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7 years and a Callaway GTI later

133K views 762 replies 70 participants last post by  Hoffa 
#1 · (Edited)
7 years and a Callaway GTI later

After a long hiatus (I never really left but was VW-less too long), I finally have a GTI. I have been hunting for a good GTI to do a full restoration/restomod on for the last 8 years but never found a good candidate. I have met a ton of people on here and in the community along the way and about 7 years ago made contact with a local guy from a Craigslist ad. He bought the car new and put a ton of time and money building what was to him the ultimate GTI. It was so clean with 51k original miles I finally got it together and took it home. Last registration was 1997! My wife thinks I am absolutely insane but to me it's like coming home!


My story
My first car @ 16 was a 1979 Rabbit purchased dead with a hole in the side of the block. For reference that was 30 years ago! On a starving student budget, a subscription to VW and Porsche magazine for motivation, and no mechanical experience I slowly transformed it with a scirocco engine, a diesel 5 speed transmission conversion, a used Bilstein kit and a GTI interior. I had to learn how to fix things myself (sometimes twice!) and believe me I had to touch just about every nut and bolt on that car. I had a ton of fun and converted a few American muscle car friends to the VW side after competing in non-sanctioned street hill climb events! After selling it I went American for a change but immediately regretted it. Then just before college I lucked upon a really clean 83 GTI from the original adult owner but with a blown head gasket. I purchased an almost brand new cabriolet that was rolled from a tow yard and swapped out the engine in the driveway.



That GTI was really something and I had untold life experiences including meeting my girlfriend & now wife (coincidently she owned a 1980 Scirocco S at the time so you can start to see the power of the VW influence on me). By buying and fixing up broken MK1's and2's it helped pay for part of college and gave me some great life skills. This attachment to old VW 's baffles my friends a bit and seems immature in some respects, but I don't care and have found kindred spirits here on VWV. I can relate well with Mr. Spratt, vdubspeed, echassin, racerlance, scirocgvnr, and just about everyone else here in some way so excuse me for the babble as I get to the next chapter on my new GTI.

The GTI
The original owner was in in the SF Bay Area VW scene showing this car in the late 80's to 90's and I'm certain I crossed paths with it a time or 2. It is ultra clean with 51k mi, has a perfect body, zero rust, a mint full Recaro interior incl door panels, Callaway Stage 2+ with intercooler and Microfueler, oil cooler, Koni's, Neuspeed, Zender, Hella, Momo, etc.





Basically it's a time capsule of all the period performance parts you could want back in the day. I want to be respectful of it's past but make it my own. Outside of the maintenance of recommissioning a car that's been off the road for 15 or so years, the first changes I want to make include ditching the 16" wheels in favor of some 15" RML Snowflakes, ATS's, or Zender Phase1's. Mid-term I'm debating going back to stock on the body and removing the Zender kit. I know that seems absurd to some but I'm more of an OEM plus guy and love the stock Westy look. I'm gathering parts to accomplish this (thanks Leo, Ron, and Shawn!) and so far have picked up NOS badges, amazing original front and rear seats, an air dam, stock VDO panel, and a bunch of small items.



I'll update my progress as I get it sorted and legal. I can't wait to get this roadworthy and hit the coast and mountains this summer.
Hoffa
 
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#508 · (Edited)
Cool hidden swiss cheese mod I found while cleaning up and installing my k&n filter.
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Almost fully done cleaning/polishing everything.
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Still waiting on my rods from the machine shop. Also the shop I took my PS engine mount didn’t have the right size press disc to get the old one out. I may so have to resort to some destruction to get it out.

Next up I’ll replace all the transmission seals and the throw out bearing. Interesting in my pics below of trans rod seal it was pushed in 1/4 inch instead of flush. Also any tips on how to replace the brass rod bushing that goes in behind said seal? I hear it’s difficult to do correctly.
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Hope everyone is well!
 
#517 ·
Derrick,

Great job cleaning up and getting this ready to go back together! For the brass bushing in the drive shaft I used a tap (have to check the size) and a vice grip slide hammer to pull it out. Comes out with ease that way. I have the setup if you want to borrow it.

Pat
 
#509 ·
That push rod seal shouldn’t be set flush. There’s a small chamfer that it should be set to. Maybe 2-3mm in. Take notice of the main shaft seal.

Since you’re replacing the TO bearing, you can drive the bushing out from the back, behind the end cap. Find an Allen bolt that fits the bore, drop it in, and use the pushrod to tap it out. Tap the new one in using a socket as an arbor. Easy stuff…

-Todd
 
#513 ·
I got a tip from Scientific Rabbit that the swiss cheese mod is no good as it just sucks hot air in from the engine bay. I have a stock unit that can go in its place including the factory cold air duct. The A2A intercooler is in the way of the stock placement so I may play with setting up a larger duct down the road
 
#528 ·
Thanks for noticing I put whatever time it took to degrease, clean, wire wheel, the lots of taping before prime and paint. It’s turning out nice! I was able to order most of all the remaining items which will be here Wed next week. By then I should be clear of Covid which I picked up traveling for work and has kicked my butt all week. Go get that project before they are all gone and scrapped!
 
#530 ·
Looking good!

Late to the party, but I used Redline MTL decades ago and got a 2nd gear crunch. I think it was a Redline tech that told me the gear oil was too slippery. Switched to Syncromesh decades ago in all my VWs. No issues.

I recently used Liquimoly synthetic in BB and got a 2nd gear crunch that I don’t remember being there. I think it goes away after it warms up. I’ll need to pay more attention.

-Todd
 
#532 ·
New main bolts arrived and installed along with pistons and bearings snd ARP rod bolts. Everything torqued and checked; plastiguage was spot on for new STD bearings.
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#542 ·
Hoffa...I've posted this before and it's just meant as a FWIW. I purchased a newly rebuilt transmission (regular differential) and was told what oil was going in it. In fact, I was told I'd be purchasing the oil along with the transmission. For me, that worked great...no thinking...no agonizing over what oil I should use. A few photos showing caution tag and oil product. So far so good.

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#554 · (Edited)
Here's a photo of the setup.

i had an additional CIS frequency valve bypass plumbed into the fuel distributor controlled by an extra box which had built in load vs. rpm map (also had the same for ignition control as well), programmed in via laptop. This way things operated normally for the non-corner cases (such as non boost, low to mid boost where the stock setup worked fine), but under high boost the extra fuel became available. The Volvo 240T setup worked great non boost and low to mid boost, no adjustments needed really. Always kept AFR in a nice safe range according to the wide band under boost.

For high boost i also had an additional boost controlled switch to trigger the boost a pump and i also used that to trigger the stock CIS Lambda box to the fixed higher enrichment frequency valve setting in addition to the above.

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#563 ·
Using those old bolts to keep things aligned is a great way to make that happen. I never understood why VW did not use dowels to lock the head in place. Even the bolts will allow the head to move around, more than I would like to see.

The good citizens in the PNW are whining about the temps getting to 85F today.

It's always good to find a person that has some experience with what you have them fix. Although VW heads are pretty easy, knowing that you found a person that can rebuild them with a blindfold is a good thing.
 
#567 ·
I have never seen any dowels and I have thought about making something. I think some type of sleeve around a head bolt would work. If I had a machine shop, I would without a doubt. There are enough manufacturers that use some type of tube that I could make something work. I do not have a machine shop and I am too cheap to pay someone to do it.

Obviously, if it was important, VW would have installed them.
 
#574 ·
Obviously, if it was important, VW would have installed them.
Seriously…? These were not sold as high performance cars. What was done was deemed adequate for the general consumer.


The deflector just “floats” on the cam caps so contact with the lobes may not be a real issue. I just don’t like the idea of any contact that could produce plastic shrapnel.
I wouldn’t want to test that logic. I cleaned out a lot of broken plastic and broken lifter bucket metal from the gray GTI’s engine. Not sure if the baffle was OE or not, but I do know the cam was a 286° Autotech/ HöR.

-Todd
 
#571 ·
A crude way to measure the lobs is to find a stock lobe and measure the thickest portion. Then measure the one you have. If the one you have is thicker, it would be a high lift cam.

Maybe a few washer before the nut would help.

I do know, when I had my Callaway cover on my 1.6l the oil separator was not very good. Of course, without going into another long story, the engine was not up to par and had excessive blowby. I am a firm believer that the oil deflector is the way to go and I would go out of my way to make it work. If possible.
 
#598 ·
Many years ago Momo introduced a limited edition blue stitch Monte Carlo steering wheel which is a classic favorite of mine. I missed out and they became extremely valuable selling for upwards of $600 used and $1,200 new. There were foreign fake ones made that were terrible quality so watch out! I almost bought a regular one and was going to have a shop restitch it in blue but Momo just re-introduced it so I grabbed one on sale last week direct from Momo online and with free shipping. It’s a beauty and worth every penny IMO. Will look amazing with a blue GTI interior.
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