Thanks, and I'm not married, not sure if I would be for long if I was living with a woman and working on this project in the house
. I don't think anyone's wife is that cool. I really need a garage. Plus the parts are pretty clean now, that's why the sink is an absolute mess
As for the install, I'm still a bit from that point, but the plan is to completely assemble the engine, jack the car way up and slide the engine under and into place, then lower the car and bolt up the mounts. Once it's in I'll bolt up the down pipe intercooler piping wiring, hoses and the like. I think this will work, but like anything on an old VW I have come not to expect it to go smoothly on the first try.
Skillz huh? The only reason I am confident in doing this is because of the wealth of knowledge available on this forum. Between the bentley manual and the search function here I have answered almost all of my questions. When I do have a question the knowledgeable people on this forum have been quick to weigh in, without the pretension and judgment you might find on another very popular forum where on every thread some jacka$$ posts an animated gif of someone ejaculating on the screen. Seriously thanks to everyone for your help and support. This has been a lot of fun.
I forgot to mention in my update that I got the manual steering rack, tie rods, tie rod ends, u-joint shaft and new boots all swapped in. I did the old eyeball alignment on the driveway, with a bit of negative camber. I took it out on the highway, and wow what a difference. I have never felt so in control, almost like the car is anticipating what I want it to do. I had to modify the bracket that holds the shift linkage to the steering rack a bit, I just had to drill a hole and move a bolt. Other than that it was way easier than re-installing the power steering rack. I am gonna sell all of the power steering parts, so if someone is looking to go the other way, shoot me a pm
I spent a few hours at the cash&cary the other day and I grabbed a 120A bosch alternator out of a MKIII passat , but I took it to the autozone and it's fried, so there goes $20. They did have an audi with black leather seats that were in great shape. I think I am gonna have to call and ask how much $. I think they would look really good, and if I see another set of plaid recaros in a MKI I may have a fit. My MKIII seats are just not to my liking. Oh the same audi also has a K26 bolted to it, maybe I should grab that too?