Slow GTI.. 1.8 8v

[slowgti]

Hello friends...

My names Evan and i just brought a brand old '84 Golf GTI 8v 1.8. It cost me $1500 New Zealand moneys (600 pounds). Its done 164,000 miles since the odo stopped ticking over (sometime in the past 6 months). Shes a but rough. A few minor dents in one side, some rust around the windscreen.. I tried to manipulate the heater fan speed but i turned the dial and nothing happened for about 20 seconds, then smoke came pouring out the vents.. the fan must have rusted together.. or something. But thats about all thats wrong with it, apart from the engine, and that small digital display in the middle of the gauge cluster.

The main reason i came here is because my engine lacks any sort of performance i would expect from a car labeled 'GTI'. I mean, in a top speed comp, my mates 1.1L Fiat would win. I can get her up to 100kmh no problem, takes a small while to get to 120kmh, and takes an age to get to 141kmh, then it just cant gain any more speed. It has a fair but of torque, but absolutely no high up power. Ive put it down to a few things.
1. timing maybe?
2. that bloody mechanical injection system
3. I have a severe exhaust leak at the header pipes (i need to tighten up the mounts)
4. maybe its just old and tired..

im out of ideas.

Any help/explanations or QUICK FIXES would be awesome.

Cheers, Evan.

[Steve_B]

I'd get the exhaust leak sorted first, then see where you are. In my experience, any kind of leak has a severe effect on acceleration and top end speed.

[Horney]

I agree with Steve, this Golfs run aweful with any kind of air leak. I've never known a car so upset by small air leaks.

Nick

[takethefifth]

I work out 141Kmh to be about 85Mph?  You should be able to hit that with ease 

Exhaust leak first, then timing.  I'm assuming the engine sounds all ok, running on 4 cylinders, normal fuel consumption, normal starting?

[Diamond Hell]

With a fit engine you really should be able to get close to 200kph (on derestricted roads, obviously).

As others have said, check for air leaks.  You have a K-jet injection system and if your intake hoses are leaking air in the rising plate meter won't be coming up enough to supply sufficient fuel, which might account for the poor performance.  The plate meter is not really user serviceable, so be careful what you do to it.  If it's not behaving right this also might mean the engine is running lean, which will kill it bloody quickly.  To tune it properly (after you've sorted both intake and exhaust air leaks) you need a proper gas meter, or you'll never get it running right.

Good luck.

[fused]

Here is a tuning guide from one of our ace mk2 forum guys!

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=33253.0

Then general maintenance, sparks, air filter, fuel filter, good oil change! it all helps!

enjoy

[slowgti]

Exhaust leak first, then timing.  I'm assuming the engine sounds all ok, running on 4 cylinders, normal fuel consumption, normal starting?

yea the engine sounds sweet, apart from slightly noisy tappets, runs on all 4 all the time, no idea about fuel consumption tho. i need to take the odo apart and superglue the gears back to their shafts. its fairly economical, i drove out to beachlands the other night and back on a bit less then 1/8th of a tank, and its a good 110mile return journey. starting is good, when the starter motor decides to do its job. which is about 10% of the time. the rest of the time it just hits the flywheel and bounces off.

im going to try and sort the headerpipes today, if i can get the halfshaft out of the way. then ill take it for a thrash drive..

[takethefifth]

Is the air filter clean?

[DarnPB]

It sounds like the car has not been used for a while. The rings could be gummed up in the pistons and causing low compression. Just use it and drive it fairly hard, and it may sort itself out.

[rubjonny]

my guide is for the later digifant cars, but most of it applies to k-jet, just ignore anything I say about disconnecting temp sensors and revving the engine!

Set the idle with the lights on full beam, and set the ignition timing at idle with the vac lead to the dizzy disconnected and plugged.