Wife's Project: 86 Golf NA (maybe TD?)

[lord_verminaard]

Digging this back up.  Updates will be coming pretty soon.  I have a couple big boxes of parts thanks to Myke_W and GAP, and the engine build will start (I hope) pretty quickly.

Laura and I decided to bump this project forward, as she lost her job recently and while before, we had the convenience of working close to home and I could drop her off, it might not be the case when she finds a new job, so she needs some wheels.  I replaced the water pump on the Corrado but the rest of the work is being put on the back burner until this is closer to completion.

We have some car-jockying to do, as my Scirocco (without an engine) is taking up the garage so we need to switch and put it outside where her car is currently sitting.  What sucks is I have to go around the block to get the car from the back to the front.  Still have to figure that one out....  

Brendan

[lord_verminaard]

Moar updates, moar pictars.  

Started out on Sunday pushing the girl out in the driveway.


First order of business, modifying the block and head for updated cooling.  First, the block, all cleaned up:


And the AAZ head gasket...


Now THAT's a beefy headgasket!!!


Punched the hole location in the block, using the gasket as a template:


Annnnnndd....... Drill!


Repeat 5 more times (with my ancient drill that has this awesome feature of "self-loosening" the chuck so I have to pull out the chuck key and re-tighten it about every 2 minutes!!!) and chamfer the holes and clean it up, and ta-da!


And, had to do the same thing to the head, though it was much easier drilling.  


Here's a shot of the "custom hand-dressed pistons".    As you can see, they all took a hit from the valves at one time.  No biggie.  They are getting packed up and sent to Swaintech this week.


This one was the worst, also evidence of an injector leaking.


Next up, block heater!  Every diesel needs one of these, especially in Ohio.  I'm really surprised this car didn't have one before, since it had just about every other option.


I had to knock out the center freeze plug, it took the biggest punch and the biggest hammer I had to free it.



 :banghead:

Yay!


Next up, I bead-blasted a whole mess of parts last weekend, time to paint them.




Manifolds- A2 GTI gasser intake manifold, (not blasted) and TD exhaust manifold.  The bead blasting was not quite enough to cut the rust on the exhaust manifold, I'll need to apply another type of treatment.


Yay, painted parts!  I used the wrinkle-finish on the valve cover, it was not quite done "curing" yet in this picture so the camera shots look funky.



And the art-shot of the day:


Almost time to put this thing together!  It's gonna look good under the hood too!


And a before shot of the engine when we picked it up:


One step at a time.....

Brendan

[TurboJ]

Nice work!
Which manufacturer made that head gasket BTW?

[subsonic]

You are going straight to a 3-hole?  That's going to drop your CR a bit, although perhaps not if you have a fair amount of protrusion.

[lord_verminaard]

Nice work!
Which manufacturer made that head gasket BTW?

It's a Victor Reinz, I got it from Myke_W here.

You are going straight to a 3-hole? That's going to drop your CR a bit, although perhaps not if you have a fair amount of protrusion.

Yup, though it had a 3-notch fiber gasket on it before, the head obviously was swapped so who knows if the 3-notch is proper for the protrusion, but I didn't even bother to measure.  A little less compression isn't all that bad since this will be a turbo car.    The Swaintech coating will build up on the piston crown, though if it is enough to significantly alter compression, who knows.

Brendan

[lord_verminaard]

More pictures coming soon.

Updates:  Got the crank installed.  Re-used the original thrust bearings, and even though I used stock size bearings, all of the clearances and end-play are dead on.  I love VW engines.  

The pistons are back from Swaintech, and they look sexy.  Myke is checking on piston pin circlips, as most of the old ones went flying across the garage when I popped them out- so I need those before I can finish the bottom-end.

I dropped off the head at the machine shop yesterday- I was originally going to just clean it up, put in new valve stem seals, and slap it on, but it's really dirty and the valve seats don't look real pretty.  So it's getting a valve job and he's gonna go ahead and hot-tank it too.

I also power-washed the engine bay.  Man does it look better.  That will make working on it much more pleasant.  

I'll do my best to post more pictures later.  I've literally not had enough time to even upload them.

Brendan

[arb]

Looking good. Do you have the baffle for under your valve cover ? It will reduce oil looses through the breather.

[lord_verminaard]

Looking good. Do you have the baffle for under your valve cover ? It will reduce oil looses through the breather.

No I dont, actually.  On my list of things to get.  Thanks for the reminder!  

Updates with pictures!!!!!!!!!

Yay piktars!!!

Pistons, freshly coated:






Yeah, I still gotta clean some carbon out of the ring lands.   :rolleyes:

Engine on my new stand:


Crank in place:




Intermediate shaft and front seal:


Me looking way too serious- it was a joy to assemble this engine so far:


Now, the powerwashing.  Engine bay before:  Gross!!!


After:  Yay!  I have not even scrubbed anything yet, just washed.  Tools of choice were Simple green and a neighbor's powerwasher.  I also used some Gunk engine brite but it really didn't do much besides smell everything up (simple green smells much better) and leave a nasty residue all over the driveway.




Woah, the steering rack was blue??




Battery tray rust.  No big deal.


That's it!  Head is at the machine shop right now, getting a full valve job with new seals, so in the meantime, I'll be cleaning carbon out of the pistons and awaiting those circlips, and possibly cleaning up the bay a little more and prepping those bad areas for a little bit of paint.

Brendan

[arb]

Are you using assembly oil ? I use 50/50 of 10w-40 and STP oil treatment. Its very thick and will stick to the bearings for months, in case its months before you start.

[lord_verminaard]

Are you using assembly oil ? I use 50/50 of 10w-40 and STP oil treatment. Its very thick and will stick to the bearings for months, in case its months before you start.

Yep, using this stuff:


It's about the consistency of cold maple syrup.  Really sticky too.  Working real well so far.  Also using 15W-40 in a little oil can for lubing up bolts and seals and stuff.

Brendan

[arb]

Are you using assembly oil ? I use 50/50 of 10w-40 and STP oil treatment. Its very thick and will stick to the bearings for months, in case its months before you start.

Yep, using this stuff:


It's about the consistency of cold maple syrup.  Really sticky too.  Working real well so far.  Also using 15W-40 in a little oil can for lubing up bolts and seals and stuff.

Brendan

Great. Its about the same thing as my mix, but it has a dye to show you're using the special stuff. The proof is to dip a standard screw driver business end in the stuff and try to hold it between your finger and thumb. It will slip right out every time. Very thick, sticky, and slippery.

[lord_verminaard]

Snuck home from work a little early yesterday, got cracking on some other things. I wire-brushed out the rusty parts in the engine compartment in preparation for paint. I also spent most of the time beating on a single-round core support to make it fit properly. One thing that bugs the hell out of me on just about every A2 that I see is the grille being zip-tied on. I hate that. Not on this car. I spent the time to "massage" the core support the right way so it all fits. Doing this now before I paint. The result:



Yay, no zip ties! The passenger fender is a little wanged, though all the mounting points are still where they are supposed to be. We already have two straight replacement fenders (in red), but those won't get put on until the whole car gets painted. The core support was used and traded owners about a dozen times so it's been tweaked a few times, but a little time with a hammer and a dolly and it's perfect now.

If it's as slow today at work as it was yesterday, I'll be going home early again to work some more.

Brendan

[lord_verminaard]

Let's dig this back up!!!  Some updates:  Transmission is cleaned, re-sealed and ready to go.  Got some of the rusty parts under the hood cleaned up and coated with rust-bullet.  Last weekend, I finished up the bottom-end and got the pistons installed.  Everything dropped right in, and the only issue I had was a rod that was in backwards.  That, and those damn piston pin circlips.  Those are a royal pain to install.  Some pics:










Yay!  Also, I've been spending some time at the machine shop after work- mostly cleaning up the head to save me some money.  I wasn't happy with the transition area from the intake runners to  the valve throat area.  Cylinders 2 and 3 especially had very large casting steps on them.  Guessing that is because it's an aftermarket head.  So before the valve job is going to be done, I ported out those casting steps, and wend ahead and ported the rest of the head too.  It just would have bugged me to put it back in the car the way it was after all of this work.    The valve job should be done today, and after work I'm going back to set the valve clearance and it should be done!  Pics to come.  Maybe, just maybe, the engine will be assembled this weekend!!!  Getting close now!!!

Brendan

[arb]

Great job Brendan ! Keep at it, don't hurry, it'll be worth it. More photos please.

[lord_verminaard]

Thanks! 

Anyway- the valve job is finished, everything is cleaned and ready to be re-assembled.  Today the cam journals and "bearing" surfaces in the head need to be polished, they were scored up pretty good.  The bearing caps on this head are way more flimsy than an OEM VW ones, I guess that is what you get with aftermarket.  Other than that and the bad port casting flaws, the head seems pretty good and my machine shop guy confirmed that, so that makes me feel better.

Cellphone pics:

Oh hai:
 

 

This was after porting, before the valve job.

Brendan