The Project Pad

Thanks to Steve in Chicago for sending out 2 sets of injectors, they should be here tomorrow.

I installed the rest of the interior except for the driver's seat and final install of steering wheel. I treated all of the leather - damn there's a lot in the interior of these cars...I'll give them probably another whole bottle of cleaner/conditioner since they sucked the first one right up. The seats are in great shape except for a few minor wear marks by the driver's asscheeks and the back bolster. My gray set was WAAAAY worse. Anyway, the motors for up and down, front and back on the passenger side don't work, so I'll be pulling apart my gray seats for parts to swap over eventually (maybe the heating elements will make it in to the back seats?) For now I don't care really, so I bolted it down. The driver's side works great except for whatever the very front switch does (doesn't work on either seat). The feet on the driver's seat were rusty, so I cleaned 'em up and painted them. It will go in the car today, I'll center the wheel as best I can without driving it, and be done with the interior for now. I still have to fix the sunroof motor and cover, but I'm going to hold out for a crank unit if I can find one with the trim piece. Once that's taken care of, I'll just have to build a box to contain the battery in case she leaks and I'll be satisfied with the inside of the car for a while.

Sorry, no pretty pictures in this post. I may bust out the point and shoot later today for some interior shots instead of just using my cell phone like I have for all the other pictures. Stay tuned I guess.....if you care.. haha

This afternoon I installed the seats, sorry no updated interior pictures. I then moved on to making some mounts for my battery jump posts. I moved the battery to the trunk, and brought the positive lead through the firewall with a firewall pass-through connector - lugs bolt to either side. This was down low, and never meant to have jumper cables brought to it. I figured the trunk was easy enough to jump it from. However, I changed my mind about that and figured I'd better add posts for that one annoying time where the back is packed and the battery quits. The positive post will also serve as a connection point for the feed to my headlight harness.



Summit Racing sells these for somewhere around 22$ for the pair, and they seem to be of pretty good quality. Considering I had plenty of wire around to make this happen, I'd say it was worth the small cost for a bit of potential convenience.









I'll have them powder coated black before final install.

More soon....

I seem to have fixed the fuel leaks, for conical seals.

Now it starts up, revs to about 1100 and falls on its face and dies after about 3 seconds. Disconnected the ISV and it'll stay at 2k or so with an occasional missfire. I have never heard this engine run, and I've had it for 2 years now, so I'm not very surprised by a studder. The fact that it won't idle is a bit odd, considering that when it was running on 4 cylinders it would idle for a longer period (like 20 seconds) then slowly sputter out. I'll be going through some tests, which will start with removing the ISV to make sure it fully opens, but any BTDT from you guys will help. Thanks!

I found that if I start it and help it through the initial stumble with some throttle for a few seconds, it will idle just fine. I'm not sure exactly what the issue is at the moment, but I am glad that I can get it to idle. After work today and tomorrow I will:

check the ISV
pressure test the cooling system, fill it if it holds, otherwise get frustrated and fix
- bleed the clutch
- bleed the brakes
- install sway bar
- tighten control arm bolts
- tighten the rear diff mount bolt
- build a mount for the headlight relays and fuses
- finish the headlight harness
install the power steering pump feed line
fill the p/s system
- recycle a stock mount to support the cat and exhaust from the transmission
- weld a hanger to the cat
check the list for more things I may be missing right now
test drive

Typed up a nice update, and lost it because my internet provider's equipment excels at performing fellatio. Now I'm pissed and going to go work on the car. Here are pictures in no order with no description.
























Lots of progress coming this afternoon, expect a real update soon.

Toph wrote:Typed up a nice update, and lost it because my internet provider's equipment excells at performing felatio.

I just spat out my drink.

Looks very clean. I'm jealous.

I'm glad you like it, thanks

I spent some time underneath the car and in the bay today.
-Hung the exhaust
-Bled the brakes
-Mounted the freshly coated brackets
-Bled the clutch




















More to come tomorrow

gorgeous

Thanks bud!

It's damn close to driving...The seal for my fan switch was junk, so I ordered some aluminum seals and found a copper unit locally for temporary use. It's no big deal since I was just running distilled water for now anyway. I'll put the temp one in today, refill with just water, and add the fancy g11 once the new switch and aluminum seal arrives. I have to tighten the power steering pump connections and hope that nothing leaks there once I fill it. The list is getting short.....

Today I am going to:
- build a few more grounding straps
- (done, I hope) fix one more fuel leak on the return line
install the temp switch with temporary seal
fill cooling system with water
fill p/s fluid
tighten up one of the oil cooler lines
- install a check valve for the gas tank vent
tighten the steering wheel
put the fire extinguisher in the car
test drive it around the neighborhood
celebrate regardless of the results because this has been a long time coming, and it's my birthday

I took it for a quick test drive last night

Initial issue list-
-fluctuating idle, but seems to be somewhat intermittent
-Boost leak somewhere
-no water in the lower radiator, hopefully just add water through the upper rad hose and not have to mess with a tstat removal
-one more fuel leak way in back at the tank outlet...fun!
-need new plug wires

Once I'm not hung over I will look into these. I'll pull the plugs and have a look as well. There's a video, I just don't have it yet but will post it later

nice!! what ECU are you running? chipped 3b?

Just a stock 3b ecu. I want to get it running reliably on a stock setup

Pulled my CEL codes, only had one. Fortunately, it fully explains every symptom I had. Now I just need to figure out if it's the sensor itself, or something in the wiring(probably the sensor).

Thanks SJM autotechnik for the quick results vs. looking through my Bentley. The following is copied from their site:

2324 (Blink Fault Code), 00553 VAG1551/2 Fault Code Number
Mass Air Flow (MAF) Sensor (G70)
Open or short circuit, defective sensor, Signal too low or too high, Open circuit between G70 and ECU J220, Voltage supply interrupted or short to ground
Symptom: system in limp home mode, very poor performance and acceleration, difficult to accelerate


This explains why it would only rev to 2k or so, why the idle is confused, why it acted like a boost leak, and why I was barely able to keep it running while backing it into the garage...

My plugs are all carbon fouled, so I'll get some new ones. I also ordered a set of wires through Marc. Today I plan to fix the tank fuel leak and figure out the exact issue with the MAF code. I'm sure the Bentley has the info I need.

Just had the meter out and did the checks. pin 1 (ground) had 0 ohms resistance to ground, ok. Pin 5 had the correct voltage to ground, ok. peel back boot and check voltage from pin 1 to pin 3 while plugged in to MAF, .3volts with ignition on. This is far too low, Bentley says 1.2 - 1.5 volts. I unplugged the connector and still had around .2 volts on the connector - not sure what that indicates if anything. I started the car, .3 volts. Then I revved it up a bit, .3 volts. So now I guess I need to find a replacement MAF. This does not excite me much, but I am glad to have figured out the shitty running condition. Anyone have a 3b or AAN MAF? I'm hoping someone has gone standalone and saved their good MAF. I'd like to avoid buying a new one...

So let's try to embed a video...or not...so here's a link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tophm/9165253917/

I know it isn't much, but it is proof. It's running in limp mode anyway, so nothing too exciting yet.

What's your PayPal email?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

I take it you finally got the snub mount - damn usps...

PM incoming.


In other news, I registered the Coupe on Monday, and am hoping to bring it in for inspection today. I'm pretty darn excited about that.

The coupe passed inspection....I noticed some iridescence on the surface of the water though when I got home. Head gasket issue, I reckon. Not a huge deal, just pretty damn annoying to have the car together only to find that.

The coupe passed inspection....I noticed some iridescence on the surface of the water though when I got home. Head gasket issue, I reckon. Not a huge deal, just pretty damn annoying to have the car together only to find that.

So here's all the info I have:
I checked the oil cap after it was running with the bad MAF. There was a semi-milky froth on the bottom of the cap. I wiped it and put it back on. I restarted it Monday night after getting the replacement MAF from Marc, it ran great, so I shut it off. The next time I ran it was yesterday to drive down to the inspection station. Everything seemed fine engine-wise. I pulled the coolant cap when I got back home and saw iridescence :( . I went on one more quick drive and parked it. This morning, I pulled the coolant cap again - it still had some pressure, so that's good. There was about the same amount of iridescence on the surface as before. I opened up the oil cap - just oil, no froth. I then pulled the dipstick, also just oil. I'm thinking it is a failing head gasket, but that it isn't completely shot yet. Any input (keep driving it but keep an eye on coolant level - you won't kill it, or pull that damn head and fix it like you should have when it was on the engine stand)? ...or do you guys just come here for pretty pictures?

Not so pretty - potentially just condensation since I haven't seen this since the bad MAF went in the scrap bucket.



Ok, this should be better...



Mixed emotions on this one....On the bright side, the worst-case scenario isn't that big of an undertaking (just more damn money)...

My passenger side axle is not long for this world...actually, it's too long and going to kill itself. In need of like a 10mm shorter solution...

Fixed the grill, thought it was too much chrome.

I wouldn't worry too much until it shows a more definite problem. might have gotten some contaminants in the coolant while it was taken apart for a yr+

Just having a side of over-think to go with my over-build main course. Thanks for all of your help with this project, Ryan!

looks good!

looks good Toph!! I wouldn't worry much about the water until it gets worse. Keep an eye on the over flow and run it would be my suggestion. Besides, anytime you do an overbuild and everything is cleaned up, painted, or both, you know something is going to let loose to give it the initial break in mess. With my Urq, it had a cut water manifold o-ring that held just fine while idling in the garage, but on it's maiden voyage up two miles to put something in the the gas tank besides year old smelly gas, the o-ring quit sealing and before I could get to the gas station it had overheated to the point that I was just blowing steam out the manifold. I don't count it as a bad overheat though since I didn't have the temp gauge working yet and couldn't tell how hot I really got.