bay a proper tidy up. Whoever my Brother got to do the conversion hadn’t been too fussed about it looking tidy and it was getting on my nerves. I decided to suspend the engine on my brace and then lower it and the gearbox onto my trolley and wheel it out. I got everything unplugged and the heater matrix hoses off and then all was left was the down pipe and driveshafts. I got the passenger side undone in a couple of minutes but the drivers side appears to have a couple of stripped bolt heads! The shafts haven’t been out since the Conversion was done so again it’s the people that did the conversion that have done this! I undid the hub nut and ball joint and pulled the shaft out of the hub then I can try and cut the rounded bolts off when I’ve got some more space.

The down pipe was pretty easy to undo although I had to lay across the engine which was comfortable :laugh:

[a href="|https://thumbsnap.com/3YNqE9mR"]|https://thumbsnap.com/3YNqE9mR[/a]

With the down pipe off I hooked up the engine brace, undid the mounts and lowered the engine and gearbox down onto my trolley.



With it out of the car I can now tidy all the wiring, clean the whole engine bay, sand and paint the surface rust and generally make it look a bit more presentable. I’ll also tidy the engine up, replace some gaskets, paint the block and clean up the gearbox

Looks like you are doing the right thing and addressing the bodges and upgrading as you go.

the steering rack boot looks to be missing also! 

Bookmarked as i forgot to the last time I read this thread 

Ah, i was wondering, if it wasn't on for as long the carpet would have been sodden! lol

Any luck with the grinding noise you had?

Right, update time!

I’ve been snowed under at work recently and when I haven’t been working Mrs Sammo has been finding things for me to do that doesn’t involve going near the Golf! Thankfully I’ve got two weeks off work so the intention was to spend one week on the Golf and the second week doing family things. Well this week is the first week and it’s rained on three of the four days so far! That’s left me with a few dry hours on Monday and most of today to get some stuff done. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Anyway, at the last update the engine was out and ready to be stripped down and cleaned. First thing was to get the old K03 turbo off along with the rear engine mount. Then I could sand and paint the rear of the block. Now I forgot to take pictures of this stage because it was a pain in the but suffice to say the old turbo came off, I sanded and painted the rear of the block and then the new turbo went on.

Before tackling the front of the engine I decided to remove the rocker cover, clean it and paint it. It needed to come off anyway to replace the leaking rocker cover gasket.



Boring silver rocker cover with leaking gasket...



Slightly nicer looking crackle painted rocker cover.



While I was at it I decided to fit the silicone TIP that I’d bought. The standard turbo inlet pipes are a bit restrictive and generally not great so it was always on the list to be replaced.



With the back of the engine painted, K03s turbo fitted and the rocker cover painted and gasket replaced it was time to move to the front of the engine. This meant removing the inlet manifold, alternator and then anything else that was going to get in my way! In the end it was easier just to remove everything.



Once it was all off I got busy with the wire wheel and make a rusty mess all over the floor (and me!) and then cracked out the engine paint again





With the block sorted it was time to move onto the inlet manifold. First it got dunked in my bucket of degreaser and then got a good scrub down with a wire brush. Once it was looking a bit cleaner I attacked it with the crackle paint. I had to find something to cover the injector holes with and thankfully four 2p pieces did the job perfectly





That was then left in the sun (on top of the Bbq in fact) to dry while I started looking at what else I could paint hehe.

Now on the 20v engines there is this huge aluminium bracket that bolts to the front of the block and holds the alternator, PAS pump and A/C compressor in place. It does a great job in a Mk4 Golf but on a Mk2 Golf with no power steering and no A/C it looks a bit out of place. I’ve heard of people cutting them down a bit to tidy everything up so after a bit of hunting through the shed for my saw I had a quick measure up and set to work giving it a trim up!



I even managed to cut it straight One that was done it got dunked in the degreaser, given a good scrub and then painted.



That was then left in the sun to dry as well.

Now that I was waiting for bits to dry it seemed like a good time to tidy up and then start getting ready to go to my evening job. I need to order a new thermostat, thermostat housing gasket, oil cooler housing gasket and the metal water pipe that runs from the water pump round the side of the engine has got a hole in it from me wire brushing it so I need to get a spot of weld put on it seeing as you can’t buy them new anymore. In an effort to make the engine bay look as tidy as possible I’ve also ordered some lengths of black silicone hose, joiners and elbows for the cooling system. I also need to go and pick up a couple of cans of Atlas Grey so I can tidy up the engine bay.

The list is getting shorter but the weather isn’t doing me any favours at the moment!

My Daughter has gone out for the day with her Cousins and Mrs Sammo and I are going for afternoon tea later so I thought I’d get a quick hour in on the Golf this morning

Today’s mission was to degrease and jet wash the engine bay. I don’t think it was particularly clean when the conversion was done and then the car has done lots of sitting around ever since. I’ve found plenty of snails, spiders and evidence of mice as well when removing things so this clean was long overdue.

After laying on about 2L of degreaser I left it to soak for a few minutes and then went to town with the jet wash! It’s quite hard to tell from the pictures but it’s made a world of difference!

Before...





After (the engine wasn’t there when I was washing. I rolled it back in after and then remembered to take a picture!)



Thankfully today is a sunny day so I’ve left the bonnet up to let it all dry out. Depending on tomorrow’s weather and what secret plans have been prepared for me I am going to try and tidy up the loom a bit. I’ve got plenty of loom tape just waiting to be used so fingers crossed I get some time to crack on with it

After ordering some cooling system bits last week I arrived home this morning from a day out with the kids yesterday to find it had all arrived already



I’m still waiting on the various gaskets to arrive so that I can refit things and I still need to get the metal pipe welded up. Today though I’ll get on with re-wrapping the loom I think

I managed to get a little bit more time on the Golf today

I had to stop with the loom wrapping due to running out of loom tape. I’ve ordered more rolls but I’m still waiting for them to arrive, so in the mean time I figured I’d start putting the engine back together!

I’d been waiting for the oil cooler housing gasket to turn up and in the mean time I’d ended up ordering some aluminium coolant housings as well Anyway, I started off with the oil cooler housing, new thermostat & housing and the alternator bracket.



Once I was happy that they were done up correctly (not too tight etc!) I moved onto the coolant housing on the side of the head.



I must admit that considering how cheap these housing were I’m very impressed with the fit and finish. Both housings butted up very well and don’t appear to leave any gaps. Of course I’ll have to wait until it’s full of coolant to know for certain how good they are!!

Last thing to do today was to refit the inlet manifold. Annoyingly a couple of patches of paint have reacted slightly but once the front panel is on etc it should really notice. I’m not annoyed enough about it to strip the whole thing and start again anyway!





So with those bits done I’m a step closer to this being finished. The next job will be to tidy up the various brackets that need to be bolted back on, dipstick tube and then I’ll get on with replacing the cambelt kit and water pump.

Yes I’ll be giving the rusty bits a quick rub down, rust converter and then a lick of paint while I’ve got easy access 👍🏼