1.8 20vt Cupra MK1 Cab project

Thanks guys!

I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to the uk with this one in '08, had some trouble with the mk4 that cost quite some cash so it all takes a bit longer than planned

@ Gee: I painted it myself

Good work then fella. Looks tops!

Thanks! It's not that good but it's no showcar, the only goal I'm setting for this car is that I'm going to have loads and loads of fun with it!

JD-engineering told me I could get 210bhp and 340nm out of this little bugger easy (with stock k03 turbo), it has a completely rebuild AYN (longest ratio 02a transmission) with a Quaife differential

with that in mind and the car propably going to weigh 950kg it will have a kg/bhp ratio of 1bhp per 4,5kilo
(that's rather sick in a mk1 convertible )

hello kevin the cabbys coming along nicely looks like youve done a good job on the paintwork is it the first one youve done??

Thanks Sarah! Yeah it's been the first time I've painted a car part, for now it's just the engineroom, but I'm currently sanding the other bodypanels

looks like your doin a top job dude lookin forwad to seein some mor future links to this project

keep us posted on this dude, looks the melons!

Thanks guys!!

I'm going to post the updates that I haven't posted yet...


03-12-2007:

Last saturday I picked up a few nice parts for the project:

Pictures






The G60 racing-discs against the vented Golf MK2 GTI discs that were mounted before.


The G60 transmission I'm going to use, got it off a mate for a few cents


de-rusted and repainted these boys, and fitted Powerflex bushings

and I ordered this set for some serious stopping power!

Bought these engine and transmission mounts, so it should actually fit in quite nice





02A Transmission mounts:






I don't want to fool around myself with the mounting points of a for me very expensive engine, so I just bought these since they have been used for quite a while in Germany and haven't heard negative things about these

The combination 1.8t and G60 transmission fits good inside the mk1 enginebay, the only downside is that you need the quite rare Scirocco 16v 100m axles.
Luckely I had a contact which had a pair that I could buy for a few euro's

18-12-2007:

Today I received my new brake system for the front! They had to come all the way from Canada

But in the end it was worth the wait!





Hopefully the Sebrings will fit otherwise I'll have to find another set of nice wheels (maybe 3 piece)

Next week the transmission is going to completely checked and i'm going to have a Quaife differential fitted!

28-01-2008:

The engine is in! After getting the transmission back from the company that rebuilt it and fitted the Quaife diff. I couldn't do anything else but work on to car



After a whole saturday of preparations and working till deep in the night, 9 o'clock sundaymorning a pal came to help me! (believe me I couldn't even be bothered and wanted to stay in bed )
But after 5 hours the engine, transmission, axles, enginemounts, intercooler, the whole lot was in!!

Next week I'm going to play around with loom, and see if I can find a fuelpump of a mk1 gti and just maybe it might run next sunday!


BTW: I painted that engine room myself

11-02-2008:

Last week we did some work on the wiring! We are using the original management, but with a custom loom.

Since I didn't want to have all the wires in the loom that we're not going to use.
We took the complete loom apart and separated the ones we needed from the wires we didn't need!

That meant we had to remove wires for the airco, side blinkers, outside temperature sensor, airco fan sensor, crash sensor etc. etc. etc.
After 7 hours of work there was only half left of the loom we initially started with!

The part of the loom that is used for the lights is going to be made into a separate loom, that way it's easier to hide and when there are problems with the one of the looms there's you only have to check half the cables.
and ofcourse I don't have to use the 24,5 year old bad wires that were in the cab!

Some pictures:




That's the original VAG loom for the 1.8t (actually it's not that bad they make the loom quite clever so it's not that hard to take apart)


The mess that we had taken out after 2 hours of cutting

and some more pictures of the engine room itself:








I'm going to remove the pipe you see in the last picture, it's the pipe from the turbo to the intercooler.
Going to make a custom one for it!

Makes my 16v swap seem like child's play!

Nice one!

@ Gee: thanks buddy!


That's the progress untill now, wanted to be a bit further along the project now but since I had a few problems with the mk4 I couldn't afford to go on with the cab project!

Today the Radiator was deliverd so now I can finally go on with the piping and samco hoses for the intercooler and radiator!

thats brilliant mate! cant wait to see it finished

Impressive work,keep it up and post up more progress pics when you get some

Thanks!!

I thought I would post some more pics up of things I'm currently running in to.
They are just small things that need to be resolved before it can run, these are the "problems" most people don't mention but could cost quite some money before you have the right parts.


I can't seem to find shorter bolts, the ones I'm using now are the mk1 cab ones. Maybe the 02a G60 bolts are shorter? The problem is that now I can't fit the clutchcable...


I'm currently debating if I should weld aluminum ends on the intercooler, that way I wouldn't have to make 2 90degree turns which should help the flow a lot!
But the aluminum ends would have to be a really sleek shape since there isn't a lot of space in the front.


Here you can see there is just limited space in between the airintake and the intercooler, between there should come a radiator and fan (about 4inches thick) and then there's still the engine movement.
After weeks of thinking I've found a solution for it, there is just one way to postition the radiator and fit a 11inch Spal fan that way I have 1,3 inches off clearance between the engine and radiator.


My ecu doesn't run without the electronic gaspedal, so I'd have to reweld the top of the new gaspedal on the old one. Or make new brackets in the car... I'm still not happy with both solutions


Since I don't have a secundairy airpump I need to remove the N112 valve and that means I also need to remove the N249 valve.
It's not a problem, but I still need to work out the proper method and since I don't have internet in the space I work on the cab it's a hassle



I had the transmission rebuilt and fitted with new bolts, but then I found that the custom rear transmission mount needs to have longer bolts then stock... (put it on backwards temporarily till I find the right bolt)


These are the ones, they just need to be 1cm longer so that I fit a lugnut on the other side...

14-03-08:

The downpipe I ordered from Quantum Performance Engineering (uk) arrived!


I'm loving it!


16-03-08:


I've again done a lot of work over the weekend!


Since I'm going to paint the car myself I had to sand down the rolled paint that was on the car...
Still have lots of sanding to do, but I don't mind =)



and I did some more work on the enginebay, cleaned it out a bit, removed the vacuumsystem, rerouted the secundairy waterpump and lines, removed the Seat intercooler piping etc. etc.

WOW!!!

That looks great dude!
It makes what I've been doing with mine look like a very poor attempt!

Keep up the good work - and keep the pics coming!

thats amazing dude.

awesome

coming on nicely kevin

very nice

gonna look hot when it's finished kevin

That looks brilliant mate, keep up the top work.