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[greggearhead]

So Snoopy wanted a 2.0 16V swapped into his Jetta, but is short on time and space, so decided to have me do it for him.  He also mentioned wanting to have pics to post a build thread, etc so thought I would start. 

This is an '82 Jetta, with a 2.0 ABA swap in it currently.  The engine wasn't always starting, the Mk3 gauge cluster didn't work at all, the wiring was more than sketchy looking, and Damien wanted more power. 




Early on, the ghetto-nastiness of the swap became evident.  Scarily evident. 

Isn't there a wiring plug that goes into the MAF?   




Alt. Serp belt was really loose.  Like I could slip it with hand pressure.




Normally, you'd just adjust the alternator a bit tighter (because the factory tensioner was deleted - well, half deleted.  There's still a pice rubbing on the frame rail there...) but the bracket that was "fabricated" didn't allow for any adjustment.... .




Custom coolant hose adapter by Home Depot:




Nylock nuts are great to use for a locking application.  However, on exhaust manifolds, the plastic tends to melt out...





Custom Downpipes by Blind-Boy-Welding.  It's not really restrictive.  Really. 






General wiring nastiness.



Hmm.  Now, I want to stuff some wires through a big hole, and then kinda seal it up, but not do a good job, and really, not be water-PROOF - more of a water-absorbing sponge.   What to use... what to use....




Good thing the gauges weren't working, cause the coolant light and gauge would have been pegged.  This is all the coolant that came out of the radiator (and engine, but I am hoping the t-stat is sealed shut or somthing, keeping more from draining out....)   Thank god VW's know about air-cooling!

[scurvy_bandit]

holy shhhhhit.

Well good to know that it wont be so chopped looking. Save that alternator setup and stuff for a serp setup in the 16V. You just need a tensioner pulley.

[greggearhead]

That would add several days for it to arrive, I hope to have the 16V and trans hung back in tomorrow. 

[Barry]

Wow!


That's worse than when I took delivery of the VRT mkII...


The serp setup is easy enough with everything in... get the Vdrive going, and running, and then badda bing, badda boom... serp time...


Snoop... if you want to convert to the serp setup, and ditch the powersteering, let me know, and I'll dig up the thread with the guys selling the loop kit. The PS rack has a better steering ration, and the loop kits is easy enough to put it.


Looks like your saving another VW Greg 

[greggearhead]

No PS, no AC - gonna pull em and put the alt where the AC is, old swap stylez. 

On a light Mk1, power steering is just too much weight and overkill, IMO.  Always seemed overpowered and a little numb feeling.  I always wanted to pulley down the pump on the PS Mk1s I have driven to see if it would get some feeling back.  Eh. 

Motor and trans are out, gonna reroute the fuel lines and clean the bay a bit, then strip the 16V of its goodies, and try to remove the ungodly wiring mess through the foam... 

[greggearhead]

This just got more difficult.  The swapper installed the whole fuse panel from the Mk3 in ADDITION to the original one - and intermingled the two - and I am sure he didn't use all the correct connections for everything, so it will be more of a trial-and-error find and see what the wire is, than look it up in the manual. 

[scurvy_bandit]

I have a MK1 bentley and the ECU for the 16V.

[Smokestack]

Wow, I might come over and help some just to see the trainwreck in person. I'll see if I can swing by tomorrow on my break.

[brokenrado]

maybe easier to just part out everything you can to make some cash and buy another chassis. that thing is going to be a pain in you ass! really i have seen some hacked shit in my time, but that takes first place. congrats to the moron who did that conversion

[101stvet]

WTF!!!!!!! so what i want to know is how good a deal did he get on that car to buy that mess...

[Lovesthedubs]

LOL I know the guy that put the ABA in that Jetta..... Definitely scetchy lol....

[Barry]

LOL I know the guy that put the ABA in that Jetta..... Definitely scetchy lol....

Yeah... whats wrong with my work?


It's not like that was the first car I engine swapped.... geesh... you guys act like you have never seen creativity in form

[greggearhead]

Believe me, I appreciate art work, and this is art.  Unfortunately, its abstract, and I prefer functional art, like Ducatis. 

Gonna clean and do some other little chores before digging in to the wiring to see exactly what the situation is.  Chris, I would welcome your perusal. 

[sad_rocc]

really i have seen some hacked shit in my time, but that takes first place.

You never saw my mk1 rocc. 1 1/2 wiring harnesses in there. Basically the original was sorta hacked out, a new one was sorta wired in and there were so many random wires that I fixed the problem by simply grabbing handfuls and yanking. The couple live wires I could never find in the nest behind my dash was real fun. Nothing like sparks and smoke when poking around in the hole where your radio is supposed to be! But ya, even that wasn't such an overall hackjob. It was 100% foam filler free.

[snoopy]

Ya, I knew it was a piece of work.  You kinda get that idea when the PO hacked off the muffler to make it sound cool.  Then one look at the old wiring in person and Greg started to laugh.  That's why when the 9A block came available WITH a harness came available, I jumped on it.  I'd rather start fresh than deal with whatever the PO was trying to accomplish.  But hey ~ it did run!

so what i want to know is how good a deal did he get on that car to buy that mess...

I paid $475 for the car.  But it was running, and has little rust (at least, what I consider rust). 

Frankly, I can care less about the fuse-block(s) ~ I'm going to painless the whole car.  Eventually it'll be forced induction, which means even the harness Greg is putting in, will be taken out in favor of a stand-alone system.  Speaking of which, I'd prefer simply to keep the ACTUAL motor harness separate from everything else for when I start hacking things apart and putting the new stuff in.   Meaning, only keep wires that are needed for lights and signals an what's needed in the car ~ everything else will find a dumpster soon.

[Smokestack]

After looking at the car yesterday the engine harness is the least of your worries. Your best bet is to convert to a CE2 wiring harness or do your (not so) painless wiring now. Otherwise you're going to have to rebuild your current harness, mostly from scratch, to prevent a car fire. The only wiring that didn't look molested was the wires running to the tail lights. You know what cheeze is? This is uber cheeze that has been aged to the point of fuzzy things growing on it and has gone a bit runny.

[scurvy_bandit]

ew

[greggearhead]

Yep - so the job has changed to me doing the mechanical swap, his shop is going to rip out the old wiring harnesses and fuse panels and install the new Painless harness and integrate it into the car's system, then he will bring it back for me to tie in the CIS Motronic into the new wire harness and fuse panel. 

[snoopy]

You know what cheeze is? This is uber cheeze that has been aged to the point of fuzzy things growing on it and has gone a bit runny.

Funny you say that, I actually told Greg about the "Cheese of the Week" Idea Chris and I had when we were planning out a new website ~ this car would have kept us busy for weeks.

[snoopy]

Yep - so the job has changed to me doing the mechanical swap,

Ugh....  So much for getting the car back quick!  Guess we're not making it to DATR this year.  I can't tell you how disappointed I am ~ I was really looking forward to going this time around.... but what can you do when a two-to-three day swap turned into what mostly likely will become a 2-3 week crap cleaning frenzy.  

Not that it's Greg's fault the PO was a piece of work ~ oh well.

his shop is going to rip out the old wiring harnesses and fuse panels and install the new Painless harness and integrate it into the car's system,

'My shop'  That's funny ~ me and my 12, 11 and 9 year old will be though!    Well, in all honesty, the Jetta project always intended to be a father-sons thing ~ but when AJ's GLI fell through, and I picked up this one, it ran, so that was put on hold.  WELL GUESS WHAT?!?!  It doesn't run anymore ~ soooo....I guess we're falling back to "Plan A" ~ I'm sure the boys will be pleased.

then he will bring it back for me to tie in the CIS Motronic into the new wire harness and fuse panel.  

Lovely plan.   With any luck everything will work out and we'll get this Jetta back running good with LESS down time than the GTI had.

[Smokestack]

Guess we're not making it to DATR this year.  I can't tell you how disappointed I am ~ I was really looking forward to going this time around....

Pfft.. Slacker.    Put them boys to work! Two solid days of wiring, maybe a week if you devote a couple of hours each day. You can get it done!

Regardless, you can still go. General admission is $5 and I believe it's 12 & under free. Bring the family and show the wife just what she's been allowing yourself to get into. 

[scurvy_bandit]

You could easily have it done in a week. CIS really doesn't need that much wiring at all, just need your 12VDC and your switched power to the ECU stuff. 98% of the engine running harness and circuit is all in the engine bay or rain tray. It really is that simple, just get the fusebox junk cleaned up and she will be running in no time.

[snoopy]

Bring the family and show the wife just what she's been allowing yourself to get into. 

Are you trying to help me?

[snoopy]

You could easily have it done in a week. CIS really doesn't need that much wiring at all, just need your 12VDC and your switched power to the ECU stuff. 98% of the engine running harness and circuit is all in the engine bay or rain tray. It really is that simple, just get the fusebox junk cleaned up and she will be running in no time.

I've got to get the new harness, and install it.  Seriously, with the way UPS is working me....I'd rather take my time and do it right.  But if you're volenteering to help put the engine bay harness in, I'm up for that: 

[scurvy_bandit]

I actually have a whole harness minus the knock sensor stuff... I used that in my caddy

[snoopy]

I actually have a whole harness minus the knock sensor stuff... I used that in my caddy

What are you offering Dave?  The price on this has busted my balls and is quickly rising...so I'll take any good help I can get...

[Smokestack]

You could easily have it done in a week. CIS really doesn't need that much wiring at all, just need your 12VDC and your switched power to the ECU stuff. 98% of the engine running harness and circuit is all in the engine bay or rain tray. It really is that simple, just get the fusebox junk cleaned up and she will be running in no time.

He's got a CIS Motronic harness and computer out of a passat with the 2.0 16v. There's a couple more wires, but generally they're not too bad to hook up. The biggest pain about it is deleting stuff that isn't needed. His big problem is the PO (sort of) converted half of the dash wiring into CE2 and left the other half connected to the original fuse box. It's almost impossible to figure out what to tie into, or what you're tieing into.

Greg does have that rabbit on the side of his garage he's suggested using as a LeMons race car. I'm sure you could convince him to part with the dash wiring and possibly any interior parts you might need.

[scurvy_bandit]

Im willing to give you all the wire stuff I have for the low price of free

[The Asshole]

Im willing to give you all the wire stuff I have for the low price of free

WOW THAT"S A LOW PRICE!!

[snoopy]

Im willing to give you all the wire stuff I have for the low price of free

Not sure what will be used, but to have everything needed....that'll be a change for the better!

[snoopy]

He's got a CIS Motronic harness and computer out of a passat with the 2.0 16v. There's a couple more wires, but generally they're not too bad to hook up. The biggest pain about it is deleting stuff that isn't needed. His big problem is the PO (sort of) converted half of the dash wiring into CE2 and left the other half connected to the original fuse box. It's almost impossible to figure out what to tie into, or what you're tieing into.

Funny how even with the 'fancy' wiring job...NOTHING works in the interior.

Greg does have that rabbit on the side of his garage he's suggested using as a LeMons race car. I'm sure you could convince him to part with the dash wiring and possibly any interior parts you might need.

Thought of that.  But I have a really stupid idea about going totally minimalistic with this one....  Not exactly 'NO DASH' ~ but definitely not a 'full dash' ~  Basically I've got a date with some aluminum sheet, a brake, and some Autometer gauges.  Greg already warned me about the 'engine noise' problem taking out a dash would create, and I think I'm in the market for some DynaMat-like sound suppressing material.  Oh yeah...on the cheap too!

[sad_rocc]

You can get a Dynamat Extreme trunk kit on ebay for about $50. That's enough to cover quite a bit of area and the extreme stuff really is extreme.

[scurvy_bandit]

even with my dash I get lots of engine noise.  ugh

[snoopy]

even with my dash I get lots of engine noise.  ugh

Well if you kept your foot out of it....

I donno.  The guys over at Al's Liner have been BEGGIN me to become a dealer ~ actually that's how I was planning on offering you that bed-liner you've been wanting to do on your Caddy.  Anyway, long-story-short ~ I'm thinking I"ll bed-line the inside of the Jetta.  Or use the DynoMat stuff.  It should make things a little less noisy.

[scurvy_bandit]

Ive never put my foot in my dash!

[101stvet]

All I heard in that was im gonna make my mk1 heaver, just enjoy the music of the motor

[scurvy_bandit]

I am so confused....  

Anyway went to the shop yesterday and seen this... holy cow, I would of just set it on fire.  haha jk, its going to be a lot of work

[Random_Task]

Thought of that.  But I have a really stupid idea about going totally minimalistic with this one....  Not exactly 'NO DASH' ~ but definitely not a 'full dash' ~  Basically I've got a date with some aluminum sheet, a brake, and some Autometer gauges.  Greg already warned me about the 'engine noise' problem taking out a dash would create, and I think I'm in the market for some DynaMat-like sound suppressing material.  Oh yeah...on the cheap too!

urrg we cant both have half-dashed jettas! mine might be kevlar anyway. pre-copy-cat!

[snoopy]

Ive never put my foot in my dash!

Foot out of the accelerator!

[snoopy]

Anyway went to the shop yesterday and seen this... holy cow, I would of just set it on fire.  haha jk, its going to be a lot of work

Yes it is.  But hey...in the end, it 'may' be worth it.

[scurvy_bandit]

oh dude it will totally be worth the work!!

[The Asshole]

oh dude it will totally be worth the work!!

nnot so sure, an aba and a16v have about the same power ratings, and the aba  is a ton more reliable. i'd probably just rewire the car and call it quits.

[Smokestack]

With the lack of fluids that the "old" setup retained in that ABA I'd be willing to bet that the 16v is a better candidate. Especially since it's going to be done right this time around.