hi folks,
i've had a little swap restoration project running on weekends for a while now . thanks to much help along the way from searching and sometimes posting Q's on here i finally got the engine installed and running yesterday! ran the engine for about 10-15 minutes while sitting then took it for a 10-15 minute drive to fill up the tank and check it out.
it's a 85 na 1.6 that's into a 88 gasser GLI jetta. originally it was to be a junkyard project, but now i've ended up having to restore or replace all of the following: rebuilt head and newly built bottom end, new axles, resurfaced rotors and replaced rear rotors, new radiator, hoses and exp tank, rebuilt injectors, and new glow plugs. in hindsight i should have been more picky when choosing my starting materials. also much cleaning and painting was done to the engine bay, mounts, fan shroud, brackets, etc. i'm so far into it that i'm considering a suspension overhaul and paint plus minor body work eventually to make this a complete restoration from top to bottom.
aside from complete resoration much tweaking and work is still needed just to get to runner status. the glow plug light went out after working initially along with high beam and turn sig indicator (which both never worked after install). plus my temp guage needle goes backwards so i'll need to find and switch the right wires (whoops!), it starts hard and shakes all to hell when warm, but starts easily after sitting a few minutes so need to re-check timing and maybe pump adjustments (idle and others?). hopefully that will reduce smoke too - i wonder if an eco or similar cat can be installed to improve emissions without infringing upon performance too much. it will need a steering alignment adjustment, and the front left wheel had stripped threads on one lug bolt hole so that will probably need replacement. also there is a gear oil leak coming from between the engine and tranny (tranny seal? or a local vw shop guy talked about bell housings getting cracked - yikes!) the bentley has instructions for filling older (pre 86?) trannys with 1/2 qt extra after the fluid level matches the side check hole. i wonder if i overfilled the tranny with gear oil since the speedo gear was swimming in gear oil and if that could contribute to the gear oil pushing out of a seal. anyway, i'll have to pull the tranny again to figure this out. some exhaust splicing i did will need welding from a decent local shop. i will say that i generally like the higher exhaust flow from the gasser manifold and 2.25" exhaust. once that's all done i'll tackle the interior: dome lts, new door cards, nicer seats and complete the dash / console re-install.
thanks for all the help i've been able to pull from this site! great resource!
i'll post some pics soon of the progress for those interested.
anyone with insight into the hard starting and shaking i'm experiencing with warm starting would be quite welcome!
Topic: swap/restoration project progress (Read 6005 times)
