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shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Gonna start with when and why I got my Scirocco since I dont think Ive ever told the whole story of my favorite car in the entire world. Ive wanted a Scirocco forever. Most of my gearheadery in the beginning was with 60-70s American muscle cars, way too much American cars bro!, gently caress them furrin cars! and I never really looked that hard for a Rocco until I got into TDIs. Then in 2005 I got a 99 Beetle with one. In late 2006 I had just put a gently caress ton of work into it, nozzles, bigger turbo and some supporting mods like a bigger oil cooler, suspension work, stuff like that and the day before I was going to get it tuned on a dyno I pulled out in front of a 4Runner that I didnt see coming from the left and completely totaled the car.

Before








It even broke my drat wheel



At the time I was working at an engineering company and one of the systems engineers was a huge VW guy. His baby was a VR6 Coraddo but he daily drove a totally stock though high mileage 87 Scirocco. One of the other engineers I worked with had bought it new in 87 so I knew both of the people that owned it and they both took good care of it. Right after I wrecked the Beetle a fuel line exploded on the Scirocco and the guy just wanted to get rid of it since a lot of little things kept breaking and he finally got sick of it. I went to check it out and it needed a ton of catch up mechanical work but it was totally rust free and the interior was mint. $300 and it was mine. I had planned on putting the TDI from my derelict Beetle into it. The first time I drove it I said "man, this is a huge piece of poo poo" but I a had a huge smile on my face, regardless. This is what it looked like













There was a picture of my friend in there too. I cant believe that someone that was part of my life for so long is gone. Its been a little more than a year and it still hurts so bad. I miss her so much, gently caress



I went through it and fixed everything it needed and did all the maintainence like all new hoses, belts, timing belt, water pump, tune up, etc.













All new brakes, front suspension including bushings, A-arms and ball joints, H&R/Bilstein Sports











Getting the rear shocks off was the first time I had it where it was the majorist of a fucker suckfest where the bolt seized to the metal in the rubber bushing. I ended up having to buy a sawzall and cutting the bottom mount open but not before putting every impact/breaker bar, 20 foot pipe I could on it with zero amounts of success for HOURS. They were the original shocks and I got the car with 235k miles on it so they were fuckin welded to that collar. It looked like Uncle Bucks car going down the highway.



The most important mod was the Euro spec bumpers though. I got one of the last like 2 brand new sets that existed at time and Im so happy I did.



After that it ran freaking great despite the mileage. The oil never even got dark between oil changes since the engine was in such great shape. I talked to both the guys and it still had the original clutch in it too. In fact it still does to this day 13 years later. I decided not to do the TDI swap yet since the 8V was worth keeping for a while. As much as I loved my job since I got to play with space parts working in an office was driving me crazy. I was also working at the same company that my mom worked for for decades and everyone knew her and it was a daily reminder that she was gone and I missed her a lot. Before she got sick we had both talked about moving to Florida and I still wanted to do that so I quit that job, sold the Beetle and moved south. The TDI swap was way off the radar now and would be for more than a decade.

So thats the beginning of Charlies story. Ive been going through my old external hd to put together all the pictures and there is a lot more to come leading up to where I am now on it. Hopefully by the time I catch up it will be at a cool fun part so thats what I will work for. Ive been kinda slacking on car stuff due to burnout and I just got done putting a clutch in my friends shitbox Hyundai. That kinda took the wind out of my car sails along with getting back into one of my other hobbies pretty heavily to get away from cars for a while. Now that the Hyundai is out of my hair Ill probably get back to it this week some especially after I get a video camera I ordered the other day for some inspiration.

So this is what stranded the Hyundai, the loving throwout bearing is half plastic and it just got loving pancaked. The actual clutch was ok and I could have gotten away with just the tb but I mean thats dumb since its 4 minutes more to swap the disc and plate. Also Hyundais dont have a pilot bearing so wrestling the trans back on was pretty easy. The whole job wasnt all that bad since all I had to do was slide the trans over between the body and subframe and didnt have to remove it from the car at all. Only pics I got of were the shredded TB

Look at this plastic piece of poo poo what the gently caress

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shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

The TDI part is quite a ways out right now though over the years I've collected probably 85% of the parts I need like the donor engine with all the harnesses, a cable shifter swap, 11mm pump, clutch that's good for 350ftlbs which I will be real close to, Garrett GT2052 and the manifold for it, PD150 intake and race pipe, intercooler/piping/couplers/clamps. Little stuff such as the connecter to repin the injection pump harness, oil press, oil temp, water temp, pyro and boost gauges, manual boost controller (for now).

Big things left are rods and pistons, head porting, the biggest cam they make and whatever injector nozzles I'll need to make use of all the air that will be passing through. Also going to need an LSD and a ring gear bolt kit.

I should be able to build the diesel over the winter then pickle it until the 8V explodes or I get tired of it.

One thing I did recently was take the wheels in 5mm from where they were. My Panasports are 15s with 215/60s on them and it was scraping so bad all the time. It came with 13s and the 16Vs were 14s so 15s are kinda big on it. I got the panas off eBay and they came off a Civic. First thing I had to do was get the center bored out to fit the VW hub and the backspacing was way off so I had to get spacers. I didn't bother measuring cause I was young and stupid and got 20mm. It did look totally awesome with the wider track but not enough to ignore all the scraping. I finally got 15mm ones and they're perfect. Still looks boss and no rubbing. Panasports are my dream wheels so Id do whatever it takes to make them fit. New ones are wicked expensive. If they ever start peeling or looking bad I want to get them redone with black barrels and gold spokes.

Front before


And after


Rear


shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Yea I have the trans from the donor car, 98 Jetta. I think I am going to go with the DLC764s, the setup should be able to move enough air so it won't smoke too much. I know rocketchip Jeff pretty well so I'm probably going to have him do the tune and talk to him before making final decisions.

A few years back some people were modding the QA window to get more timing and power on the top end to like 5k and if that did end up paying off I want to do that too.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

For sure going to get the better overdrive but it's pretty low priority for now. I'm not sure the 5K rpm experiment was successful I just remember Jeff and a couple other people discussing it and hadn't heard about it in a long time. I think it was the greasecar race car they were trying it on. Also the engine from my Beetle went to the greasecar team, not sure if it's still alive but I was glad my Beetle at least died for a good cause.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Got an effort post in the works but I've been busy as poo poo. If you are a lawn enthusiast these pictures will be exciting









Yeah that's the stuff, have some more





shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

I just can't get enough and I'm so worn out

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Well I still haven't worked on the Rocco in way too long, sucks. Only thing I've done in all this time was swap a better quick release for the steering wheel. The first one was a bad design and I didn't feel like it was safe. I didn't take pictures either but I will for the next Scirocco update.

I've been crossing some jobs off the list for the Outback since I last posted. Replaced the timing belt tensioner cause it was doing weird stuff that went away after. Glad I did cause it would have sucked rear end if it failed completely.

I replaced the entire loving exhaust cause I'm so sick of messing with Subaru exhausts constantly. The glass pack I put on last time fell off and that was it, time for scorched Earth. There was a new in box UEL stainless header in the car when I got it so I put that on, 2 brand new cats which turned out to be the nicest cats I've ever seen. Got them off eBay but they came in a nice box, are made of thick metal with a nice gray paint job. The flanges are twice as thick as they need to be and they fit great. Then I got a complete stock cat back made by Mac which also was quality. I've used their stuff a bunch of times and it always fits well. Oh yeah the cats were made by Evan Fischer or that's what was on the box at least. Everything fits fuckin great, no rattles or leaks and it's quiet but you can definitely tell it has a header. I love it and I hope I don't have to mess with it for a least a few years.

I also did the rear sway bar everything and got rid of a lot of annoying sounds.

Right now I'm working on the steering rack. It's needed an inner tie rod since I got it and both the boots on the rack have been falling apart all this time. Recently it started leaking pretty bad and it was getting notchy while turning the wheel. I'd been collecting parts for another scorched Earth job so I got the rack and have new poly bushings for it, new outer tie rods (it came with new inners), and all new hoses. I also have new everything for the front sway bar. I've been working on it all week because I can't just leave poo poo alone so I've been cleaning and rust preventing everything I can get to in the subframe. Cleaning all the brackets and bolts and I'll paint everything when I'm done cleaning.

Some pics






I think red makes the sway bar work at peak performance


Still cleaning brackets and stuff, haven't picked a color yet. I have to go to tractor supply for hardware and I'll stare at the paint until some color speaks to me

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Powershift posted:

Do gold, go full Iron Man

If they have it I'm going to do that. I think you meant go fully rally tho for this high performance rally car. Subarus just need a little gold here and there to realize their full rally potential. I'v been eyeing the gold tape I've seen on other builds as well so I need to need that for something.

Seat Safety Switch posted:

I always love your posting and this is one of my favourite goon cars.

Thanks! I've spent at least 10 times if not a lot more on parts for this car than I paid for it. It's the best $200 DD I've ever had. Not sure exactly what it is but I just love this car. It was pretty derelict from sitting forever before I got it so maybe it's the orphaned puppy thing.

Now that I've got some big stuff out of the way last night I ordered all new gaskets for the roof rails. Almost all since the left rear doesn't exist anywhere for some drat reason so I got 2 rights and maybe I can make that work or hope the one that's there is in ok condition.

Oh yeah I put new radiator hoses and coolant in when I did the tensioner too including the trans cooler ones. A few less things to worry about on road trips. My rockauto closeout part stash is getting pretty small.

I just got everything to do the rear struts so whenever there's a deal for the fronts I'll get those too. The struts that are on it now are pretty good still so I'm thinking about putting lift spacers on them and lowering springs on the new set. H&R makes 2 inch drop ones so I'd put those on in the summer with the 17s and put the lift ones on in the winter with the stock wheels and snow tires.

I was also thinking about getting the cheap maxspeed coilovers off eBay for the summer. Has anyone tried them and are they super lovely? They're only like 200-250 bucks so I might try them. It'd be cool to lower it exactly how I like it with the tire centered in the wheel well and not too slammed. If they suck too much I could probably sell them pretty easy here in Subaruland.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

So I haven't gotten any farther on Dave besides a few more coats of red on the sway bar since it dropped to 1 degree Kelvin Thursday night. I really didn't want to work out in it and I couldn't really paint at that temperature. No way I'm reassembling it without painting after I did all that prep work.

Really thinking about putting the Scirocco back in the house garage for a little while and free up the shop. I hate to do that and lose momentum on it but I'm kinda at that point right now anyway. If I did I could get some projects out of the way and there's stuff I can do without it being in the shop.

I want to do some porting and oil control grinding on the head and then reassemble it. I've got HD valve springs and titanium retainers for it and shims to do the lash as well. I figure if the turbo ends up being a turd I can ditch it and the head will be ready for a big cam and high rpm. I don't think the turbo will be that great with the primitive carb and distributor with limited fuel and timing control.

I also have to cut the throttle bracket off the valve cover and weld it on in a different spot for the Weber. Then sandblast and paint it. The oil pan needs work as well. I have to put a fitting on it for the turbo drain and I want to see if it has any baffling in it and add some if it doesn't. I want to do autocross and road racing with it eventually so I have to make sure it doesn't starve. I want it to last as long as possible so I can get the TDI done.

I've collected all the parts I need to put in the LQ9 cam I got from Boaz besides the gaskets. I also may do the timing chain too while it's apart but if I do that I have to get an updated timing cover since the new sprocket is different and won't work with mine. It adds a lot of cost to the job though that may be worth it while it's apart. Only reason I hesitate is that it only has 93k miles on it so if there's no slack in the chain it stays for now. I spent a good amount of money to replace everything, new lifters, pushrods, roller tip rockers, better springs, 3/8 studs and alignment plates since these are not self aligning. Depends on how much the job blows too, if it sucks I'll do the new chain. I came across a post somewhere that the cam is worth around 40hp and maybe the roller rockers will free up a little too. 50 more hp would be a nice upgrade. I'll get it tuned some day too.

While it's apart I want to install the trans cooler I got from Suburban Dad. Also do the fluid and filter plus I got a Corvette servo to put in for quicker shifting. I have a trans temp gauge that also needs to go in so with those upgrades I should be good towing my trailer all summer.

Once I get all that done I can bring the Scirocco back in and get some work done. Just now I spent a couple hours organizing stuff in the shop. Found stuff I forgot I had and labeled all my boxes. I couldn't find the cam and finally got fed up looking through all my boxes to find poo poo.

Only got one pic today but it's cool stuff


Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer so if I can get the Outback finished I'll be stoked. I also ordered snow tires, $287 for 4 from tire rack. $100 for mount and balancing at the place I use so less than $400 for a set of snows is ok in my book. The wheels look terrible so I have to do something about that, plastidip or just regular spray paint for now. Next year I'll get them sandblasted and powder coated since I won't have time this year.

That was a lot of boring poo poo so here's a picture of Scout

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Well both of my ancient cans of white paint for the subframe were hosed and I knew I should have gotten a new one last time at the parts store. So I had a bunch of yellow from trying to match my Hustlers and one was fresh. It's tractor supply implement which is great. Originally I had planned to just do the spots with the rust converter on it but I couldn't leave it like that so now it's all yellow and I kinda like it. Don't even need neons for underglow on my ride





The steering rack was black and sucky looking so it had to go. The rebuilder just painted over rust and grease as well so it looked not great. Also one of the fittings on a transfer pipe was leaking and it hasn't seen pressure yet. I took it apart and cleaned it and made sure the oring looked ok. Not all that confident in the refurb so far but as soon as I send my core back I get a lifetime warranty on it. I'll be mad that I have to do the work again if it leaks but at least everything will come apart easy and the cleaning has been done. I'd replace the pipe but it's not a flare it's a oring seal. I had some silver caliper paint so I blasted that on it.





Neither part store had gold paint so I found Detroit Diesel Alpine green. It's such a great color and I'm going to use it on the Scirocco valve cover too. I used it on the brackets and they look frickin sweet.



I wish I got a pic of the finished sway bar but it's the cats pajamas too.

So I've had a small oil leak for a while now and its been bothering me since the first thing I did on this car was pull the engine and regasket the whole thing and replace the plastic pcv cover behind the flywheel with a metal one. The only seals I didn't replace were the cams since taking the pulleys off is a poo poo sprinkler of a job, gently caress those cam bolts. I was worried it was that but they were totally dry when I could see them doing the timing belt tensioner. Since I cleaned the subframe I could finally see it was coming from the rear of the rh valve cover. Fuckin sweet since that's an easy job to add rtv at the corners.

So yea still not done after working on it all day. My friends Hyundai needed a thermostat so I did that along with flushing the coolant so that took some time too. I also still have some brackets to clean and paint, all the hardware wire-wheeled and threads chased. Excited to get it back together after all that.

Picking up my new tires tomorrow too so I need to find another cool color for the wheels and get that done while the old tires are still on them.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

sharkytm posted:

They'll drip oil now.

If you ever worked on a DD, you'll understand.

For sure. I may not fix that valve cover for consistency

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

That's a great idea, I actually have a neon green can so hopefully it works. I was looking at it today wondering where to use it. I think it might be the one that I painted my Rx7 intake with 20 years ago and I hope it is and it works as a small homage to my old dorito brap factory.

Going to try to get the effort post up this week. I've got some pretty good time into it and lots of pictures. Just trying to figure out what's relevant/interesting and trying to remember anything interesting as well. A lot happens in 13 years.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

"lol owned!" On top of gas tanks with no access panel that you have to drop like a cave man gently caress you GM suck my balls

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Yeah get one of those amazing street artists that make 3d holes in the sidewalk and stuff and when you wipe away the chalk it's just a middle finger in permanent marker

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Holy poo poo Ive had time to work on the Scirocco fuckin finally. Of course it snowed the day after I finished leaves so the Outback is covered in snow and I can drive my truck for now so gently caress it Ill get to it soon. I decided Id feel better putting the Scirocco back into the house garage running instead of the motor all torn apart getting dust and poo poo all over it. That way when I have the time I can drive it into the shop to work on other stuff, if I have to push it Ill never get anything done. I plan to get it running then Ill pull the Outback in and put it back together. Everything is painted/cleaned and ready to go back on.

I started with putting the head back together. I got HD springs and titanium retainers


I zip tied an 02 sensor socket to my old OHV spring compressor. Worked a lot better than my OHC tool since its a bitch to hold the head steady, compress the spring and put the locks in all at the same time. This way I just clamped it to the work bench all at the same time so all I had to do is put the locks in.




All in


So next I test fit the turbo and here it looks great. Wastegate clears the block in the back, oil feed and drain are level


It was all good until I went and got the fitting for the oil feed line. Both that and the outlet of the turbo ran right into the intake when its on. I didnt even think of it until I went to try the intake to make sure it fit correctly with the exhaust manifold, which also didnt fit. I had to grind a bunch off of both the intake and exhaust so the bolt holes lined up and spent another half day finding the right fittings to make a 90 for the oil line. Both of those done and it looks good.




Clocked the compressor outlet to come out the bottom but now the wastegate wont work. The gate is on the back and instead of the bracket bolting to the hold down bolts on the housing it bolted to the front in one spot, gently caress


So now I have to make a bracket for the wastegate again, there goes another like, day. Not literally but its a pain in the rear end.


So thats where I am now. Make wastegate bracket and fit an AN line for the drain to the oil pan and make sure it clears the crank throw its lined up with and the windage tray that I got to go in as well


I also got a larger oil pump for the turbo, the age of the engine and I also plan on adding an oil cooler. An air to air in front of the rad instead of the stock water cooled one. Because of that and most likely more time at higher rpms Im working on better oil control in the head by removing material in front of the oil drains so that it doesnt collect up there. Just grinding down and smoothing the walls in front of the drains. I already lost a $10 tungsten carbide cutter for my dremel by it flying out of the chuck at 20k rpms so that was fun

This one is pretty much done


This one is taking the most work so far but its also the largest drain


So as soon as those are done and cleaned up after I can get the head on at least and get to work on the other stuff for the turbo oil.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Cute trick with the spring compressor. I'm gonna steal it.

It was magic, I can't believe I didn't think of it before. I just put a towel between the head and bench and clamped it all together. Reduced my rage level a good 80% doing it that way.

I also forgot some pictures. Crusty valves


Clean


I also did a small amount of porting. Basically just knocking down the ridges where the air makes the turn down into the bowl so it has more of a straight shot towards the back of the valve and opening up the runner a little.


I also marked where the head gasket ended and unshrouded the valve a small amount. I forgot to take final pics but I smoothed everything out afterwards.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Went to put the head on, got the bolts for a 16V, gently caress. For 8 bucks I can have the right ones here Friday and theres plenty to do but that messes up my list for today though I do have some content Ive been working on.

When I moved to Florida I drove my A4 down and left the Scirocco behind until I found a house. If you've ever heard me bitch about B5s this is the one, I still hate this loving car more than a decade later since it broke ALL THE TIME. This is at my friends place that I stayed with in Greenville, SC.





I bought this piece of poo poo with 58k on it and I put a ton of work into it. It came with a blown turbo so I put a K04 and front mount on it plus tons of AV stuff inside like DVD player and Gamecube, amps and wired it all real nice by tearing apart the interior and running wires along the stock harnesses.

We took my friends TDI Beetle on the trip all over Florida looking at houses. Yes I was responsible for her getting a TDI. She drove mine on a previous visit and it took about 30 seconds for her to want one and ended up buying hers from my friends parents who bought it new. She still has it today.

Us about to go on the looking for a house adventure and some pics along the way. We went all over the northern part of Florida from coast to coast, Tampa, Starke, Zephyr Hills, Ocala








In my price range (really cheap) most of what I looked at were double wides in lovely Mctrailer neighborhoods until I found my actual house in a cool small Florida town in the boonies close to the Georgia border. It was a foreclosure and a huge piece of poo poo but I fell in love in minutes, huge yard and cool plants all over like azaleas, rose bushes, bougainvillea, wisteria, and all overgrown but gently caress it I have time.


Sometime between trips to Florida I ended up buying an R32 and man what a car.








Id buy another one in a second if I didnt have a million cars already and it was a good thing I did cause the A4 made the trip from Greenville to my new house and thats where it finally died. The drain under the battery in the cowl was clogged and water was getting into the passenger side floorboard where the TCU lived. I went to drive it one day to get to somewhere and it was stuck in limp mode, 2nd gear I think. I pulled the TCU out and it had been getting wet long enough that traces on the PCB and contacts in the connector to the harness were just disintegrated. I tried to get another one for it but VAG cars need such specific part numbers for modules and I just couldnt find one since the internet wasnt as strong as it is now for finding rare car parts. One place actually sent me a loving ECU from a MK3 and I gave up and parted the car out with 65k miles on it, good riddance. It at least had the AEB head 1.8T with the big ports so I sold that to a buddy who put it in a Cabby.

If I didnt have the R32 I would have been carless in a town in the middle of nowhere where I didnt know a single person.

That July my sister and I decided to bury our mom (she was cremated) so my friend and I took her Beetle to CT to do that and get Charlie to Florida. Of course it just started right up and was ready to drive 1200 miles to SC then to my house. This is what it looked like when I left CT.







Not long after I moved I met who would end up being one of my best friends in town. The first day I got there he saw me driving the A4 with the front mount and CT plates and I had happened to see him driving an 02 Golf that was slammed and painted flat black. When we finally did meet we were instant friends and bonded over painting the Scirocco hood the German flag. Went and got the cheapest poo poo walmart paint and had a great time doing it.




Then we did his hood


That fall my friend left her husband and moved in with me and we got kinda carried away with acquiring VWs. I sold the R32 and bought the GTI I would drive for the next 6 years.
















Then Joy bought a GTI as well, 84 with a 16V swap and no rust




Next in the Scirocco story, pilgrimage to the mecca, car shows, a shuttle launch and leaving Florida

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

So this time when I pulled it out of the garage it had sprung a pretty big oil leak. It never had one before which always impressed me with the age and mileage so I had to find and fix it. It was coming from the cam belt area so I got a new cam, intermediate shaft and front main seal. It was definitely the intermediate shaft. It has a housing with an o-ring then a normal lip seal and the o-ring shattered when I took it apart.







The head bolts got here today, that was so fast. I ordered them yesterday afternoon and I got them around noon. They came from somewhere in MA with regular ground shipping. That was from rockauto, I almost paid 20 bucks to get them here tomorrow from NAPA which would have sucked.

I also found a new timing belt in my stash. I had been considering just putting the old one back on since its non-interference, easy to do and I didnt want to wait. Glad past me did get a new one since the old one is covered in oil from the leak.

Back to work

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

I take it back, package was the new parking lights for the GMC. I wondered why the box was so big and quiet. Well thats still exciting but not as much

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

So fedex left the lights but took the head bolts back to the hub, why? No big deal since now its stripped down top the short block since I couldnt leave the seals alone, did them all.







Gonna work on the oil drain next so I can get the pan painted to dry overnight. Im also deleting the AC compressor and power steering and the alternator belt ran off the AC compressor so I have to figure out how to fit that so all thats left on the belt is the water pump and alt. There are a million brackets to get the rube goldberg machine of a belt drive to work on this car so Im sure I can build something out of all the stuff to simplify it.

I should definitely have more than 100hp when Im done!

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Oil drain done, just welded some nuts on the inside to hold the AN port. Its going to be close to the oil level which isnt ideal but I had no choice other than to make a huge line that went to the front of the pan and that would just add tons of restriction and look terrible, this is a straight shot down. Used up the last of my DDAG so I have to get a new color for the valve cover. Got my head bolts too so today should be pretty productive.







Oil drain and windage tray


New larger oil pump

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Head is back on and I got two of the winter tire wheels painted



After and before

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

More fun update this time. Got the turbo on and the oil feed line plumbed. Definitely going to have to make a bracket or two for the line, its out of control. Ive been removing vacuum and evap hoses and stuff so the bay will be cleaner then I reorganize whats left with the cool loom that I found. All I really need is the vacuum hose to the hvac and power brakes that I may have to find check valves for if there arent any already and add some wiring for the gauges that I got. Im going to make it so both the dash and added gauges all work, might as well have clean redundancy. Waiting on an AN fitting as the turbo fitting is 8 and the line and fitting to the pan are 10 but I have a brass fitting I can use for now with a hose clamp.

Biggest thing left to modify is the valve cover to move the throttle bracket. I have to cut it off, move it 90 degrees and towards the center and weld it back on. The cover is also rusty so Ill clean that up and paint it so hopefully it will be dry tomorrow. I also want to modify the PCV in it as right now it has a screen and I want to remove that so its a lot better free flowing into a catch can Ill have to buy or make. Im also going to have a vent into the exhaust that if I do it right should draw a slight vacuum when there is a lot of exhaust flow and suck the vapors out. I also have the EGR passage on the exhaust manifold that I plan to put a pressure gauge on and see how much pre turbo pressure there is so I know when to give up on pushing it harder when the returns start to diminish.











The photo didnt come out since its a hard angle but I can get to the wastegate adjustment pretty easily which Im happy about since the way it came the bracket was useless so I have no idea what it should be set at and Im going to have to play with it a lot.


shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

I forgot to take a before pic cause I was doing video but heres what the valve cover looked like. Rusty and bad with the bracket in the wrong place for the Weber



Derusted, cut and moved bracket, applied high performance red so people know right away that this is a high performance machine and it was the only color engine enamel I had handy on a Sunday night



shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Sure it's just always going to leak oil despite my efforts

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Well cam is back in and timed and I don't even want to admit how many times I put it on one tooth off. I thought I was losing my mind. Probably am, been breathing an enormous amount of paint fumes. There was an incident with brake cleaner and I had to go scorched Earth and repaint the valve cover. So close yet so far away

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

cakesmith handyman posted:

I love catching up on a story thread like this, looks great, always liked these more than golfs for some reason.

Me too though I love Golfs as well. For some reason theyre just not as popular as GTIs and theyre still cheap as hell to buy. A nice 16V can be had for like 4-5K, and I mean NICE. Parts are also pretty cheap and easy to find since the chassis is all MK1. It only sucks finding specific parts like body and interior so I hoard those just in case.

Ive only have a couple hours before I have to go so I wont get it running today but Ill get a few things done. I test fit the alternator yesterday and found a way to fit it. Pretty easily too. Put the AC/PS pump bracket back on and found a hole for the alt so it bolts on and lines up with the outer pulleys with no shimming or anything. I just have to get a longer belt to go around all 3 and I have the greatest shop ever in town for belts and hydraulic hoses, they have everything and hopefully theyre open tomorrow. I just have to make a bracket for the other hole in the alt to make an adjuster which I started on just now.

The valve cover came out better on the second try




Alternator fitting


Pulleys line up, so stoked about that, I thought I was going to spend an entire day fabricating stuff


Start of adjustment bar

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Almost done with the alternator bracket. I had to drill a bunch of holes then finish milling it out by hand with a dremel, that took some time but it worked. I just have to take a little more off so that it clears the fan blades at the smaller adjustment then make it pretty. The belt place was closed today but will be open tomorrow so should be good to go after that.




Then I went to put the downpipe I saved from the Jetta on but it didnt fit. Jetta has cable shift and mine is linkage and the front-back lever hit it pretty hard. There was no way around cutting it up and changing it around. I forgot to take a before pic but it kinda looked like this


It came out and went straight down. I had to rotate where it came out 90 degrees and then it ran into the intake so I had to cut the pipe and rotate that down a little less than 90 degrees, like 87 since straight down would hit the linkage again. Now it clears everything and I should be able to add a little pipe straight down then another 90 to connect to the rest of the exhaust. Ill do that some other time though since for now I just want it to run and it will sound cool


shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

The 16Vs are crazy, I think they did something like 7-7.5 seconds to 60 which is drat good for the late 80s. I'll see if I can find my dealers brochure, the first owner had both prices written on it and decided to go with the 8V.

Now I'm really close to being done, finally. I dropped one of the valve cover nuts and thought it went down the oil return, swore, took the oil pan down to then find it laying in the cam gear. Got the intake, all the hoses, radiator, valve cover, cap/rotor and wires all back on plus all the little things like vacuum hoses back on. Just have to finish the carb and put fluids in and it will run again. The biggest thing is the plugs for the injectors. I got big plugs to put in but I have to grind off the large flange off the top first with an angle grinder. It sucks and takes about a half hour each. It made the decision to unbury my lathe and make it useable again. It will be so worth it for poo poo like those plugs. I have a milling machine too and same thing. It will make fabricating parts so much faster and better.

These are the plugs. I've got 2 done, 2 to go


I wasn't going to use an intercooler but I have one and I could fit like 3 in this space


Holy moly. Look at all that room for an oil cooler and stuff in front of the rad


Soooo close

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Got everything back together, battery back in, then spent an hour looking for the keys. Found those. Turn the key, no fuel pump noise. Now the fuel pump was stuck. Motherfucker. Pulled it out and freed it up but have to get in-tank fuel line. New ones from last year were disintegrating already. The gas is old and loving everything up. One more day one more day

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

It lives again! I just did the bare minimum to get it out of my shop. I still have a ton of work to do in the spring. The oil alarm is on only because it's not hooked up. The turbo sounds great, Im extremely excited to get that and all the other things finished next. I stayed in the yard since the roads probably still have salt all over them.

After a few drives it quit on me. The cam bolt came off along with the pulley, think I forgot to tighten it, oops. Luckily it didn't destroy the woodruff key and it's a non-interference engine. When I was putting it back together I lost the key and had to try to find one that fit at the hardware store. None were exact so I got one that I was grinding down to fit. I accidentally dropped it and it landed under the car right next to my lost one, so lucky on that one too. I've still got some write ups for Charlie history but this will be all the work for a while unless I can find some time here and there to work on it. Better chances of that since it's at least running and I can just drive it into the shop.

I ended up draining the gas and putting new stuff in with stabil when I fixed the fuel pump. Some of the gas in there was from 2010 when I drove back from Florida so it think that's what was messing up the fuel pump, you could smell it going stale and it even looked cloudy in the fuel filter

Oh yea the steering is perfect unpowered. I was worried it would be a lot of work since I plan on doing autocross and road race stuff with it. Right now it's still the power rack with no pump but I have brand new everything to swap it to manual the right way later on. Even more weight shaved off.

So next I have to get the Outback finished. Everything is ready I just have to have a friend help me get it into the shop tomorrow. Looking forward to putting all my nice painted stuff back on and drive it. I hate driving the Silverado unless I need to. I did however finally install the aux jack for the stereo in today so that will help it be a little less sucky to drive. That Alpine parking brake bypass unit works perfect too. I can finally get to a ton of setup menus I was unable to access until now.

After the Subaru is done I have a paying job swapping an auto in a 98 4wd Ranger. It lost reverse "just Ford things". Anyone done one? It doesn't look too bad but if anyone knows so some tricks it would be a help

Short drive video
https://youtu.be/piFf_w2JU1Y

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

sharkytm posted:

Glad to see it running again. Keep it up!

Hell yea, I gotta get some stuff done on the daily beaters and get my equipment ready for next year but I should be able to squeeze a gauge hook up or exhaust fix in here and there in between.

Getting Daves rack back in right now, just got it started, steering column hooked up and loose brackets for jostling purposes. Can see the new poly bushings and with all the new parts the front end should be real fuckin tight. Its so nice having all the clean/painted stuff ready to slam back in.







My wheel centering device

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!










Looked up some home alignment videos and seemed like all were 0 toe? Using the string method. I just have to get it to the alignment store

It really blows rear end to do all that work then put the snow tires on. It's way too cold for the summers or I'd leave them until it does snow. I'd die in cold rain if I had to panic stop.

I forgot the picture of the power steering lines but they look like power steering lines just new and shiny

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

There's a bunch of shops not too far so I just have to find one that can do it tomorrow. I'm all done finally and no leaks so far. Well no new ones at least. I just eyeballed it and if it goes semi straight to the shop that's all I care about. I forgot pics again but it looks totally fly with the olive green wheels. I'll get some tomorrow.

I got some stuff to do some bitchin mods once it's driveable again that I can't wait to do. I have to get the ranger trans swapped first to make some money then back to fun stuff.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Got an appointment in the morning, shop is like 4 miles so I dont have to sweat too much. Love how the wheels look and did some work under the hood too.






The worst rust hole, I chipped it out so I can start working on it. Im kicking myself for throwing out the old hood from my truck since it would have been a ton of sheet metal I could have cut up. Ill see what I can find for cheap at the junkyard nearby.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Oh I'm not sure if they are the same but I can see if Roy still wants them. Even if not if they're close I can make them work. I was going to start with flat metal anyway.

I may be interested in the seats, can you just let me know how wide? I'd use one in the 56 and one in the 86 dump. I was thinking about swapping seats from a Silverado like mine into the 86 anyway. The vinyl sucks in the summer.

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

The driver side has a small hole in the bottom of the rear door frame and a much smaller wheel well hole that I've got to fix as well. That's it though, it's totally mint underneath with factory paint/ undercoating still there. If it wasn't I wouldn't be putting this much time and money into it but it's worth it. I still have a bunch of parts stacked up for more improvements. Basically just going to do a rolling resto on it.

Speaking of that does anyone know off hand if third gen front seats bolt in? I found a pair of mint black power/heated leather seats for cheap at the junkyard and thinking about snagging them before someone else does. I might anyway, can't be any harder to make them fit than the entire bracket I made for the Scirocco.

Roy's doing ok, gonna try to go see him as soon as he has time.

shy boy from chess club fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jan 9, 2020

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Darchangel posted:

Oof, that rust hole.
Now that I own a second-gen Outback, I kind of want to find a manual first gen to lift and play with. Kinda. I don't have a shortage of other cars right now. I would just start modifying the '03, but it's currently the wife's daily, so best to leave it alone for now. I wish I could just throw a manual in there (H6 automatic) but she needs the auto - back issues make using a clutch a literal pain. Until this car, she had all manuals. Heck, if there was a way to program the automatic to be better, that would be nice. It *really* wants to upshift ASAP and hates to downshift.

edit: I bet a wrecking yard will sell you a bent hood or fender cheap, since it's only worth scrap.

Wait mines a first gen? I thought it was second but now that I think about it it was a Loyale previously, oops. So I have to see if those second gen seats will fit mine. Luckily thats the worst rust so as soon as I get some metal Ill cut it all out plus remove the plastic around the gas fill pipe and hope that isnt rusted through yet so I can bulletproof it all. Maybe I can angle for a free piece of a bent something if I get the seats as well. Its the same junk yard Ive been going to for 20 years so I got high hopes.

It just failed emissions though so I have to see why. I didnt think to check because the light isnt on but I got a code for the TPS and Air and Fuel Metering which I assume is a MAF or vacuum leak. Both of those items are new and have been messed with recently to get rid of the hesitation that is finally gone. I might have just not driven it far enough yet. Im just going to clear them and see if they come back. Getting rid of the hesitation is the best thing Ive ever done to this car, it feels like a rocketship compared to when I first got it.

The auto has been flaring on the 2-3 shift like once a month recently so its time to think of the next move. Otherwise it shifts like a champ so I think I have plenty of time to think of getting a JDM 2.0 turbo with a 5 speed and swapping that in. They go for like $1500 on ebay. It works out perfectly since after this emissions test it will be exempt by the next one so I can just run a Haltec or something for the turbo swap.

They did a good job on the alignment and the guy was stoked that everything was new. Never said anything about the harlequin paint job though. Just glad to have my car back. Gotta call the Ranger guy and get that done so I can start on the cam swap/valvetrain upgrade on the Silverado and check out what happened to the AC. I hope it was just the clutch and not the whole compressor and black death. Its only got 93k on the drat thing.

e: I just remembered I ran it with the header off to get it into the shop, I bet that air metering code is the 02 sensor not seeing any exhaust

e2: 02 sensor wasn't even connected, that has to be it

shy boy from chess club fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jan 9, 2020

shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Suburban Dad posted:

That'll do it. Otherwise if it fails against, post the Pcodes.

I found the reason for the MAF code, bad solder joint that was probably touching intermittently that detached when I opened the cover. Reflowed it and that code went away.

On the top right there. Had to carefully remove some really rubbery conformal coat but the joint came out ok. It looks like the wires are touching but theyre ok.


Im still getting a TPS code which makes sense because I been having a weird problem where at low throttle inputs the engine cuts out violently for just a fraction of a second. Its been doing it for a while and its the same thing my GTI was doing when I had a corroded connection on the crank sensor. The one on this car looks real bad and I dont want to touch it yet. I also dont think its that because a problem with the TPS explains that engine cut out, the idle problems I was having and Im also getting a code for transmission throttle input which may explain the intermittent flaring. I put the old TPS back on and unhooked the battery that Ill leave off for a half hour or so and get a fresh start now that the MAF is fixed also. Ill know right away because the TPS code shows up the instant I touch the throttle, hopefully the new sensor was just bad. If not Ill have to investigate the harness for problems.

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shy boy from chess club
Jun 11, 2008

It wasnt that bad, after you left I got to help put out the fire!

Darchangel posted:

What mentally deficient fuckwit designed that so that the leads have to cross? And then left them uninsulated? Wow...

It was on wholesale blowout sale on rockauto for reaaaal cheap. It does work though, the old one was bad for sure.

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