Another VW Golf Mk2 16v
Discussion
rickygolf83 said:
I think you should get yours on a rolling road to see what power you are making, if you feel this car is slow something definitely needs addressing and even if nothing is wrong you will know exactly where you are at with it 
I'll definitely get it on a rolling road at some point once all the known bugs are ironed out. I don't think it's making full power yet, but I am a bit spoilt by my other cars - standard Mk1 Audi TT 225 quattro (daily) and a supercharged mx5 (which has been dynoed at 190bhp at the wheels - track day/fun car). The 16v isn't in the same league as either of those, nor should it be. Certainly the 16v now comes on song as you hit 4k and pulls really hard from 5.5k to 6.5k.
I'll be happy if it will get to standard figures (139bhp) at the flywheel as I want this car in standard term for long term collectability.
Cheers,
Drew.
Not too much to report on the Golf GTI 16v, other than to say now that Covid seems to be on the wane, I've pulled her back out of storage.
We did do a lovely trip up to the the Peak District and Snake Pass last year, which was a great trip. My eldest son came along in his track set up CL (which is now faster than the 16v!)
Other than that, I'm planning to use her for occasional drives when I'm not using the Eunos - the pair will share daily driving duties depending on what I'm doing.
Short term things to deal with:
Slight mis-fire above 4k rpms. I think she needs using!
Steering rack gaiters
New exhaust manifold (current one is blowing)
Might replace the old Blaupunkt with the new Blaupunkt retro Bremen model for some in car entertainment.
Proper tune up - still feels a bit flat to me.
Adjust sunroof to sit flat when closed - lots of air noise at speed.
Longer term things:
Retrim seat bolster with minor tear
Headlining is sagging and needs sorting
Switch to coilovers? OE suspension is very roly-poly for anything approaching enthusiastic usage. Alas, no Meister Rs for the Mk2!
Very long term:
Engine out to clean the bay properly
Refurb gearbox to remove crunchy 2nd gear.
Cheers,
Drew.
We did do a lovely trip up to the the Peak District and Snake Pass last year, which was a great trip. My eldest son came along in his track set up CL (which is now faster than the 16v!)
Other than that, I'm planning to use her for occasional drives when I'm not using the Eunos - the pair will share daily driving duties depending on what I'm doing.
Short term things to deal with:
Slight mis-fire above 4k rpms. I think she needs using!
Steering rack gaiters
New exhaust manifold (current one is blowing)
Might replace the old Blaupunkt with the new Blaupunkt retro Bremen model for some in car entertainment.
Proper tune up - still feels a bit flat to me.
Adjust sunroof to sit flat when closed - lots of air noise at speed.
Longer term things:
Retrim seat bolster with minor tear
Headlining is sagging and needs sorting
Switch to coilovers? OE suspension is very roly-poly for anything approaching enthusiastic usage. Alas, no Meister Rs for the Mk2!
Very long term:
Engine out to clean the bay properly
Refurb gearbox to remove crunchy 2nd gear.
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Monday 31st January 16:03
Today's little mod. Bring the tunes into the 21st century.
I've decided I'm going to be driving the car around a bit more and while cassettes and 5 watts per speaker are all very retro, they're not very conducive to long distance travel any more.
So I treated myself to one of these.
It's a Blaunpunkt Bremen SQR46 DAB, a "retro" stereo designed to look like the Blaupunkts of old (like mine) but with modern facilities such as SD Cards, USB, Bluetooth, phone prep and DAB.
Here it is compared with my OE stereo, it's a really good match.
It has connectors for DAB, FM aerial and phono outs for an amp in the future if I want to go there. It's currently paired up with a set of Alpine speakers that fit in the OE locations in the car (dash and rear seat belt covers).
Hardest part was figuring out which wires in the car did what. Naturally, the speaker wiring in the car didn't bear much resemblance to online guides, so it was a bit of trial and error with a AA battery. Soldered it all up in the end and heatshrinked the connectors.
DAB works, looks totally period in the dash. Now has 200watts (4x50) rather than the 20watts (4x5) of the original item!
Love the way it looks in the dash, you'd probably not notice unless you were really into stereos. Allows me to keep a retro 80s feel to the car, but enjoy rather higher quality music aboard!
Cheers,
Drew.
I've decided I'm going to be driving the car around a bit more and while cassettes and 5 watts per speaker are all very retro, they're not very conducive to long distance travel any more.
So I treated myself to one of these.
It's a Blaunpunkt Bremen SQR46 DAB, a "retro" stereo designed to look like the Blaupunkts of old (like mine) but with modern facilities such as SD Cards, USB, Bluetooth, phone prep and DAB.
Here it is compared with my OE stereo, it's a really good match.
It has connectors for DAB, FM aerial and phono outs for an amp in the future if I want to go there. It's currently paired up with a set of Alpine speakers that fit in the OE locations in the car (dash and rear seat belt covers).
Hardest part was figuring out which wires in the car did what. Naturally, the speaker wiring in the car didn't bear much resemblance to online guides, so it was a bit of trial and error with a AA battery. Soldered it all up in the end and heatshrinked the connectors.
DAB works, looks totally period in the dash. Now has 200watts (4x50) rather than the 20watts (4x5) of the original item!
Love the way it looks in the dash, you'd probably not notice unless you were really into stereos. Allows me to keep a retro 80s feel to the car, but enjoy rather higher quality music aboard!
Cheers,
Drew.
A while since an update again! Been having a kitchen fitted, so work on cars stopped for a month... anyway!
Got the old girl through an MOT (minor advisory for oil leak which we knew about). Lots of attention at the Toyota dealer we took it too (short version - my son works there) with the usual comments "Haven't seen one of these for a while..." "My dad had one of those..." "It's surprisingly small isn't it?"
Co2 was 2.25% and PPM was a bit too low... minor exhaust leak somewhere. Nothing tragic.
All good - we were prepping the car for a 300 mile round trip cruise with the Mk2 Golf Owner's Club (South East) for Easter weekend. Two days later I went for a "spirited drive", after a while I was thinking... this feels a bit slow... then noticed a bit of smoke from the left side front... argggh!
Stopped to look and.... caliper seized on!
Waited until it cooled and it unseized, so was able to limp home. Replacement ordered and fitted. Brakes bled the night before the trip... let's hope this holds together. Then we discovered HT lead 4 was arcing on the manifold - which explained the odd misfire. Replacement HT leads bought and fitted. My son had readied his track prepped CL as well, so it was a bit frantic on Friday with last minute fixes.
Please to report that both cars made the trip without incident, as did the 15 other (mostly) Mk2s, of various stages of restoration/modification. A nice drive around Kent and East Sussex and a fab lunch at the end.
Then it was time to top up the tanks and head home.
It was a great day out... and funny how a convoy of Mk2 Golfs makes heads turn, people point and wave. Everytime we parked up we got a crowd of onlookers with the exact same quotes as above. Must be part of Mk2 ownership now!
Both cars handled the day out well, but I found that without power steering, no aircon and still (despite being almost 100% standard now) a pretty noisy thing, I was tired out when I got home.
Big thanks to the SE Mk2 Golf Owner's Club for organising.
Cheers,
Drew.
Got the old girl through an MOT (minor advisory for oil leak which we knew about). Lots of attention at the Toyota dealer we took it too (short version - my son works there) with the usual comments "Haven't seen one of these for a while..." "My dad had one of those..." "It's surprisingly small isn't it?"
Co2 was 2.25% and PPM was a bit too low... minor exhaust leak somewhere. Nothing tragic.
All good - we were prepping the car for a 300 mile round trip cruise with the Mk2 Golf Owner's Club (South East) for Easter weekend. Two days later I went for a "spirited drive", after a while I was thinking... this feels a bit slow... then noticed a bit of smoke from the left side front... argggh!
Stopped to look and.... caliper seized on!
Waited until it cooled and it unseized, so was able to limp home. Replacement ordered and fitted. Brakes bled the night before the trip... let's hope this holds together. Then we discovered HT lead 4 was arcing on the manifold - which explained the odd misfire. Replacement HT leads bought and fitted. My son had readied his track prepped CL as well, so it was a bit frantic on Friday with last minute fixes.
Please to report that both cars made the trip without incident, as did the 15 other (mostly) Mk2s, of various stages of restoration/modification. A nice drive around Kent and East Sussex and a fab lunch at the end.
Then it was time to top up the tanks and head home.
It was a great day out... and funny how a convoy of Mk2 Golfs makes heads turn, people point and wave. Everytime we parked up we got a crowd of onlookers with the exact same quotes as above.
Must be part of Mk2 ownership now!Both cars handled the day out well, but I found that without power steering, no aircon and still (despite being almost 100% standard now) a pretty noisy thing, I was tired out when I got home.
Big thanks to the SE Mk2 Golf Owner's Club for organising.
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Tuesday 19th April 14:48
Some of the noise was coming from a "not sealing correctly" sunroof. Dismantled the mechanism, poked around until I understood how it worked, reassembled and fixed the internal seal and it's (a bit) quieter.
Also fixed a broken internal door scraper and the central locking today, so that was a small but satisfying fix that really lifts the interior of the car.
Cheers,
Drew.
Also fixed a broken internal door scraper and the central locking today, so that was a small but satisfying fix that really lifts the interior of the car.
Cheers,
Drew.
Well, it's been a while since I updated this thread. Plenty going on with the old Golf though.
Took the car to the Mk2 Golf Owners' Club national meet at Curborough, where a few laps of the track seemed to be in order...
As you can see, the suspension really wasn't all that poised.... We've determined that the springs we have are the wrong ones. They're standard Golf springs rather than 16v springs, so too soft and too high. A set of -20mm Eibachs are on order.
However, that wasn't the only drama. On a lap of the track, the engine let go in rather a big way, with a huge jet of white spray emerging from the exhaust. Limping to the side of the track we found that the headgasket had catastrophically blown without warning and coolant was being pumped directly into the exhaust.
Cue the owners club pulling together to do... and I kid you not... a head gasket replacement in the paddock by the side of the track.
Once the head was off we could see the damage to the gasket - it had totally disintegrated around cylinder 3. Quite why is a mystery.
Fortunately the head and block appeared to be ok. We cleaned it up and replaced the gasket (believe it or not one of the members had one lying around unused). We had no choice but to use the original headbolts.
This wasn't ideal as they are stretch bolts, but upon reasssembly the car worked ok... and we gingerly drove it 200 miles home with no issues.
Since then it's been off the road pending repairs. I've got new headbolts and am taking the opportunity to replace a few other bits and pieces were noted were problematic, notably the strange metal cooling pipe that runs around the block - which turned out to be badly corroded.
It's now in "winter project" territory and will hopefully be back on the road in the spring!
Cheers,
Drew.
Plenty going on with the old Golf though.Took the car to the Mk2 Golf Owners' Club national meet at Curborough, where a few laps of the track seemed to be in order...
As you can see, the suspension really wasn't all that poised.... We've determined that the springs we have are the wrong ones. They're standard Golf springs rather than 16v springs, so too soft and too high. A set of -20mm Eibachs are on order.
However, that wasn't the only drama. On a lap of the track, the engine let go in rather a big way, with a huge jet of white spray emerging from the exhaust. Limping to the side of the track we found that the headgasket had catastrophically blown without warning and coolant was being pumped directly into the exhaust.
Cue the owners club pulling together to do... and I kid you not... a head gasket replacement in the paddock by the side of the track.
Once the head was off we could see the damage to the gasket - it had totally disintegrated around cylinder 3. Quite why is a mystery.
Fortunately the head and block appeared to be ok. We cleaned it up and replaced the gasket (believe it or not one of the members had one lying around unused). We had no choice but to use the original headbolts.
This wasn't ideal as they are stretch bolts, but upon reasssembly the car worked ok... and we gingerly drove it 200 miles home with no issues.
Since then it's been off the road pending repairs. I've got new headbolts and am taking the opportunity to replace a few other bits and pieces were noted were problematic, notably the strange metal cooling pipe that runs around the block - which turned out to be badly corroded.
It's now in "winter project" territory and will hopefully be back on the road in the spring!
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Tuesday 27th September 14:40
It's always interesting when I take the car for a drive, you can guarantee when you park up that someone will come across and you have a conversation which starts with one of the following:
"Haven't seen one of these in a while..."
"I used to have one of these..."
"My dad used to have one of these..."
"16 valve? Nice..."
A big part of the fun of owning one.
Cheers,
Drew.
"Haven't seen one of these in a while..."
"I used to have one of these..."
"My dad used to have one of these..."
"16 valve? Nice..."
A big part of the fun of owning one.
Cheers,
Drew.
A bit more progress made today. The awkward metal coolant pipe has been replaced!
This required removal of the oil filter...
And this little box on the side of the head (fuel accumulator?)
Then, with a liberal dose of swearing, wiggling and strenuous negotiation it came free. It's not quite a match with the replacement one, as the take off to the expansion tank is in a different place, but I can run a longer hose to cater for that.
Old pipe was in a pretty shocking state, quite likely the original item from 1988! Absolute accident waiting to happen. Will give the cooling system a thorough flush through before filling it back up.
Still, progress is progress!
Cheers,
Drew.
This required removal of the oil filter...
And this little box on the side of the head (fuel accumulator?)
Then, with a liberal dose of swearing, wiggling and strenuous negotiation it came free. It's not quite a match with the replacement one, as the take off to the expansion tank is in a different place, but I can run a longer hose to cater for that.
Old pipe was in a pretty shocking state, quite likely the original item from 1988! Absolute accident waiting to happen. Will give the cooling system a thorough flush through before filling it back up.
Still, progress is progress!
Cheers,
Drew.
Today's little job was to replace the headbolts. With the aide of a torque wrench and the right information it was a doddle.
Torque to 40nm to start with, then 60mn, then 90 degrees... then another 90 degrees. Job done.
Torque wrench for the first bit obviously, then the fixed one.
Might not have been necessary, but they always say not to re-use head-bolts, so the peace of mind is nice!
Cheers,
Drew.
Torque to 40nm to start with, then 60mn, then 90 degrees... then another 90 degrees. Job done.
Torque wrench for the first bit obviously, then the fixed one.
Might not have been necessary, but they always say not to re-use head-bolts, so the peace of mind is nice!
Cheers,
Drew.
Gallons Per Mile said:
That looks a nice clean engine bay. Tidy even, for MK2 Golf standards. Their engine bays always look a bit messy with the amount of wires etc hanging around the place!
Probably because quite a lot of the bits and wires are in the boot at the moment! Cheers,
Drew.
Reassembly continues!
First the rocker cover went back into place. The manual says 7 nm for these little bolts, and my torque wrench only goes down to 28. So I did "finger tight and a bit."
Then I replaced the injector seals. These were also well past their best!
But they look vastly better than the old ones! Injectors themselves are old, but still seem serviceable for now.
They are a push fit, which seems bizarre to me, but apparently that's how it is on old school k-jetronic fuel injection! Back into place they go! As you can see in this pic, I caught the clutch cable in the wrong place, so had to pull them out and re-route it.
[url]
But a couple of hours of labour and we're not far from reassembly. Hopefully my gamble with the headbolts will pay off.
Cheers,
Drew.
First the rocker cover went back into place. The manual says 7 nm for these little bolts, and my torque wrench only goes down to 28. So I did "finger tight and a bit."
Then I replaced the injector seals. These were also well past their best!
But they look vastly better than the old ones! Injectors themselves are old, but still seem serviceable for now.
They are a push fit, which seems bizarre to me, but apparently that's how it is on old school k-jetronic fuel injection! Back into place they go! As you can see in this pic, I caught the clutch cable in the wrong place, so had to pull them out and re-route it.
[url]But a couple of hours of labour and we're not far from reassembly. Hopefully my gamble with the headbolts will pay off.
Cheers,
Drew.
Yesterday was the day of reckoning... put everything back together, filled the coolant up with a bit of water (I will top up with proper coolant once happy with it) and fired it up.
Started on first try!
Gave it a quick run around the block and it seemed to be ok. I left it on the driveway overnight and it seems that one pipe is leaking from down near the water pump, so that will need some investigation.
Otherwise it seems to be in good health.
Cheers,
Drew.
Started on first try!
Gave it a quick run around the block and it seemed to be ok. I left it on the driveway overnight and it seems that one pipe is leaking from down near the water pump, so that will need some investigation.
Otherwise it seems to be in good health.
Cheers,
Drew.
Another update on the old 16v. Some new springs.
We had originally aimed at trying to keep the car as standard as possible, but it turned out that the "standard GTI 16v" springs we had bought weren't for the 16v. They weren't even for a GTI as it happened, but an ordinary Golf... which led to a rather daft looking ride height and sloppy handling.
Trying to find a set of OEM 16v spring proved fruitless, so we decided to go for a mild OEM+ option, some Eibachs which are a -20mm for a standard GTI... which isn't far off what a 16v should be as standard. We already had Bilstein dampers fitted. I specifically didn't want to use aftermarket coilovers.
Turned out it was much much cheaper (like £50 cheaper!) to buy the Eibachs in the EU and import them than buy them in the UK - thanks Brexit - though it took a little longer for them to arrive.
Rather than use a local garage (none seem to want to work on old cars nowadays anyway) or risk my life with some cheap spring compressors, I bought a proper hydraulic jobbie. Made the job very straightforward.
The car looked like this at the start.
Off with the old...
Having an Ugga-Dugga gun makes this much easier - just a few seconds. Otherwise you're faffing around with a circular spanner and a large allen key unless you have a "special tool"
Once the assembly is out of the car you do need another special tool to take the front ones apart. It's a small key which allows you to unlock a nut on the top. You can make these by butchering an old socket if necessary.
The spring compressor I got made this very easy and safe!
Here's the Eibach compared to the standard Golf springs side by side. Quite a difference!
Then to whack it all back on the car.
All lowered back down the car looked like this.
Not drastically lower, but poised rather than on stilts. I was looking for something that wouldn't really get noticed, but made the car have a sensible stance. Pretty happy with the results.
Went for a drive to settle everything in and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ride quality was hardly affected at all - just slightly firmer than before when cruising - soaks up bumps and undulations very competently.. Under braking and cornering the car is much more composed. There's still a fair amount of roll, but the car rolls over initially and then stiffens up noticeably when you push further, definitely an improvement!
Pretty pleased with the outcome. Looks better and drives better.
Cheers,
Drew.
Some new springs.We had originally aimed at trying to keep the car as standard as possible, but it turned out that the "standard GTI 16v" springs we had bought weren't for the 16v. They weren't even for a GTI as it happened, but an ordinary Golf... which led to a rather daft looking ride height and sloppy handling.
Trying to find a set of OEM 16v spring proved fruitless, so we decided to go for a mild OEM+ option, some Eibachs which are a -20mm for a standard GTI... which isn't far off what a 16v should be as standard. We already had Bilstein dampers fitted. I specifically didn't want to use aftermarket coilovers.
Turned out it was much much cheaper (like £50 cheaper!) to buy the Eibachs in the EU and import them than buy them in the UK - thanks Brexit - though it took a little longer for them to arrive.
Rather than use a local garage (none seem to want to work on old cars nowadays anyway) or risk my life with some cheap spring compressors, I bought a proper hydraulic jobbie. Made the job very straightforward.
The car looked like this at the start.
Off with the old...
Having an Ugga-Dugga gun makes this much easier - just a few seconds. Otherwise you're faffing around with a circular spanner and a large allen key unless you have a "special tool"
Once the assembly is out of the car you do need another special tool to take the front ones apart. It's a small key which allows you to unlock a nut on the top. You can make these by butchering an old socket if necessary.
The spring compressor I got made this very easy and safe!
Here's the Eibach compared to the standard Golf springs side by side. Quite a difference!
Then to whack it all back on the car.
All lowered back down the car looked like this.
Not drastically lower, but poised rather than on stilts. I was looking for something that wouldn't really get noticed, but made the car have a sensible stance. Pretty happy with the results.
Went for a drive to settle everything in and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ride quality was hardly affected at all - just slightly firmer than before when cruising - soaks up bumps and undulations very competently.. Under braking and cornering the car is much more composed. There's still a fair amount of roll, but the car rolls over initially and then stiffens up noticeably when you push further, definitely an improvement!
Pretty pleased with the outcome. Looks better and drives better.
Cheers,
Drew.
And she's back on the road after the winter, freshly taxed and MOT'd ready for another few months of cruising about and going to shows. A gentle retirement for this old girl.
Emissions seems healthy, CO = 0.15 (max 3.5) and HC = 86 (max 1200)
I hope in the next few years to completely restore her from the ground up as, whilst she looks good on the surface, there's a bunch of stuff that needs rejuvenating. All for future years though.
For now, nothing like a mildly tweaked valver to tool around in. Bring on the summer sun!
Cheers,
Drew.
Emissions seems healthy, CO = 0.15 (max 3.5) and HC = 86 (max 1200)
I hope in the next few years to completely restore her from the ground up as, whilst she looks good on the surface, there's a bunch of stuff that needs rejuvenating. All for future years though.
For now, nothing like a mildly tweaked valver to tool around in. Bring on the summer sun!
Cheers,
Drew.
Edited by drewwa on Saturday 1st April 17:44
Well, the old girl came out of mothballs for another MOT and a little cruise around Essex.
Passed MOT with flying colours - just as well as she only did a few miles last year!
My son and I did a 300 mile trip around with the "South East Mk2s" group. Weather was glorious and all the cars behaved themselves. Me in my 16v and him in his his stripped out track prepped car.
Early start, but the weather came good.
Brilliant day out, and great to see a bunch of other mk2s on the road, ranging from standard stuff to big engine transplants and everything in between. Had about 20 cars in the convoy in total.
Cheers,
Drew.
Passed MOT with flying colours - just as well as she only did a few miles last year!
My son and I did a 300 mile trip around with the "South East Mk2s" group. Weather was glorious and all the cars behaved themselves. Me in my 16v and him in his his stripped out track prepped car.
Early start, but the weather came good.
Brilliant day out, and great to see a bunch of other mk2s on the road, ranging from standard stuff to big engine transplants and everything in between. Had about 20 cars in the convoy in total.
Cheers,
Drew.
rickygolf83 said:
Sorry to quote an old post; what did you do with the additional outlet on the water pipe? I have a bung and jubliee clip on mine which is really annoying as it does weep a dribble at times....
thanks in advance :-)
My car already had a third outlet from the original pipe... (can't remember where it went to without looking I'm afraid). The replacement pipe has the outlet in a different place, so I just lengthened the hose and connected it back up. thanks in advance :-)
I know that there are various versions of the that pipe, some with the outlet and some without, not sure why they are different - but you might be able to find a version without the outlet.
Sorry I can't be more help!
Cheers,
Drew.
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