Once I'd made the decision, and sold our Mk1 to provide some funds, work then started in earnest.
She'd developed a leak had manifested itself as a soaking wet rear offside footwell, so the first thing I did after taking off the bonnet, grille and slam panel was to remove the interior. All of it. Luckily the Mk2 interior is held in with about four bolts and screws (I know it's more than that, I was just making a point
) so it didn't take me long. Mercifully we get loads of sunshine even in the depths of January here in Cornwall!
Obviously, I made sure that the seats were correctly stored:
…and just to show how wet the sound deadening was, I had to dry them over the steps to mum’s flat. Nice. Yes, all that water came off those three pieces of sound deadening.
After this, I wanted to turn my attention to the cooling system. She came with what I can only describe as an eBay top fill radiator fitted, which held about two shots worth of coolant. Nowhere near enough:
Besides which, the cap had decided it wasn't up to the job and had developed a habit of spewing coolant everywhere:
I decided that I'd go back to an OE setup with a header tank and a normal radiator. Luck struck and I managed to get a second hand header tank with bracket off another forum for very little, and I'd already bought a new tank from Veedubmachine on a previous visit so I was set. The bay on my car was already shaved so I didn't have any of the mounting hardware; but a bit of mocking up and a pair of M8 stainless bolts later I got the tank in the right place:
...and fitted a Mk2 8v GTI radiator at the same time.
This was the best compromise of core size and unit width - the 16v rad's are bigger but thinner, and the silly sized rads of EU spec cars with aircon are mahoosive. I still had to find room for my intercooler and pipework around the sides so this was the best option.
As I'd already got the nearside coilover off, and my wheel plan had taken a "turn", I thought I'd try and unseize the coils that I had as opposed to buying new ones. They look and feel like JOM or another budget make, but they rode OK and had little signs of wear except some marks on the lock rings and flaking paint. I figured they were old but low mileage, and the damage on the lock rings tied in with the previous owners story of a few episodes of suspension adjustment to cope with the speed bumps by his house.
Anyway, few gallons of Plusgas later and all was good:
I subsequently repeated this with all four coils and painted the springs in black Hammerite to help them last a little longer.
Back in the engine bay, I turned my attention to the induction side of things. She previously had what I thought was a K&N filter on the end of the MAF, but having driven the car back from Somerset with the thing attached and looked through the history it was clear this wasn't the case - a cheap eBay filter with a K&N filter sticker was the problem. The turbo was constantly spooling/making my ears bleed at 70mph on a long run. I'm too old for that!
I managed to get a Mk3 TDI airbox but it was way too big - so I took a trip to a local scrap yard on a whim and found a Mk2 Ibiza TDI, the donor vehicle for my engine. A fiver was a worthwhile punt so I bought it home and test fitted, she sat there happily. A bit of head scratching resulted in me realising I had to come up with a new mounting solution.
Airbox:
Remove OE Mountings:
Offer up and mark position, then install stainless bolts for mounting points:
The rubber "bushes" incidentally are actually rubber door stops with the mountings drilled out to M12. £1 from B&Q.
Test fit again:
Make mounting hardware, using washers, brackets and wing nuts I had in the spares pile:
Et voila:
All that's left is the piping to the MAF. Speaking of piping, I'd already plumbed in the header tank et al with some silicone hoses and stainless clips I ordered from Auto Silicone Hoses on eBay, they really are superb.
Anyway more updates soon. Wiring next…