TireSmoke.org

Its not a project, but my daily driver. I bought it back in April of 2001. This car is what got me into the watercooled VW's. Its been very reliable. Easy to work on and most importantly a blast to drive! Not including tire mounting and alinements, I've only had a mechanic work on it once - to do the rusty brake lines while I packed to move out of state.
Its taken me all the way from Atlanta to Portland Oregon and everywhere in between. Its been drag raced, autocrossed and track dayed. I started to change it immediately with a larger exhaust. A 2 1/4" to replace the leaking original. Than I was off. Tiresmoker and I put in a Shrick 272* camshaft in the summer of '01 and a short throw shifter (now worn out as of 12/31/11). Stainless lines went on that year also, as they were cheaper than the 2rubber oem lines the mechanic needed to do the entire rear brake lines.
I started to contemplate turbocharging it. That would have been to much for a DD. About that time i instead bought and started work on my VR6 project while living in Atlanta.
Some specs... 1.8 Liter 8V bought with 67,000 miles. It has now maybe 200,000 miles. I'm not sure... I replaced the gauge cluster a few years ago.
2320 lbs without me in it. I'm the 2nd owner. Mobil 1 every 5000~7000 miles. Within that change interval I might add 1/2 a quart. its been like that for 10 years! More to come.

May 2001 Nelson Ledges raceway. tires had 1500 miles on them...and one track day
Photos by noisy cricket

Also in '01 installed a CAI. '02 H&R sport springs and reset MAF spring to a lighter tension there by "fooling" the computer and richening the mixture. The throttle response is much better.
Its now on its 3rd exhaust. The winter salt is horrible here.. should have went stainless . Rebuilt shift linkage 3 times. Though the last time I only needed to replace one part but decided to do the whole thing since I already had the parts shelved.
3 sets of front calipers in 10 years (2 times because of frozen bleeder screws )
1 set wheel cylinders
proportioning valve.
A few years back I deleted the AC system (to much $$ to fix) lost 18 lbs there. P/S delete (looped the rack) installed correct pulleys and Alternator from a non P/S golf.
2011 was busy -Got the VR6 on the road and found time to help with Tiresmokers '63 Vette drive line removal/ install, Tonys Chevelle motor removal/ install on 'Smokers '70 velle (I know kinda confusing)...And I Cant remember... but did we do the transmission swap on Tony's '69 chevelle this year?? Any way back to the GTi.
1. Rebuilt head, Powerline engine in Mentor Ohio did the machine work. I installed- tiresmoker helped diagnose some ignition problem.
2. Timing belt
3. Distributor... cured poor running in the rain. The hall sender was going. A friend of mine ,an Audi/ Porsche mechanic diagnosed that one for me as the hall was in "spec" according to the repair manual. The friend was right.
4. Radiator
5. Thermostat ..might as well
6. Main fuel pump . A remanufactured Bosch(German) was found after some searching. No way did I want a New Chinese even though it was cheaper and easier to find.
7. KYB shocks and struts all around
8. Strut bearings
9. Rear Drums
10. Rear bearings.
11. Gas tank straps. Auto zoners - fit like s*** . Made them work though!
12. Calipers - See above
13. Master Cylinder - Had in my stock, It blew when the front brake line broke from a hard stop. See below..
14. Left front brake line
15. Right front wheel bearing. In my stock again!
16. Gear box fluid Change. Used Pennzoil Syncromesh , supposedly the same as GM suncromesh but costs half as much. Shifts great.
17. Lower temp fan swith.
18. Stainless down pipe - $100 veeerrry lightly used. New they are $300. Ching *Cough* Cat delete also (was shot anyway) Ill worry about that in 2 yrs.
19. O2 sensor. Used a Fox body Mustangs 5.0 sensor. Just swap connectors. $40 instead of over $100 for VW's
20. Tie rod ends.
21. Spot rust repair with POR-15 and touch up.
22. 4 New Continental snows.
I think I'm forgetting something??? Anyway. I saved a ton of money by doing it myself and justifies adding new tools for each job. The garage is looking good.
And on a kinda funny note.. I' ve been getting all my VW stuff from Euclid Foreign motors. They gave me my own account number "to make it easier because your here so much" True Story

Until last year I would have had no appreciation for that tire pic.

Oil changed - Mobile 1 10-30.Been about 6500 since last one.
Cap and rotor.... again. Previous set was installed on 8/04/11
30.55 MPG combined

Replaced left front wheel bearing. Should have done this back in Dec. when I replaced the other 3 wheel bearings.
Also... again... replaced the cap, rotor, and wires. I keep having problems with the ignition stuff. People were saying Bosch wires aren't so hot.?? Bosch changed the ends on the wires that I just got hopefully this will correct the ongoing and irritating problem of replacing the cap and rotor every 8~12 months. Bosch is supposed to be good..Right???

Snap ring rusted/ failed. Killed the bearing. not including press work, off and back on in 2.25 Hrs! Air tools FTW


Had to throw on a ball joint also, happened to have a new one in my parts warehouse. Old ball joint had to be massaged (cut) out

2.25 hrs - pretty good. Get about 3 helpers and you can get it down to 90 minutes, oh and the sound of 71 cars lapping you helps speed it up too

MostMint wrote:2.25 hrs - pretty good. Get about 3 helpers and you can get it down to 90 minutes, oh and the sound of 71 cars lapping you helps speed it up too

actually when I was working on the bearing I looked at my GRM sticker on the air compressor and that triggered a memory. I thought about you guys and your hub bearings at the race in October.

edit* 33.23 mpg combined. not bad for a 21 year old car.

replaced alternator with shelved one. 3-18

Been a busy *few* weeks:
replaced alternator with a new one
new timing belt and tensioner - again wtf?
Throw out bearing
Trans end cap (seal)
Trans fluid
Passenger axle- Gambled on that one because I was hoping it was bad - not the trans. Lost on that one. The positive is- I have a spare axle.
Passenger motor mount
Set ignition timing (thanks 'smoker for your timing light)
Painted wheels
Oil and filter change
still have to change front motor mount and one coolant hose + needs a new trans ( I have one) the differential is on its way out
Should be set for a week or 2
The cars gettin old :C so is all the work. Looking back at the last 13 months.... theres been a ton of work Ive done on it. I should just buy hand cleaner by the gallon!

Close Ratio Trans. Replaced 3 seals,a bushing and throw out bearing.


Old Trans with a bad diff


Its like that groundhog day movie... but with VW's


How do I go about changing my screen name?

Put the trans in today. That was fun! I installed a new clutch,pp and trans mount also. Also have a bunch of small things to do. The dealer, surprisingly still could get the appropriate speedo gear for the new/different r&p. A new coolant pipe is going in also.
I'd have to say a V8 trans is probably easier to put in. Theres just not any space to work. A jack under the trans wont work. I came up with this idea. A couple of motorcycle tie downs that I looped around the trans and than up to the engine support. I would lift the trans up while laying on the ground, and Molly would tighten the strap when I would provide the slack. This allowed me to "nibble" away at it and take short breaks. Worked like a charm. Its relatively safe, well as much as having a transaxle hanging above ones skull can be. I trust the tie downs though. This also allowed me to rotate, wiggle, tilt and grunt the trans into its spot, While checking its positioning along the way.




Now that the heavy lifting is done I can work on it a little here and there during the week.

Trans went in.
Trans is coming back out.

say it ain't so.

Well there's a first time for everything.
Ive never gotten a wrong part from my parts guys, but... they gave me an input shaft seal for a 1993~1998 020 trans. The O.D. is the same but the I.D. on the seal is slightly different.
That explains the leak coming out of the bellhousing. It wasn't the mechanics error. Oh well. I had the seal ordered and shipped on that Sunday, got it yesterday.
This weekend i'll throw it back together. I did manage to drive a few miles on the trans before removing it to make sure everythings Ok with it and it seems fine mechanically. The close ratio set up is pretty cool. The acceleration is real nice. It compliments the cam- which starts to come on around 3500. I could already hang with or barely beat a 16v mk2 with the original trans... now its no contest with this one! This trans is arguably the most desired for a N/A MK1 or Mk2.
I also got some new coolant lines and another new radiator because of a small leak (my price on the radiator $55 ). So hopefully I'll be set for a little bit.
I need to wrap this up so i can put a heater core in Mollys Passat - Ordered that today...$32 .. At least the parts are affordable.

Just got back from test drive number 2. The trans works great. Ran over to Summit racing to get some hose clamp pliers. Summits real close to me about 15 minutes at most, maybe 7 miles! Those will be nice to remove a couple of hoses when I do the radiator change in a couple of days.
The close ratio is pretty fun. It would be, not-so-fun, if I had a freeway commute of any long distance.
On a "small world" side note. I ran into noisy cricket at Summit Racing, he's on our site. He was in his Rallycross set up, 1st gen. RX7. Hes going to the SCCA Rallycross nationals in Tulsa in October!