The shaved 88 Shitaco

[harlerocco]

Papa Rimzos

Better lips, better khrome, Papa Rimzolitos.

So wheels come back from redrill soon, then I have to figure out how wide I want them, then finishing work on them.

In the meantime I ordered some bits and pieces for the car that I have needed for a while. Front turn signal bulb holders, new speedo cable, door striker pins, headlight dust/moisture covers (water at H2O kept blowing out my bulbs!). Lastly I found some manual side view mirrors in the UK I had shipped over. Mk2 Sciroccos in the USA only ever came with power mirrors which don't work super well (or at all in my case) and I'd like to get rid of them. Plus I'll have something a bit different and simple.

Been missing driving it so here's a couple pics from the feature that have me reminiscing about warmer times

[Khalil]

Papa Rimzos

[harlerocco]

I sold my RS's.

New rimzos soon. I hope.

[harlerocco]

It has been a few months without any updates. Not much to really go over. H2O was great. The trip sucked big time and was about 1600 miles in total. Rained the whole way there (downpour actually). I had a great time in Ocean City despite weather. Drove the car around a bunch because that's the most fun thing to do at H2O, even with all the rain. Never really saw any pics of my car from the weekend, since the rain kept pics/videos on the strip at rather low quantities.

Car did great even though the swap was finished the day before I left. Glad I got the kinks worked out before departure.

I drove it to some local shows and a few small out of town trips in October. On Halloween I drove to Tennessee to visit Cory Hutchison for his going away BBQ before he moved to California. I almost didn't take the Scirocco but I'm really glad I did. Ryan Sermonet surprised nearly everyone with taking his e30 out of storage and building some RS001's for it, then taking it to Cory's for a sort of 'unveiling'. We are now rimzo partners, even though his look a bit different because of the drastically different tire sizes. Pics from that weekend:





Since then I haven't driven the car once. Today I finally decided to check it out and start it, let it run for a bit, and test fit some wheels I recently bought. 15x7 4x100 Carving Head 40's were the choice, and I doubt they will ever go on the car. I was curious, bored, and wanted an excuse to mess with the car. I know these are a real '**** it or love it' type wheel, but I'm more on the love side. Please excuse all the mud, but it hasn't been washed in well over a month now (plus Cory's driveway loves to get cars dirty).







Car was super dead and I had to hook the jump box up for a bit to get it to start. Let it run for about 30 minutes and it was nice to see everything still functioning (or not functioning) the way I left it. I'm hoping for good enough weather to give it a proper wash/wax/vacuum soon, and then a proper drive. Ever since I had to replace that fuel tank that rusted from the inside out, I'm paranoid about leaving the car for a while without it running or low on gas.

Also last month was rough on the Subaru. It had a host of problems that needed to be remedied. Finally got it back and installed a slight lift, all terrains, impreza steelies, and yellow fogs while I was at it.







So now that my daily is capable of being a daily, I can give more money and attention to the Scirocco again. I have some plans for this winter, and hopefully I can make them happen. I'll definitely have this updated more as it all happens.

[theseeker411]

Sucks about the Outback, dude. Hope I see you at H2O.

[harlerocco]

any special reason you chose the ABA over the ABF engine?


and sucks about your outback

Well an ABF would cost me at least $1500 before any maintenance assuming I could even find one since they were never offered here.

ABA was free and has about $300 in new maintenance parts (which is pretty much everything).

[P78]

any special reason you chose the ABA over the ABF engine?


and sucks about your outback

[harlerocco]

So the exhaust leak is fixed. New flex pipe welded onto the downpipe and installed. Drove the car around after that and it was great. Runs better than it ever has.

Here's the old flex pipe that failed:





Then I go to reconnect my power for my air compressor on the battery and this happens when I tighten it. That's what I get for getting cheap Advance Auto terminals.



So Got a new one and I'm good to go! Everything seems to work... but then the car won't start again. I thought the battery was a bit flat so hooked it up to the jump box... no difference. Starter seemed to be toast. I searched if the 16V starter was the same as an 8V starter (because I have a couple laying around) and it turns out the 8V starter not only is a direct fit but an upgrade as well. Threw one in today and the car is all good.

In the midst of everything, I had to get my old 16V engine out of my friends shop. It had been there for like forever and it needed to go. So I cleaned out the Outback a bit and since I loaded the ABA into the back of it before, I figured the 16V would go back there no problem. 3 of us lifted it in there and laid it on the back, I drove home and everything was good... for a while. Freeway was fine, turning was fine, coming to a stop was fine. Then I go to accelerate from a stop sign very slowly, going about 5mph, and the 16V decides to stand up and do a backflip towards the back of the car.

It wasn't good... I'll let the pictures do the talking.







So yeah, the engine tried to escape and blew out my entire rear window. Fuck. Not even going to worry about this until after H2O. I leave next Tuesday morning and have plenty of things to do on the Scirocco (mainly cleaning and driving it) before then.

I'll leave with a picture I snapped in my friends shop a few days ago. They had an E30 in for a new trans, my Scirocco, and my friends CRX with a JDM ITR swap. It was a pretty rad red 80's car party. All cars have build dates in the 80's, even though two of them are technically 90's models.

[0_0Paulk]

I'll probably break my neck if i ever see this thing rolling around IRL...I think i have seen your other car.

Looking good!

[harlerocco]

Thought the exhaust leak was from the gasket between the manifold and the downpipe. Replaced that yesterday and it still has a HUGE leak. Turns out the downpipe has broken right underneath where it mounts to the manifold. Not sure how that happened, but it happened in the flex pipe. I called Tectonics who I bought it from and they warrantee it for 2 years, so I have a repair kit with a revised flex pipe and revised short shifter on their way to me. Hopefully I will have that all welded back on and rolling soon. Two weeks until I leave to H2O so I'd really like to get some miles in before that. New engine seems to run nicely though, just unbearable to run it for any length of time due to the exhaust leak.

[harlerocco]

Spent last week from Tuesday-Friday swapping the car. Finished on Friday evening and it wouldn't run. It cranked slow and didn't want to fire. Turns out there was some oil in the cylinders, so it got blown out and the car fired up today. There's a sizable exhaust leak but that will be taken care of.

Both engines out, and I swapped a lot of stuff from the old one onto the new one, along with a few hundred dollars in maintenance parts. I cleaned up the block and painted it while I was at it. It's much cleaner than the first time the swap was done.





Did an autopsy on the old engine to find the source of failure. Headgasket said bye bye between cylinders 1 & 2, and there's a nice chunk missing from the head in that same spot.

[harlerocco]

Holy shit that's an awesome ass road trip but man did it really did suck at the end. Glad it almost made back at least, rather than somewhere else much further away. Really cool that you have friends from all over though to be there for you.

I definitely couldn't have done that trip and made it back home with some awesome people along the way. I'm very fortunate to have some amazing friends. I owe them all!

So anyways the swap is happening. My friend Chris and I are tackling it this week. Today we stripped down the new ABA for cleaning and prep for new maintenance parts. Also got the old ABA out. I'll be reusing lots of stuff from it.

'New' ABA mostly stripped to a bare long block.


Empty bay

[Chuckdee]

Holy shit that's an awesome ass road trip but man did it really did suck at the end. Glad it almost made back at least, rather than somewhere else much further away. Really cool that you have friends from all over though to be there for you.

[harlerocco]

Took it to Import Alliance in July.





Shortly after I took it on a big epic road trip. On August 1st I left for Dubs in the Valley, a show in Oshkosh Wisconsion. After that headed south into Chicago and stayed with a friend of mine for a few days. Took some time to fix a few little things while I was there (rad fan, ignition coil, coil wire). The following Wednesday I headed out to VAG Fair in York Pennsylvania. I stopped halfway in Cleveland Ohio and stayed with another friend of mine. The next day I finished my trip to PA and spent a little time messing with the car and seeing people. VAG Fair was awesome and I was picked to be in Madness on the Midway, which is their version of the 'top dawg' that H2O has. After the show on Sunday I headed down to Baltimore to stay with a friend that night and head back to Kentucky on Monday morning. Monday rolls around and I make it 20 minutes before the engine seizes up. A coolant hose blew and blew it all out in no-time, which got the engine VERY hot for about 15 minutes of highway driving. I was convinced I blew it up 9 hours from home and had it towed back to my friends place and started tearing into it. With some help I got a couple things replaced and inspected some internals. Everything seemed ok besides smelling like burnt oil. After it cooled down and we looped the heater hoses, it seemed to run totally fine. Tuesday morning I tried again and made it 7 solid hours without a problem. A few hours from home I stopped to get gas, started the car back up, and out of nowhere heard a terrible clatter under load. I said screw it and just drove it because I was in the middle of nowhere West Virginia and wanted to get home. I made it another 45 minutes over the border into Kentucky about 150 miles from home before I had to stop. The car had almost no power and the noises were getting worse and worse. A friend of mine came and picked up me up that night super late at like 3am, and I didn't get home until 2pm the next day. It was a pretty terrible experience but I'm surprised it made it that far.

A couple weeks ago I started messing with it again and did a compression test first thing. Cylinders 1 and 2 had zero compression... so I'm assuming I was driving on 2 cylinders for that final 45 minutes. I picked up another ABA and ordered some new maintenance parts for it, and I'm hoping to have it all back together by this weekend.

I made it 2200 miles in a little over a week during that trip, and the car did awesome up until she said 'no more'. Air ride rode amazing the whole time and made the trip so nice. The 5th gear swap I did got me 41.6 mpg between Louisville and Chicago too. So really it wasn't a bad road trip vehicle at all.













Back in the shop with the Harlequin, which isn't looking a whole lot better.



The new (used) ABA I picked up, hopefully going in quickly and without a fight.



This weekend would be really nice since there's a local indoor show that I registered for some time ago, but if not I am sure it will be done very soon in time for H2O.

Also the RS's will be for sale after H2O if anyone is interested. I have another set of wheels I'm working on at the moment and will need some money to finish them up for next season.

[kittenpuncher]

favorite rocco in the biz.