My 89 Carb'd - Turbo Golf Cabrio

[TerenceJCruz]

This thing is rad. I love it!

[Rez_hoj]

Really digging the bike carb+turbo combo! Have you got any rolling vids with the turbo?

I only have two short iPhone clips.. but yeah.





So I laid the roof over the top of the old one, I really like the colour.. I wasn't sure id like it. But I do.

Im pretty anxious about doing it myself. They leave the window to be cut out yourself... yikes. Ill tackle that later.

Ignore the side trim, i thought it would be a good idea to pull all the clips off. For a breif moment I was wrapping the car yellow. But I decide against driving a banana. I already get enough hassle for it being a ''girls car''



Started the wrap.. and then aborted the mission.



These are the seats that I have, generic Recaro trophies. They have seen better days.



Those and the door cards will tie in with the roof and wheels. With the bbs, I think I'm going for Porsche bronze, but don't quote me. Im so indecisive,





and then the rear seats... nah.. skip those. Don't need them.



this little guy is along for the ride!

[FITBDD]

Really digging the bike carb+turbo combo! Have you got any rolling vids with the turbo?

[Rez_hoj]

This thing is awesome! Anyone uses the SEAT rocker cover over here and no one bats an eye. We forget the SEAT's didn't go stateside did they?
Keep making it awesome!

Thanks dude!! Nope no SEATS here, which is unfortunate, Id love a Cupra R as a daily. Come to think of it, theres lots of stuff we don't get, no new scirocco, no r36, no lupo or UP, no polo...We are getting stiffed

Haeneken definitely FTW! awesome car and build so far. Put her on the dyno yet? Cusrious what figures she pushes out.

Right? Nom!

I Haven't had it on the dyno yet. With the small turbo, it was at around 15psi. I would estimate around 200hp give or take. With the bigger turbo and intercooler id love to see around 250/300.

I will get it on there once everything is done

Awesome project!

In for updates!

Thank you!

[tylerlb]

Awesome project!

In for updates!

[Jay P]

Haeneken definitely FTW! awesome car and build so far. Put her on the dyno yet? Cusrious what figures she pushes out.

[Dutch]

This thing is awesome! Anyone uses the SEAT rocker cover over here and no one bats an eye. We forget the SEAT's didn't go stateside did they?
Keep making it awesome!

[Rez_hoj]

In for more turbo goodness.

Oh also, great car!

Thanks!

I'm definitely looking forward to driving with the new turbo. Hopefully I can't sort the intercooler before spring :-)

[dreamoca]

The Recaros we be re-trimed hopefully before summer and I'm considering throwing a roll bar in the back!

[Louis_D]

In for more turbo goodness.

Oh also, great car!

[Rez_hoj]

Fun fact, you can get Mann filters (same as OEM without the branding) from Part Source if you want to get them locally and without the dealer mark up. Also all the good breweries in Calgary and you end up with Kokenee? haha

Haha i like it, its cheap!! Id rather drink Heineken if we are talking beer. Yeah most engine parts are carried in either napa or auto value. But i needed the jets from home, so i got my dad to throw in the other stuff I needed.

[Rez_hoj]

drove it around for a bit and had some blow by issues.

Me and my buddy did a compression test, the two middle cylinders were low. We decided to replace the piston rings and I switched out the obd2 head for a re-conditioned obd1 head which had my heavy duty valve springs in.





After getting it back on the road, the waste gate was heading towards the end of its life. I picked up a new turbo up. A t3/t4 unit which will probably double the power output of the smaller one.





I also picked up, 2'' lips for the rear and 1.5'' lips for the front





I wanted to give the front a more aggressive look. I purchased a vr6 lip, hacked it up and moulded it to my front bumper.





My top had seen better days, it looked pretty good for the age of the car but it really needed updating. I decided on a tan colour, something I hadn't seen on another white cabby.



I found an awesome SEAT aluminum valve cover in the UK, I had been looking for one of these for about a year. It needs a good clean and a paint.



Thats pretty much where Im at right now.

Over the winter I will split the wheels, re cover my top and finally add an intercooler.
Hopefully retrim my Recaros before summer and I'm considering throwing a roll bar in the back!

[DeltaAlpha9]

Fun fact, you can get Mann filters (same as OEM without the branding) from Part Source if you want to get them locally and without the dealer mark up. Also all the good breweries in Calgary and you end up with Kokenee? haha

[Rez_hoj]

Welcome to my 89 Cabby Build.

Im gonna start this thread mid way through, so I can get to the juicy stuff. I bought the car stock, switched out the CIS for a Weber carbs and from there i switched out the engine and moved on to the blow through carb set up it has today.

This is the 1st car I've ever worked on, I learned lots along the way and hope to learn a lot more down the the road.

Hope you guys enjoy

This is how it sat summer 14, I started to tear the car down after this show.



I got the car home, pulled off the hood and started by draining the fluids. As I removed the parts from the car.. radiator, power steering etc.. I labeled the wiring as I went along.





I pulled the engine out through the bottom of the car, a lot easier then I thought it would be. I think it took less then 10 minutes to have it out with the help of a friend.



Once the engine was out, I spent the next few weeks cleaning up the engine bay.. I wanted to keep the paint original but after I removed the battery tray.. that wasn't going to happen. That thing was a pain in the ass to remove.



In there with brake cleaner and a toothbrush.

Oh and Canadian beer!





I got the car taped up.

Scotch brite the shit outta the bay and then gave it a few coats of colour matched paint.



In-between working on the paint, I drove up to Edmonton and picked up a engine.

I decided on a 2.0 aba pulled from a 97 jetta, I wanted to put in something that I could work on but had potential for future modification.

After all I was still brand new at wrenching.

I squeezed it into the back of a mazda 3, probably not the best of ideas.. but its all I had to work with.





Once I got it home, I had a friend help me lift it out of the car and shimmy it over to the space on my floor. From there I pulled off the AC, the intake and the other stuff I didn't need.



The engine was then put on a stand and then I spent the next week or so with a wire wheel, cleaning off all the crap and old paint.





Then tapped that bad boy up and painted the block black with some engine enamel.



Followed by the transmission. I don't think my neighbours approved, but hey..



Lots of de-greaser followed by brake cleaner, the tranny was clean. Wire wheeled it, then scotch brite.



Primed and painted.



At some point of the build I decided that I wanted not only to turbo the cabby but I wanted to keep it on carbs too. Something that is pretty rare on watercooled cars. Pretty normal practice on air-cooled and muscle cars.

So while working on the car, I collected some parts..

Honda cbr900rr carbs from a 97 fireblade



My friend that had been helping me, had a small turbo from a 1.6 turbo diesel laying about, he was nice enough to donate it to my build.

The car was build on the tightest budget. So I had to save where I could. No baller status here.



The turbo was small, but did its job.. I got a lot of stick from people because it could barely make 200hp. I wanted to be realistic and try and get the project on the road. Big turbos can come later.

I bolted the turbo on to the manifold and placed the carbs on the other side to give me some motivation.

While the engine was on the stand I pulled the stock cam and threw in the 270 cam from my 1.8 head.. along with the adjustable cam gear.





I picked up a new fuel pump along with a FPR that could regulate my fuel pressure. It has a vacuum nipple on it, as the boost rises the FPR feeds the carbs more fuel.

The fuel pump if I can remember correct is good for around 350hp, the most important thing is flow with out to much pressure.



The small carter fuel pump and the bigger EFI pump.



I also picked up a 6AL MSD unit and timing computer. Along with new 16v clutch and pressure plate. Also parts to make my custom plenum.









I bought all the hoses I needed, and had a friend weld up the intake for me.



It came for the time to put the engine back in, the same friend that had help me take it out, helped me put it back in. With out his help I doubt I would have got to far in the build.



With a pulley rigged to roof of my garage, we added the new clutch, married the engine together with the trans and lowered it in.



And she was in.





Rolled her out so she could see day light. It was nice to see it outside after a long winter inside.





Time came to start fitting things in, not much room with that plenum.. I had to cut it down a bit to make space.







The boost pipes were added along with the BOV. As you can see no intercooler yet.

Complemetry pic of my oil filter, all the nit pickers would point out the shitty fram filter that was sitting on the bloc while i was building up the engine.

Had a Oem bosch filter sent over from the UK, got my Dad to chip in. He picked up the filter, new plugs and some big jets for the carbs Its nice to get care pages from home!





All the necessary coolant, oil and battery stuffs came next. Also a small honda civic, aluminum rad. The space was real tight up front, the smaller unit fit just beside.










Next up was, custom downpipe and frankenstine dizzy. Again to save money, I bought the parts i needed and had my good buddy weld them up. Welding is something Id like to learn, its the one thing I'm not confident in. I did some of the holes in the bay and a few small things here and there.





The down pipe connected to my TT exhaust that I put on previously.

The dizzy was made of two units, the old and a newer one from a mk2



All the last bits were bolted up and the car was pretty much ready to start.



The car finally made it out on to the road after a long summer working on. The turbo and carb combination was awesome. The next wave of up dates will show where I'm headed next