My new ride, a '92 2 door golf (pics)

[theman53]

air cooled engines plus has all stainless valves...think I paid around 50 dollars for all 8

[rabbitman]

air cooled engines plus has all stainless valves...think I paid around 50 dollars for all 8

Yeah that's what I was thinkin' of doing . I looked 'em up and found their number and all.

[truckinwagen]

I will never replace a valve again with anything but stainless(ok, maybe inconel if I have lots of cash)

they are just so much better than stock ones.

-Owen

[rabbitman]

I called about the stainless valves and he said he could either "get 'em or make 'em" haha. He was gonna find the price and call me back but I haven't heard anything, the time difference probably messed things up.

I also called a well known machine shop to see about getting new valve guides pressed in and the guy said they don't work on vw or subaru. When I asked why he said parts are too hard to get and everything is sized weird, I've heard that if someone doesn't want to work on these then don't try to make 'em since they probably don't know enough what they're doing to touch a vw diesel head.

[theman53]

Yeah John at air cooled 2 years ago had to make mine. He gets a stock valve then undercuts them and swirl polishes them. He can't buy them in that way anymore is why he makes them. Still with all that work 2 years ago it was still cheaper than 1 oem exhaust valve.

[rabbitman]

Yeah John at air cooled 2 years ago had to make mine. He gets a stock valve then undercuts them and swirl polishes them. He can't buy them in that way anymore is why he makes them. Still with all that work 2 years ago it was still cheaper than 1 oem exhaust valve.

I talked to him today and he was waiting to see if he could still get the blanks for making valves.

I also called the machine shop that said they wouldn't do vw heads (he said it's because parts are hard to get) and asked him if I got the valve guides if he would put them in and he said it's too iffy on getting the old guides out. He said aluminum might stick to the brass and drag out ruining the head and if he heats the head to loosen the fit then the valve seats might fall out too .

He also thought that the .051" wear limit was a misprint and that it should be more like .005" (EDIT: thinking back I bet he was thinking actual clearance rather than valve "rock" like the bentley says). He did say that I should just run it and probably won't notice any oil consumption anyways. I hate to start out with a guide that's already past spec.


Time to do some body work.

[theman53]

I didn't have to ship but 2 hours...But I sent the entire head to Air Cooled Engines Plus in Tiffin OH and had right around 600.00 in it. That is shipped both ways and ported/polished, flow benched, and all. Good Luck on the body work, it is no fun fixing messed up stuff and rust.><>

[rabbitman]

I didn't have to ship but 2 hours...But I sent the entire head to Air Cooled Engines Plus in Tiffin OH and had right around 600.00 in it. That is shipped both ways and ported/polished, flow benched, and all. Good Luck on the body work, it is no fun fixing messed up stuff and rust.><>

Yeah I don't have lots of rust, the hatch was the worst but the rest is just surface stuff. I do have paint that flaked off of the I think factory bondo around the taillights (looks like they used bondo to get the right shape), some of the bondo came loose too so I put more on, sanded it and now I have to put more on to fill in the low spots.

The paint is almost done getting mixed, they need a better paint chip to get it closer.

[rabbitman]

Last Saturday I installed the electric headlight adjusters and the autopal e-code headlights .

It was fun, the adjusters didn't want to work right at first, one was bound up and pretty soon neither one worked. I ended up taking them apart and manually setting them at the lowest position and I guess that fixed something 'cause new they work fine........one is slightly slower than the other though

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/83-91-VW-GOLF-MK2-MARK-2-H6024-7-H4-HEADLIGHT-ASSEMBLY-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4cf3eeb0f5QQitemZ330510020853QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

These are what I have, they're a perfect swap into a round headlight golf 2. On the lower left corner of the mounting plate you can see the plastic up/down adjuster, I just removed these and the motors went right in.

[rabbitman]

Today I painted the hatch and the trunk lip that gets banged up when loading and unloading spare engines, the paint is not the perfect right color but I think it'll do for now..........actually the paint is an absolutely horrible match , so the car is still tri-colored . Some day I'll just repaint the whole car with the factory color.

The repaint that a previous owner did had lots of nicks down to white so I went around with a small brush and dabbed paint into the pockets and now it has chicken pox........

Time to put the rear wiper, washer, latch and plate back on and then when I get some help I'll install the rear glass.

[rabbitman]

I painted the whole hatch, the roof is factory and the quarter panel has been repainted so don't laugh (too hard) at the slight mismatch of colors........the camera messed with the colors a little bit too.


The little white marks at the edge of the fresh paint is tape that got painted and didn't come off when it should've.


With the city lights on.

As it sits.


I totally removed the alarm system after looking at it I could tell that one of the early owners had put it in. They had wires teed in and just twisted around and then taped up , so I just undid 'em and all is good. I had to splice only one wire that had been cut to tee in.

[rabbitman]

Still waiting for the valves to get done so I put the front bumper and valance on and hooked up the blinkers and stuff.

I'm not gonna put the grill on until the engine's together otherwise I'll lean on it and bust it.

The interior needs a new dash and bezel but I think I'll wait 'til the snow melts so I can get in the salvage yards and pull it all off a wreck.......I was in there the other day and they said they've crushed most of the vdubs since they've had 'em so long . The guy said they've crushed 3000 cars in the last 2-3 years and only have a few mk2's left......I almost cried

[rabbitman]

So I finally got the oversize valve guide, installed it, ground the seat, installed 6 of the valve stem seals before installation of the lower spring seats thus wasting 6, ordered another set, installed most of 'em and then having to put a bevel at the top of the oversize guide to let the seal slide on, installed the rest of the seals.......bla bla. Finished putting the head together, noticed the injectors all had cratered nozzles causing me to rebuild all of them I threw the last remaining pieces on and......

IT RUNS!!!

Smoky and loud (only has the intake on, no filter) and splashed oil everywhere since the vc wasn't on, the baffle helped though.

Time to go play with it more.

[truckinwagen]

good to hear!

glad that the car is getting the attention it deserves.

-Owen

[rabbitman]

Yeah it's really nice to finally be getting something done on it after having it sit in the way of everything for so long.

It runs weird, it clacks worse than it should with an occasional pinging that sounds like a gasser pinging yet the IP timing is retarded enough that the engine misfires slightly and smokes unless I pull the cold start.

I don't think the temp gauge is working either, the upper rad hose feels like it's almost up to running temp but the needle hasn't moved.