1998 Jetta TDI - NEED ADVICE

[8v-of-fury]

I blindly bought this car for a motor swap, but upon picking the car up and tinkering around with some things.. its in fair shape, and I think I want to just leave the motor in it and drive it.. I still need to give it a good once over before I fully decide.. but...

I need advice to talk me in to it, and some advice to talk me out of it. Basically I need both sides of the story equally so I can full unbiasedly decide wth to do here.  

The story
I have three VW's to my name right now, a black 1984 Jetta 1.7 4dr, a gold 1981 Jetta 1.6D 4dr, and most recently a red 1998 Jetta TDI 4dr.. I currently drive the 81, have the 84 covered up, and just got the 98 two days ago..

The problem
I will have to get rid of one and store the other somewhere else, as my mother is having a hissy about it being here (yeah I still live with mommy! ) I think I want to get rid of the 84.. It was my first car, but I think its time has come to move on from me.  

The solution
The 81 is definitely going to be staying with me as my mk1 project car, I have fought with it for the last year almost now.. its not going anywhere! Driving the 98 as an everyday will probably be the most advantageous to me right now, as it will give me a chance to have my 81 off the road so I can get some needed body work done and other assorted anomalies/oddities. Maybe even find another TDI or AAZ engine to go in my 81.. at the same time I can fix this one up all pretty like and resell it if need be down the road for more then I bought it for eh

The question
The 98 was a blind buy with absolutely no concern for anything but the engine and trans as I was going to part it out after and sell the empty shell.. I will be taking the wheels off and jacking it up on Tuesday (next day off) to get a good full view of the undersides to make sure I am not getting too crazy deep on this one. I will be checking the brakes, bearings, tie rods, ball joints, cv boots, engine mounts, blah blah blah etc etc. Also I was just messing around wit hit running, and i hit the A/C button, and it started blowing ICE COLD air, i mean real cold. so i left it on and ran inside to show my bro.. he turned it off and we shut the car down to have a chat.. started it back up and no more air.. I think its an electronic issue, as you can't here the compressor kick on, and the rad fan didn't turn on this time.. Is there a fuse and relay for the A/c compressor?

The annoyance
I got this far in to the tear down of the TDI before I realized to myself.. "Hey self why not drive the newer TDI that is already a TDI!?" I mean sure it was only like 3-4 hours worth of work, but there were definitely some things I wasn't easy on, and some things I intentionally broke to get off... SOB.

Go from this, with no thought of driving this car DD..



To this and then getting that lightbulb above my head... JC!



I mean worst case, is I spend 2.5 hours putting it all back together! right? And well I have it all apart I can get in there and clean the hell out of it! And fix up some of that rust that has made it self present on the frame horns. There is always advantageous to screw-ups in life, this is a learning experience for me, never laid hands on an mk3. I had fun

What do you guys think? Drive it while I build my Mk1? I can be a real vortex member now eh? Drive a mk3 and *** and moan about it while I fix up my mk1 weekend warrior hahahhaha

Few pics for clics

[Redpawn]

The older car would be a lot of fun to drive with the newwer engine and you got the right one
because 98 has no immblizer so the ecm should be preety easy to make stand alone. But it
would be a lot of work to get it in there and done right and like you said the motors already
in an desent car. I would fix the newwer car if theres not that much wrong with it and drive
it for a while and get started working on the older car and when you get the older car to the
point that it's ready for the engine work step back look at both car and make you choice then.

[the caveman]

I've said it before here and i'll say it again. the 98 jetta TDI is ,in my opinion, the best car VW ever made, except maybe the 67 beetle. If it's good shape-no rot, keep it. Get a chip for the ecu, bigger nozzles and get big power and 53 mpg. They're really good in the snow also!

[8v-of-fury]

I agree highly with both of your statements..

The original plan was to swap the TDI and O2A in to the mk1, and have a blast driving it around with 90hp/150ftlbs in a very very light car.. with hydro clutch and cable shift.. WOOT WOOT!

Yeah, I think end result will be drive and fix up the 98 so I can then resell it when I am done with it for a very enlarged price to a very unknowing person.. so I can get another TDI cheap and swap it in to the 81 and re-coop on what i will spend on it. Sounds a good plan eh? I think so anyway lol.

I only paid $400 for it too

[fuslit]

Well, as long as the body on the mk3 is in decent shape, I would fix it and drive it as a daily. The chip (stage 2 from malone tuning) and injectors (sprint 764's) I just put in mine make it a blast to drive and you get a "you suck" for snagging that for $400 

it should free up some space in your garage as well

-T