DAN'S GTI VR6

[dansmk3]

Well, its as good a time to start this me thinks.

As most of you know i have been having major dramas with the old girl. cam belt going, reconditioning the head giving it a good clean up and getting her running again. then 4 days later the crank pulley shearing off. so instead of paying out around £300 notes in parts to replace the crank and various parts to get the lump running again, i decided to go down the VR conversion route. Thanks to Wayne for finding the lump on ed38 for me.


First off, here is the old girl in question.
FRONT

REAR

[dansmk3]

The first hurdle was to get the lump which has come with all ancils, loom, ecu, everything needed really. which i decided to collect myself. got the engine home and due to lack of space had the lump in my boot and now i have a boot full of oil, spare wheel covered etc etc  but it was my only option lol

first thing to do for the build was to strip the bay. so front bumper off, slam panel etc




nothing too chalenging on getting these parts off, thats all to come as the cuts on my hands and arms can confirm 

once this had been done started disconnecting pipes, cables, and things that werent connected to the engine, so it could slot straight out.
whilst the car was up on stands, had to disconnect the driveshafts, which was not pleasant. 2 of the spline drived bolts rounded off on both sides, so had to get a bigger drive, extension bar and a hammer to make a new way of getting it out. BEAR IN MIND THAT THERE IS NOT MUCH ROOM!!
next was the exhaust this was also a pig, the bolts on the sleve between the cat and centre pipe were well corroded so i wasnt going to get anything on that, looked down towards the rear silencer and pretty much the same story, so 1 mate and a hacksaw later and exhaust was free.

had to pull heatshield out from where the cat sits to get to the gear linkage out and get the new hydro one in.

[dansmk3]

On getting the engine out, this was a doddle, apart from the rear drivers mount as i kinda left it connected to the engine 

once it was out though had to change the res for the brake fluid so that i can run the hydro clutch
RES

HYDRO CLUTCH


thanks to Benvictors for sorting me out with said item and the new pedal box which i needed

now this is where the serious fun begins. had to disconnect the steering column, undo 2 nuts which are pretty much impossible to get to behind the master cylinder, and undo the 4/5 nuts which hold the pedal box in place.

now to get the steering column to unclip itself from the pedal box was the biggest b1tch in the world. 2 shear bolts which clamp the column down on the car took me and my mate 2.5hrs to get them out with a drill, hammer and flat headed screwdriver. as soon as that was done we were laughin

[dansmk3]

Now was time to sort the loom out, ecu came out and had to trace my old loom out and start to disconnect at the back of the fuse box.
OLD LOOM

NEW


on connecting the new loom in, the 3 main white plugs have been connected, and a couple of others, however there are a few that dont connect anywhere. can only hope that this is becuase i dont have certain things that the donor did.

and this is where i am upto at the moment. as the shear bolts really took its toll on us  and really cant wait to get the lump in. but am also waiting on a few things that i need first. so hopefully a couple of days and there will be one hell of a progression! 

[F17BAD]

loooking good pal

[dansmk3]

cheers mate, my hands and back beg to differ 

all i got to do is work out where all the ancils go, get the bolts for the box, ht leads and start piecing together.

i take it this box would take a kind of gasket like my 8v box did? on the 8v it was a small thin piece of metal which had 2 bolt holes and covered prob 1/4 of the box

[F17BAD]

Gasket hwere, have you a pic  ?

[dansmk3]

ill sort one, when i took the box off the 8v a smallish piece of metal came out too

i just didnt think the box would bolt on metal-to-metal, maybe it does lol

[Wayne]

Cracking progress

I got lucky with my shear bolts and mole grips worked.

[dansmk3]

Cracking progress

I got lucky with my shear bolts and mole grips worked.

mate i tried that and the shear bolts just fooked em off 
ill get a couple of little pics of em in a min. really wanna crack on with it today but not really much i can do on me jack jones