The Project Pad

UPDATE!!!!

Here are some more pics of the nearly finished trans mount arms. They still need the corners rounded off, the mounting hole itself and a few speed holes for good measure.



My firewall also has a good sized crack in it. Booo. With the help of Toph, we pulled the steering rack, vacuum booster, as well as the brake and clutch master cylinders in no time at all.

So I’ll get everything else out of the way on the inside of the car and get the outside prepped for welding. The little 110v welder I have with the 0.023 wire does some pretty nice sheetmetal work, and this should be no exception. A firewall reinforcement will also be added to prevent this from happening again.




I have gone through several variations on power steering, belt driven, electric, should I run a manual rack? I got a chance to drives Jim’s AAN 4kq with the manual steering rack. It was a little heavier than I would have liked, but still not nearly as heavy as I expected. Jim was always trying to get me to go manual rack. My car will be quite a bit lighter in the front end vs the 20vt i5, with just the 16vt 4 cyl up front. I think the lighter front end will help as well as it not being lowered.

Going manual rack eliminates a belt on the motor as well as another fluid reservoir. His should help keep things simple up front. This also allows me to run a very simple waterpump and alternator setup that I will get into in a little bit
I will also be adding a reinforcement to the steering rack mounting points on the strut tower and tying it into a firewall brace/reinforcement.


Going back into the engine bay will be,

-Cleaned up / painted 4kq vacuum booster
-200 20v brake master cylinder
-Fox manual steering rack
-4kq clutch master and NOS clutch hose
-all new brake hardlines/fittings and prop valve delete

i figured a full serp. belt setup for the ABA-q in my black 84.

ill send u a cell pic later on. keeps everyhting on the drivers side(p/s &alt.) vr6 h20pump pulley.
snagged a idler bearing to keep belt contact on the water pump pulley...
the 4k p/s pump bolts right onto the old upper alt. mount point in the ABA bracket, aligned perfectly...
i just cant bring myself to go manual w/ quattro...

looks good tim.

vagrant_mugen wrote:i figured a full serp. belt setup for the ABA-q in my black 84.

ill send u a cell pic later on. keeps everyhting on the drivers side(p/s &alt.) vr6 h20pump pulley.
snagged a idler bearing to keep belt contact on the water pump pulley...
the 4k p/s pump bolts right onto the old upper alt. mount point in the ABA bracket, aligned perfectly...
i just cant bring myself to go manual w/ quattro...

looks good tim.

yea def some pics would be great

i have the vr6 water pump pulley already

i had contemplated going to an ABF setup all factory easy, but im currently looking into putting the mk3 alt pulley on an ABZ alt to help with spacing and mount up the 150A ABZ unit just like an ABF manual tensioned setup.

mini update!!!!
-so i got the the rest of my engine bay fuel lines made up
-made a mount for my fpr and gauge
- got my oil cooler all mounted up, now to duct it in
-got progress done on the airbox/ducting, fender mods incoming for both



got some more stuff
-coated steel brake and fuel lines (replacing all of it now) I’m eliminating as many failure points as I can.
- new cq brake rotors
-More 1.75” DOM tubing to continue reinforcement of my very flexy chassis



Things getting done ASAP/ in the works
-manual steering rack install
-steering rack mounting area reinforcements
-vac booster and t44 brake m/c cleaning and reinstall
-all new brake and fuel lines
And I lost my cellphone with all the pics, its at my place somewhere but battery is dead, so I’ll get it found and pics uploaded at some point

UPDATE!!!!

A few steps forward a few steps back, agh. My original engine mounts arms worked fine, then the driver’s side needed to be replaced/redone. It was occupying a lot of the space needed for an alternator. I could have mounted the factory 90A alternator, but I wanted/NEEDED something bigger. First things first, I needed to make a new drivers side engine mount arm that was no longer in the way of the accessory bracket.

So I supported the motor from underneath in its correct location and dove into making a new mount bracket. The block bosses I’m using weren’t in use before so they were all full of crap and needed to have the threads cleaned up. I made a plate for the block and a mounting flange to sit on the motor mount and set about reinforcing between the two. Yea it’s a bit ugly but quite functional. And it’ll be buried under all sorts of good looking parts, so I’m not worried about it. Plus a lil POR15 will cover up some small imperfections.





Now that the driver’s side engine mount is refinished and out of the way I can set to mounting up the stronger 150A ABZ alternator.

i had contemplated going to an ABF setup all factory easy, but I’m currently looking into putting the mk3 alt pulley on an ABZ alt to help with spacing and mount up the 150A ABZ unit just like an ABF manual tensioned setup.

DONE!! I got the ABZ alt mounted on the mk3 ABA bracket. It took a good bit of cutting and grinding to make it fit, but fit she does!
While the oem ABF solution was good the 90A alternator probably wasn’t going to cut it long term. I have qty6! Hella 500’s on the front of the car and plan on adding a few more to the roof rack, as well as some seat heat mods and I want to have plenty of power available. And with 150A, I will have that power.




So here is how I have the serpentine setup. 12v vr6 waterpump pulley on ABA waterpump. ABA alt pulley on the ABZ alt for correct offset / spacing. And oem mk3 aba accessory bracket all cut up. The cord length is ~985mm, so I have a 975mm 6rib serp belt coming from gates and we will see how that fits. I will most likely disassemble, sand blast, and powdercoat the bracket before its rebuilt. I have a new tensioner and pulley coming for final rebuild time. Gotta have a clean bay :-)

that is some close fitment. looks like you are figureing it out though. good work. Cant wait to see the final product.

that v-belt pulley on the harmonic balancer IS seperate from the serp/harmonic.
mine was super-welded from corrosion, soak it for a day or 2 w PB and a few good whacks
will pop it off...
i thought mine was 1 peice til i found my old ABA pulley, took some persuasion but it'll let go.
unless u like it there.....

wheres all these pics you mentioned "a few hours" ago...???

WELLLLL?????

vagrant_mugen wrote:that v-belt pulley on the harmonic balancer IS seperate from the serp/harmonic.
mine was super-welded from corrosion, soak it for a day or 2 w PB and a few good whacks
wheres all these pics you mentioned "a few hours" ago...???

i have a new BBM 16v/ABA serp pulley only no Vbelt for the final assy on fresh motor.

vagrant_mugen wrote:WELLLLL?????

ive been workign on it too much to update ha

young, single and w/o obligations = tons of holiday garage time!!! FTW

i PROMISE you an update for christmas morning

UPDATE!!
The plan for the car is to be an all-weather, go through any storm, unstoppable machine. So it had to be able to survive the elements. I set to resealing and undercoating the car front to back. In order to do that, pretty much everything had to come off/out.

-remove engine/trans/driveshaft/front and rear subrames/suspension etc
-remove all brake and fuel lines
- pull hvac/heater core and hoses
-remove all brackets/mounts/etc from under car

In general the car is pretty clean underneath. There are a few spots where the undercoating is peeling back so those all got wire wheeled and prepped for resealing.

I also had a number of tasks that required clean areas so this seemed the perfect time to tear into it and get it all cleaned up. I had to fix a firewall crack, and make some reinforcements, as well as a new mid catback exhaust hanger on the chassis.




I started reseamsealing under the car and put down about 1 ½ tubes. It’s mostly done but there’s some spots up front that need a bit more wire wheel once the engines back out. Ill finish the under car and work on the front later.

I also grabbed two more tubes of seamsealer, its on!

MORE UPDATE!!!

With the engine bay all cleaned up and ready for welding I was able to get the firewall crack all fixed up. It came out pretty well.


The firewall crack is fixed, but I certainly don’t want it happening again. So a small brace to the strut tower should help significantly with flex / fatigue.


I was able to get the fresh motor over from the shop so it’s that much closer to being in the 4kq.


And I grabbed my box of lights, these should help brighten things up



I got my heater core, heater core hoses and new oem hose grommet in the mail while I was away for work. While I was on the road I managed to swing by summit racing and found these in the clearance department. ARP SS header studs, washers and nuts!!! They are from a Chevy LSX header stud kit but it was missing one washer! As luck has it the LSX headers use m8x 1.25mm studs just like most VAG cars.
So it was $40 instead of $116!!! I scooped them right up!!!

UPDATE!!!!
So I had already built the basic lower cross bar that supports the radiator. I decided I really needed to triangulate the bar back into the frame / chassis somewhere. The extra supports come rearward from the front corner junction to the frame just forward of the engine mounts. There are plates welded to the front of the frame and the DOM tubing is welded to that plate.



I know this car had been in an accident and had its right front frame horn replaced. There is obvious welding on the inner fender but as I got the fender and fender liner off, a gross repair weld exposed itself.

When the frame horn was replaced it was obviously cut at the wrong angle on the outer portion. There is a “slice” patch to fill the gap and it was welded very very poorly. Check out the pics.




So I ground off most of the shitty booger welds and rewelded. It still needs to be ground smooth and I will be adding this strip of 1/8” steel plate, bent to match the curve of the frame just to give some extra strength.

UPDATE!!!


Anyone who has ever worked on a b2 knows they are pretty flexy in the chassis department. Especially as the car is no-where near square with the frame repair.

I tied the middle cross bar / IC support to the lower cross-member bar.

I also tied the headlight sheetmetal to the support uprights, as can be seen in pics 3 and 5
It is pretty close, but there is about 3/8” clearance around everything.

And a little bit more random update
Heres a pic of the engine bay ( a few days ago now)


Tearing down the fresh motor for paint


Wire wheeled, primed and painted 90q uprights


Cleaned up my FPR bracket



Made and heat-sleeved 10AN turbo oil drain line





And finally, last but not least a sexy gold engine block, 2 coats deep, two to go
Yes gold

Well holly shit! Someone has been a busy boy! Looking great Tim. Cant wait to see how this looks all put back together.

feckin nice man. going to be a blast of a daily warrior

THAT is fuckin perfection right there!

Holy Fabrication Batman. I'm actually really interested to see this thing run. 4 banger turbo 4kq....geez. Should get killer fuel mileage too

my2000apb wrote:i have a new BBM 16v/ABA serp pulley only no Vbelt for the final assy on fresh motor.

you shoulda hit up wiz for a TDI pulley. theyre like $ 75 and are way bigger than the ABA's.
already the right offset and everything...
for the price and fit they are very nice units.

too bad for you! BBM is way overpriced for modded OE

keep it up dogg.
mine should be running very soon, just need to hook up the starter wires and
toss in my battery/ground...

vagrant_mugen wrote:

my2000apb wrote:i have a new BBM 16v/ABA serp pulley only no Vbelt for the final assy on fresh motor.

you shoulda hit up wiz for a TDI pulley. theyre like $ 75 and are way bigger than the ABA's.
already the right offset and everything...
for the price and fit they are very nice units.

too bad for you! BBM is way overpriced for modded OE

keep it up dogg.
mine should be running very soon, just need to hook up the starter wires and
toss in my battery/ground...

interesting about the tdi pulley, i have one of those around here as well. i got the bbm unit a while ago onsale for 99$ but either way its nice and new. ill prob try sellign the tdi unit

ill also check the weight difference between them.

wrench on!!!

UPDATE!!!!!!!

I now have my coolant hoses all sorted out and it’s pretty clean. The upper and lower radiator hoses are now two piece combo units of 4kq and b3 20vq hoses. I have a small piece of 1 ¼” 16 gauge tubing to couple the pieces together.

I also got a chance to make up my oil cooler lines.


Stock 16v water plumbing


Upper radiator hose




Lower radiator hose, note the angled mk1 rabbit alu. thermostat outlet. I ditched the plastic mk3 outlet as it faced straight rearward which was far from ideal for this setup.

Update!
With the new alternator location I’m forced to redo the boost piping and intake manifold/tb. The alternator was about ½” from me being able to use what I had before. I possibly could have made it work with further cutting of the serpentine bracket but it would’ve weakened it substantially. So I opted to mod the IM and intake piping, which will only optimize flow vs the previous design.



So I started my two steps back so I can start going forward again hahaha



The throttle body flange and IAT flange are all cleaned up and ready to go. More on this and boost piping mods to come.

Update!

With the radiator hoses sorted I dove into the after run pump plumbing. I had a few spare 2.7t aux. pumps lying around so I figured I can use those. I’m sure the flow will be sufficient for the little 4 cylinder. It will be controlled via VEMS.


Here’s what I’m starting with


So I started off by using a 45 degree elbow to replace the straight piece that connects the water pump to the F hose. One side goes to the heater core and one to the aux pump.

The other side of the aux pump connects into the upper rad hose, just between the head and block.




I’ve started modifying the AEB heater core line for better fitment.


And here’s the prepped aux pump bracket ready for welding to the engine mount arm on frame.
I may end up replacing the plastic F hose with a steel piece, we’ll see

Ok, you are making me feel feely slow. I cant even get to my engine right now to put it together.

On a plus side, you do some damn nice work!