My MKIII Golf GTI 20 Years - Daily Driver

[Shepherd]

actually... looks like I'll be at 'The Meeting' next weekend in Speyer, this sure will be the last meet for this year though.

[Nick475]

this is awesome. if i ever visit germany. please take me for a lap around the ring pleeeeease

[P78]

sad to see it go

but on the plus side that rocco will get 100% attention

[YUNOstance]

Freu mich die Mühle in Speyer zu sehen

[5t4nc3]

Gestern in Speyer gesehn, Top Ding!

[Shepherd]

Danke, schön zu hören, dass die Kiste auch anderen gefällt

@ Topic
I got red, glowy stuff in my exhaust...

[Alifuru3]

Nice built, read the pages, like your car overall, saw it live during Dumpd 2013 Holland indoor, we were standing indoor as well with our blue mk3 and shot some photos of yours.

Nice

greets Jean

[Miles.]

Updates?

[LukeyBabes]

Red mk3s are the only nice looking ones! Looks great with that fitment and golf wheels!

[Shepherd]

Guess what?!?
This thing still lives...sorta!

...again I had a little intercourse with 8 meters of guard rail on the Nürburgring (again thanks to tires with too much wear on a wet track... I'm not a smart man.).


So I parked this fucker in the driveway and got myself a Legacy II GX for 600Euro:

(Just showing you guys the best picture of it, it's actually high as fuck on stock wheels, lol.

Decided I would keep that one stock and work more on the Scirocco, but suddenly life happened and came up with an offer that I just couldn't refuse!
Grabbed Dr.AK and drove down 660Km to Bavaria.
After killing his E36 and throwing even more money at a Cab driver and some guy running a Hotel, we picked up this shitty Golf 1.8 rustbucket:



It has a broken Sunroof, completely rusted fenders on both sides, rear right drum brake is stuck (drove 600Km home just using the handbrake, lol), hail damage all over the roof and bonnet and a rusted through trunk door.



The Interior is quite okay... best thing is the working Climatronic, leather steering wheel is worn, shifter is trash and the leather seats are okay, but driver's side is ripped open.

So why did we drive that long, for picking up some random Golf? Well... there's more!


right... not there, little lower!


AWD, baby!
Been looking for ages for an affordable 3 door Golf Syncro 1.8 with a sunroof!
3 door Syncro models usually skyrocket in price as they are rare as fuck, but yet all the turbo boys want them!
Except for the roof, the shell is in a great condition, just one tiny spot where it rusted through, few minor dents that can be sorted out without problems.

So here is the plan:
GTI 16V Jubi 20 Years

Which means everything of the Syncro will go, except for the shell, drivetrain, gearbox and the dashboard. Gonna throw in the 16V engine that has been sitting in my garage for 2 years now and I'll throw in the brakes/suspension/interior from my 8V GTI Jubi.
It's just gonna look like my 8V GTI, cause why change something that is perfect?

Though before the paint happens, I'll put everything together to see that it works and runs, then get the body work done, then take everything apart again to get the whole thing painted.
Since I had everything laying around at the garage, I started working last Saturday weekend.


Six hours later the engine and gearbox were out:


The Syncro gearbox is some kinda 02A, wire driven gearbox with the added Syncro bit behind the engine.


while cleaning the engine, I discovered that the OT sensor was gone, probably at least one of the reasons for the engine's electronic problems it had before I ripped the donor car apart. Sensor's already replaced with a new one.


The gasket on the crankshaft was also gone, even though I cleaned it for the photo, you can already see oil coming through again.
Luckily I still had a replacement one laying around as I didn't had to use it on my 8V GTI's engine.


The gearbox did fit like a glove (which is no wonder as the ABF always came with the wire driven, hydraulic clutch gearbox).


There's just one little spot where you noticed that the 16V never was intended to receive the Syncro gearbox.
One bolt hole for a holder on the gearbox is just non existant.
I modified the holder to make it fit to the upper hole at least.
Gonna sort the lower part out once everything gets taken apart again.


Exhaust manifold also doesn't fit of course...
We'll have to built something completely custom here from thy cylinder head to the exhaust pipe.


With the engine and gearbox put together, I'm currently working on the engine harness.
The 16V donor Golf only had a manual A/C which is wired differently than the Climatronic, so that's quite an interesting part. Love doing the electronics on cars.

[fnwguy]

Nice Mk3. I like the progress you did on the gti since the beginning. Shame you had so much bad luck on the ring

Greetz from Aachen

[Shepherd]

Was quite unmotivated last week and there's also the World Cup happening, so progress was rather slow, but managed to get everything done on Friday and Saturday.

First thing I did was sorting out the wiring.
My engine donor car was equipped with a manual A/C, so the ABF's engine harness already came with all the A/C connectors.
However the Syncro had a Climatronic and unfortunately the more comfy, automatic A/C has the same connectors, but is wired completely different.
So what I did is extract the Climatronic harness to the ABF's harness.
All the plugs are double now and the Climatronic wires are taped on quite loosely, but all this will be taken care of once the front axle and engine comes out again!

Climatronic harness (the few cables with the few connectors) pulled from the old 1.8's engine harness (that naked thing in the background).


Cables just loosely laid on the ABF's harness


Taped the Climatronic harness to the engine harness.
Used all the cables I could use from the engine harness.


Squeezed a bit of rubber hose through the grommet so I could push the wires through without fiddling too much or having to cut the grommet open.


Engine harness fitted to the firewall and all the connectors plugged into the the fuse box.


Cables laid out in the engine bay. Even though it's only a test fit, I just couldn't throw them in, had to lay them out and fit them how they were fitted from the factory...


After the wiring was done, it was time to put the new old power plant into it's place...as always putting it in took less time than getting it out!


I just love this engine.
Imho the 16Vs are the best engines VW built till they made the 1.8t.
They are less heavy than a VR engine, rev high (for a VW engine) and output a lot of power. Most 2.0 16V ABF engines can even be software tuned to gain 20-30HP, just because VW designed them a little too well.


...however, of course I did a test run after the engine was wired. First with the ignition coil and fuel pump unplugged as the engine had been sitting in my garage for three years.
When I plugged both back in, it started right up once the air was out of the fuel system. Only for a second though as I still had to program the ecu and immobiliser to work together.
5 hours later the sun was coming up again and the Golf looked like a car again.


Saturday was interior day, swapped the 1.8 cluster for the 16V one and also fitted a different cluster harness, plus the little harness for the MFA wiper switch.
This Golf has the most unusual combination of extras for a German Golf that I've seen yet.
Climatronic and sunroof, leather interior but only three doors, AWD but only the 90HP 4cylinder... and of course no boardcomputer (MFA).


Everything old and useless taken out...


...and in with the new!
Wiper and turning light switches came from a Corrado/passat, hence why the look different, will be swapped for the Golf ones, once I take the GTI apart.


Everything put back together, working flawless.
Notice how the outside temperature is shown in the cluster's MFA and Climatronic.
Usually it would only be displayed on the Climatronic's display, but thanks to my double wiring it's also shown on the MFA


While cleaning up the garage a friend of mine found this VR6 grill badge...



So that's it so far, engine runs, car drives, all the electronics are working great.
Still have to fit one, two hoses to the engine, but that should be it.
Next things I'll get my hands on are the exhaust (will be completely custom built) and the brakes, as I just can't drive that engine with tiny, non ventilated discs and drum brakes, lol.

[lokogingerz]

this is awesome !!!! sorry about the bad luck at the ring, i cant see the image of it wrecked but from what i read it sounds roughhhhhhh .. but hey glad your ok and still dubbing. so bringing this back to life any updates ??

[Shepherd]

Good news, everyone!

I made some progress on my new old Golf.

First I needed a little help to start the Golf up, battery was pretty dead and the starter was kinda blocked as well, but once it did more than one spin, the engine fired right back up.


Some pics of my GTI after it hadn't been moved in almost a year.
ad spots turned worse and new bad spots appeared...






The reason why I decided to part out my loved Golf is a badly fixed damage from a crash.
One of the previous owners had it repaired at a garage, but looks like they didn't seal anything back up.
Already slowed the rust down a little when I got the Golf and discovered the major rust damages (Page 1), so I knew the day would come where I had to say goodbye...






...and as I said, more bad spots appeared over the time the Golf had been sitting in the driveway.



It would've been way too money and time consuming to get everything fixed and as much as I loved this GTI, I still wanted a Syncro MKIII, so that's when I decided to look for a body and drivetrain donor like the one I then bought.
With the 2.0 16V engine swapped into the Syncro Golf, I had to part out the GTI as I needed the front axle for the steering rack, swaybar and of course the VR6/GTI/16V 288mm brakes.
I also needed all the good bodyparts from the GTI, as the Syncro shell is in a mint condition (for an MKIII and much more for a car that's been running its entire life in Bavaria), but all body parts were either damaged or rusted to deat.
...and with me loving my GTI so much, I made sure to part it out to the last bolt!




Dug around a little more with the screwdriver.
When that shop fixed the damage, they swapped the whole panel, which you easyly can tell.

















On the upside, I found enough money under the carpet to buy me dinner that day.



With the GTI parted out, it was time to start working on the Syncro.
Had the car parked outside with the handbrake on... big failure. Brake drums were stuck as fuck and the car being parked on gravel didn't make pulling it the 100m to the garage any easier.
We had to tow it out with my Legacy in the end. Subaru AWD ftw.


Thought the brake drums would get loose once we're back on solid ground. NOPE.
When you look closely, you'll see that the rear tires left their marks all the way...


Didn't turn one millimeter. Lucky spider.


One of the wheels was just as stuck, but fuck it, everything of that was gonna go to the trash anyway.


Then I grabbed the VR6 Syncro rear control arms that I needed to throw in to convert the rear axle to disc brakes.
Got rid of the bent and rusted splash board (not sure if that's the right word for it) and I had to get rid of the ABS sensor, as the arms came with the old Mark20 sensors.
...of course I encountered many more rusty and stuck parts.





Same on the other side, of course!



With the arms prepared, it was time to throw them in!
Quite a miracle that it went all smooth and that I didn't encounter anymore problems.
Calipers and braided lines came from my GTI, the only part that would fit from the GTI's rear axle.



Still took me quite some time to get everything mounted and the weather being quite shit with low temperatures, wind and rain didn't help any...


Pulled the air from the brake lines, threw on the wheels and done...
at 5am then I wanted to put at least one body part from my GTI on the Syncro, so I went for the filler door.


Next thing I fixed was the swimming pool in the trunk.


Right taillight's upper pin was ripped off, which made it easy for water to get in...


...my attempt to grow mushrooms failed badly, so I now gotta give the carpet a proper clean.


Badly installed aftermarket antenna for GSM and Radio did let some water in too...


Also the hole they drilled into the roof was a little too big for the OEM GTI-Antenna.


...as a solution I did cut out the piece of roof from the GTI, which I'll glue under the spot of the Syncro's roof. Should give the antenna a way better seating.


The left taillight wasn't any better than the right one, just that the left one made an attempt to function as a fishtank (last pic is no crack, it's water sitting between the two layers that wouldn't come out.






The trunk door had more holes than metal in it, so it had to go too, full painted bumper also had to leave.


...of course a proper summer car needs a tow bar!


Ass complete.

[Shepherd]

Next up was the front axle.
The small 1.8 8V disc brakes had to go, as well as the smaller sway bar and the less sporty steering rack.

Off with the front.





Out with the enngine...
Didn't have to pull it out, but it's just a few plugs and reduces the fiddling to a minimum.



Dropped in the complete front axle from my GTI, which is the same as the VR6/16V Plus front axle.
288mm disc brakes, thicker swaybar and the more sporty/direct steering rack.
I also had the motor mounts upgraded to more stiff ones some time ago.



While I had the engine out, I gave it a new SKF timing belt and pulley as I didn't know how much the old one had done and as the engine had been sitting 4 years in my garage.



Thanks to the Syncro gearbox's angle transmission, the right driveshaft is much shorter than than on the FWD VWs, so I had to change the driveshaft knuckle in order to fit the driveshaft to the plus axle's hub.
Simply pulled off the hub of my GTI's driveshaft and threw it onto the Syncro driveshaft.
On the driver's side, I simply took the whole driveshaft from my GTI.





With the engine back in, the oil pan was next on my list.
The 2.0 16V comes with an aluminium oil pan which I didn't really wanna use as the Golf will be sitting quite low and when you browse a few pages back, you'll see that my steel oil pan took quite some damage.
Luckyly the 2.0 16V block is based completely on the standard VW 827 engine block and thus a standard steel oilpan will fit without a problem.
I got a stronger 2,5mm aftermarket steel oilpan though, hopefully it'll take the beating even better.
Gasket is the same as for the aluminium oil pan, you only have to get shorter screws as the aluminium oil pan's screws are too long for the steel oil pan.
I simply pulled mine from a broken engine I had sitting around.


Another unique piece to the 2.0 16V is the little aluminium bridge sitting at the gearbox above the oilpan.
I guess added this little bit due to the raised engine weight, as G60 engines don't come with this part, though they develop a little more power.
However the mount won't fit on a steel oil pan, thus I had to grind some material off in order to make it fit.





After the engine was done, and with the whole front taken off, I took off the dented and rusted doors as well.
Replaced them with the doors from my GTI, same with the completely rusted fenders and hail damaged hood.













After the front was back together, I filled in some more oil, filled up the coolant and had the engine back running again.
Changed from part synthetic oil to fully synthetic. Hopefully it'll wash away all the crusty remains in the engine to reveal leaking gaskets before I pull everything apart to get things tidied up, fixed and painted.


Finally I had to pull the air out of the brake lines and while I got the car on the stands, I noticed that the rear axle's arms do get very close to the side member at my desired ride height... driveshaft's already rubbing.
Guess I'll have to get the angle grinder out once I start the bodywork.





Also noticed that the body is still in a very good shape, door opens and closes without a problem like this.



With the brake lines bled, I was finally done with this stage of the build...



Next step will be a custom built exhaust as there are just no standard parts which will fit a 16V engine with a Sycro drivetrain attached to it.
Friend already built a couple of stainless steel headers and exhausts, so we put the Syncro on his lift and checked the parts we need to get the job done.
But more on that once we're done.


...with the 16V Syncro sitting in the driveway I just couldn't resist though.
Had to testfit one of my wheels I had sitting around, pretty much the same specs as my AZEV A's 16x9 ET15 5x100 with 195/40R16 Hankook S1 Evo tyres.


It's quite sick how much camber the Syncro rear axle gets from simply dropping the car down low. On a FWD rear axle, the tyre would've barely cleared the rolled wheel arch.


On the FWD GTI, I only could use ~5mm spacers on my AZEV A's while already running a good amount of negative camber.
Here is how my wheels would sit on the syncro rear axle with 30mm spacers (ET-15 in total).


Still one problem remains: the stock framecut isn't enough, you barely can squeeze a finger between the driveshaft and frame, but that'll be fixed later.