Daily Driven 1.8T Build

[cmdshft]

Some updates:

Purchased a cheap stainless steel 3" turbo back from ebay. Installed everything except the muffler (used it's tip though) and it sounds way better that the straight pipe. I was pleasantly surprised.

With it, finally got the AEM afr gauge working and I'm glad to be able to see real time rich/lean conditions.

Installed a new front valence. Stuck with the OEM one for now, eventually I'm getting an R32 bumper. It was a pure right cunt getting the old broken bits out before putting the new one in. Also took a minute and clipped off those awful broken fins in the center section of the bumper cover. With a new 3-bar grille, it doesn't look half bad. I still have the notch in the bonnet, though, which does look plain dumb. In the meantime, I'm gonna look for a nice hood bra to cover that up until I can get the notch actually taken care of.

Replaced the differential seals finally as well, transmission was leaky as fuck from there. Didn't get a chance to wipe things down tonight, so hopefully the puddles I was still leaving are just the old fluid I never wiped off dripping to the ground. I'll know more in the morning.

Car just needs coilovers soon really. Then a few interior bits and it's the road to rebuild and big turbo.

[cmdshft]

Installed an AEM air/fuel ration gauge (lambda face with AFR digital display). Still need to weld in the bung and run the actual sensor wiring and the sensor itself, but the gauge is functional.



Getting the exhaust repair this weekend (again), large hole in the back from 2-step blowouts, rust doesn't like that at all. Also... somehow managed to lose the dual tips on the roads somewhere... Had no idea they were never truly secured to the system. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cmdshft]

Already upgraded to an FIS cluster. Love it.

[cmdshft]

Wiper delete done!

[cmdshft]

Digital gauge done!

[cmdshft]

Welp. Looks like another turbo blew on me. Tons of white smoke on startup, didn't go away till I started driving. That's what I get for a $10 used OEM turbo. Can't really complain at all.


==============


This morning's cold start had no smoke at all. Wondering if it was just a lot of condensation that built up and it just picked up the hint of oil from whatever has been in the exhaust since before I did the valve seals.

[cmdshft]

Put in a new crank sensor and installed that BFI Stage 2 dogbone mount, she's running pretty mint again. Can't wait to service the trans and clean up all that gear oil on the bottom. I just hope it's not leaking gear oil from the diff seals and just from the VW emblem/pivot pins. End cap seal looks relatively decent, but also changing that as well just to be thorough. Reasons why I'm not doing the diff seals is it's hard to tell with all the current coating of gear oil on EVERYTHING (it ate the trans side poly dogbone bushing on the old one) and I don't know anyone that I can borrow the axel flange tool to do the job.

Also have a rear wiper delete plug coming next week as well as a new FIS cluster to replace my custom MFA cluster I just did (I neeeeeeeeeed VFIZ), and I have a slick Evo Pro series digital boost guage coming as well on Monday. I should have it wired up by that night or Tuesday, I will post some pics of everything before and after.

[cmdshft]

Thanks guys! I always liked the MK4 GTI so I'm happy I was able to get one, even happier that I was able to get the car running as well as I did.

I probably wont be posting many updates overall.

Blew the dogbone trans side bushing from a trans fluid leak so I have a stage 2 mount from BFI ready to go in, and the trans is getting the pivot pin's o-rings replaced, the shift tower seal is getting redone and the end cap seal replaced with Syncromesh gear oil.

[tuanabou]

I love that daily! Great choice imho!

[tuanabou]

Keen to see this documented somewhere now other than Instagram bro.

[SebastienPeek]

Well well well, look who we have here!
Keen to see this documented somewhere now other than Instagram bro.

[cmdshft]

Hi all. My aussie friend Seb Peek convinced me to join here a while back and I am just now getting around to it. I figured I would post up my extremely slow build of my GTI, reason being... Life and it's a daily driver right now.

Let's start with a bit of history.

I bought this car from a friend in Dec 2014 for a moderately decent price. I knew it needed some work but I had no idea what I was in for... The main reason I bought the GTI was because the body needed almost nothing at all (driver door has some imperfections and the front lip is destroyed), has no major rust issues which is rare for a MK4.

That being said, I started to get to work on it right away and in typical VW fashion, I fixed one or two things and 3 more cropped up.

To date, the repair list is as follows:

4x Poly control arm bushings
BFI Stage 2 Dogbone
Retimed + new cam sensor
New O2 sensor harness installed + new O2 sensors
New MAF
New coolant sensor
New thermostat
Brake Booster Vac Line
2x OEM axels
2x OEM wheel bearings
4x brake pads + rotors
2x rear brake calipers
New eBrake cables + guides
CTS Turbo 450HP rated FMIC
Radiator + Coolant hoses
3" turbo back straight pipe
VC gaskets
Cam Tensioner Seal
Intake Manifold gasket
Replaced various vac lines (FPR, diverter valve, etc)
Fuel Pressure Regulator replaced
IE VTA Catch Can
Delete Kit
Valve Seals
2x Clutch Switches
Replaced K03s w/ k03s w/ 80K + good seals
New Battery
New Relays
ECU w/ stage 2 k03s tune/Immo Defeat/Emissions Deletes/2step+NLS

Yeah. My wallet hurts...

Anyway, the plan for it is to do a rebuild of the motor with IE forged rods and grabbing the GT3071R kit from CTS Turbo by next summer. Then I will be renting a storage unit with enough room to park the car and do work on it when next fall comes here in the states, so I can focus on doing an air ride setup.

Now, onto the pictures!

R32 base cluster
Passat W8 tach face (to remove R32 emblem)
CC Blue Needles
Inverted Time + Mileage displays
Lit Needle Programming (Needles always lit)
White LED's for Tach/Temp/Fuel/Speedo backlights
Blue LED's for needles
Cruise Control light only on when a speed is set

Upgraded to Jetta layflats.

Installed an IE MBC.

================================

I will post more as I go along. Thanks for reading!