My 1.7TD Rabbit GTI project.

[Fatmobile]

Exactly, I've been leary about runing it up to full temp because of this.
I am using the rabbit radiator hoses.
I did clear that port on the radiator,.. but it wouldn't take much to plug it again.
I think that rad port is where they put the restrictor in the Rabbit. At least on the A2 upper rad hose setup; I could put a filter before the restrictor.
They try to limit the amount of coolant/air flowing into the resevoir,.. but a fresh engine, that hasn't been flushed properly could plug it easily.
I usually put water in and drive, then drain.
I usually do that a couple times, then flush with filtered water a couple times.
Then fill with fresh antifreeze.
This time it was too cold to risk putting water in it
so I put some used/filtered coolant in.

[Fatmobile]

OK, I found the problem with the non-draining resevoir.

I used my easy-drain to drain the block,.. and the resevoir didn't empty.
I had put some blue masking tape over the metal pipe, where the resevoir drain hose connects, so crap woulodn't fall in it while I was working on stuff. I must have grabbed the hose and connected it without seeing the taped end.

I checked the injection pump for internal pressure today, it has some.
Starts/runs great, lots of power and the turbo has a great whine.

Some more electrical work to do
The control arms look so bent up, I should find a better set or some new ones.
The rear interior can be put in place now, but I need to do some floor repair before I can put the front carpet in.

[Fatmobile]

I got alot done on the 2-door these last couple days.

The control arms were all bent up, someting I threw on to get it moving.
so.. while they were off I took care of the bent-up floor rail:



it used to be a trailer queen and it looks like the ramps were too steep.

While the wheels were off the ground I tried using the dasher strut bushing in the old school strut cap, where the strut attaches to the body:

The metal spacer bushing needs to be shorter, about 4mm,.. or I'll get banging noises on bumps.
If that metal bushing isn't there, the bearings will take all the forcr of the nut being tightened.


Then there is the gap between the bearing and cap, that needs to be filled.
So when the top nut is put on, it will squeeze the metal bushing/spacer.

I messed up the trany reverse on the AGS I had in there,..
so I spent some of last week making tools to pull a trany apart.
Here's what the reverse gear looked like:

a little ground up on the top.

and here's the reverse idler:

alot ground up on the top.
There was a chunk of ice inside the trany, that wouldn't allow it to fully shift into reverse.
I pulled a reverse gear and idler from a bucket of 4-speed parts I'm glad I kept.

1 tire keeps losing air, that gets fixed and it should get on the road into town for a tire alignment.

[Fatmobile]

The windshield is cracked so that needs replaced.

The dash also needs to come off:
it has holes in it
the sound deadener and carpet needs to be installed so the heater box has to come out
and because it's maroon,...I found a nice dark blue one in the pile.

and it's pretty easy to put it back on when the windshield is out so it's time to get all this done.

[Fatmobile]

Got all that stuff done,.. and took it for a tire alignment.
It drives a little rough,.. found a full set of NOS boge progas and neuspeed lowering springs for $50 locally. I like the ride it's just different than the high-riders I'm usually driving.
Only problem I'm having is the clutch slips in 3rd,.. and in 4th at 7psi,.. and thermostat seems to run a little low..
Otherwise it runs great.

I fixed the reverse problem in the AGS so I'll probably do the clutch when that trany goes in,..
the ACH seems to run at noticably higher RPM on the interstate.

[Fatmobile]

Pics of the car:
Interior shot. The dash was maroon but I had a nice blue one that goes better with the gray.

Old Blue lives on in other cars,.. organ donor of the door cards, driver's and rear seat and carpet which I think also go well with the gray.
Might try to install the bow-style headliner from Old Blue too.


Notice the weird rear view mirrors,.. they are Hella.


I spent some time learning how to bend BBS RAs straight and ended up with a whole set.

I'll get some engine bay pics.

[79 300sd]

Pics of the car:



I spent some time learning how to bend BBS RAs straight and ended up with a whole set.

I'll get some engine bay pics.

Those wheels look great, but would look even better on my car!!!

Did you get around to taking any pics of the engine bay yet?

[Fatmobile]

I took it into town today.
The clutch seems to be holding better, might have just been some oil on the surface.

Here's a couple lame engine bay pics:



This is my first intercooler. I think I need to break the max fuel screw collar off, can't get any black smoke and I think it should have more power.

The BBS RAs are nice rims but are known to bend easily,.. so I figured they would bend back easily too, ha.
They did.

[Fatmobile]

I got a chance to put some brackets in the engine bay.
This one is for the stock TD airbox, it's from a Rabbit gasser battery box, holds the gasser airbox, just happens to fit the mounting pins on a MK1 TD airbox too.




Fuel filter was just banging around in the raintray so that's bolted in now:


I ran all the glow plug and sensor wires inside a plastic cover, just used one path, instead of one coming from the other side of the brake booster.
Also a pic of the windshield washer revesevoir bracket I got mounted today.
...and take note of the Mk3 battery cable upgrade.


...and here's the engine bay from farther back.


Still needs some work on the crankcase vent.

I drove it to town the other day,.. without a toolbox

Should be a quieter engine bay when I hit bumps,
and with this suspension I feel/hear the bumps.
Nice ride though.

[Fatmobile]

I still have this rabbit GTI. Damn, looking back on this post looks like I've had it for over 20 years?
It's still here, even though the pictures are not.
I'll have to find them and repost.
It has a stock 1.6TD engine in it now. The 1.7 TD is in my daily driver, with a VNT-15.

The plan now is to put an AHU TDI engine in it.
Hopefully before the summer is out.
I have the engine and trany.

[sgnimj96]

A TDI in a GTI sounds AWESOME!

If people could make their own cars, that's what they'd have.
You're doing that, and you basically have you're own website too.

People sure could use more parts, though.
This NLA trend is ridiculous. Chinese engineers and manufacturing could
crank that stuff out like no big deal, which it is.
I hear it from most people (especially kids), they
really like the older, simple cars. Even though they don't know
how they work, they know it's a better way.

[Fatmobile]

It is sometimes hard to work on a mechanical car compared to a computerized one,
when it comes to troubleshooting.
It's nice to have an OBD port and trouble codes.

I think I'll be able to tune it easier than the mechanical pumps, once I figure out how to tune the chips.

The AHU is close enough to the 1.6D that I'm wondering about things like what alternator/belt to use.

I don't want to use the stock AHU turbo. I'd rather have a vaned turbo, even if it's just a VNT-15.
But my mechanical VNT turbo controller setup on the 1.6, or M-TDI won't work because there is no lever on top of the injection pump.
So I need to figure out another way.
Even if it's tuning the chips to work with the vanes. I guess it's been done so I have to figure out how they did it.