Well here we go. Another update, I've actually been working on it pretty steadily, but it seems that some days I'll spend the whole day and nothing really ends up getting done. But there is some real progress to report.
First up, the wiring is all finished and the interior is back together except for the passenger seat. I had ripped all the seats out, most of the carpet, and vaccumed everything while I was doing the wiring. Got all of the gauges sorted and working, and got the glow plug "pimping" done. I was figuring out where to mount all of the electrical additions with the glow plug system and relaying the headlights and didn't like the idea of just plopping it in the engine bay somewhere. So I had a spare ECU bracket from a digi car, and low and behold, the Golf has the mounting pins for it in the raintray. So I decided to put all my crap on that.
I especially like the solenoid underneath like that away from stray tools and wires and whatnot as opposed to being in the engine bay directly.
Here it is all wired up and installed:
I spent a lot of time wiping down everything inside the car to clean it up before I put it together. Here's the results of that effort:
On order are all new seat sliders and a new switch blank to cover that hole. Stereo coming eventually.
Next up, the god damn intercooler. For the record, the SAAB intercooler is not the best for this application, there just isn't a good place for it. I spent most of a day modding the AC condenser from my Corrado to make it fit since it was a little bit smaller, and when I was putting all of the AC lines back in, (with new o-rings) I twisted off the end of one of the fittings, and it was the last freaking line before the system was done. DAMMIT! So I yanked all of it except the compressor out. No AC for this car for now, maybe later. That gave me more space to mount the intercooler but it was still a bastard, I had to cut one of the mounting posts off of the intercooler, and nip one of the mounting bosses off of the radiator, and cut a lot of the core support away completely. But it fits!
Also tucked away on the right side is the oil cooler with a simple L-bracket to hold it in place.
The intercooler piping was a pain too. I had some left over exhaust bends, so I had to fabricate some pipes to go along with the cxracing.com aluminum pipe kit. I had to dimple one of the pipes with a hammer to clear the Alt. pulley:
It's a TIGHT fit. But I think it will work. Here are the rest of the pics that I took tonight:
The bay as it sits right now:
Still a few wires to clean up when I get around to it.
Yes, I'll put the upper timing cover back on. Didn't feel like doing it tonight.
The "Spectre" air filter and intake pipe kit from the rice section at AutoStoned. PITA to work with and the pipes are plastic, but unless you can bend and weld aluminum, it will have to do. It actually fits pretty nicely after I got it all together.
Whew. I had a bit of drama as some of you might know, I had to remove the injection pump to fix a coolant leak that I could not reach, and apparently when it put it back together, I got the timing off a bit and she wouldn't start. I went out and fixed that tonight and she starts right up, and no sign of the leak either. I think the timing is still advanced a bit too much as the "diesel clatter" is a bit louder than I think it should be, but it's about time to drive this thing.
I need to un-stick the parking brake, slap on the axles, (still have no idea if the turbo oil drain line will clear!!!) and get it on the ground for a trial run. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend. Wish me luck!!!
Brendan