1986 VW Golf is now in my possession.

[Christ]

Update on this hunk o' junk:

Got a fixit ticket on the way to pick up my van for work yesterday, because there is no inspection sticker in the windshield. Since February, when I put herbie on the road (legally). Lol.

So, in 5 days, I have to install a header, get a new windshield installed, install suspension on all four corners, and get an inspection done. No sweat!

Today, I got the exhaust manifold off. I had no trouble with 6 of the 8 studs... The two in the middle on the bottom have 12mm nuts, the rest have 13mm. The only way to reasonably gain access is to remove the down pipe. Good thing that junk has already been cut, and just hangs there. The idiot that invented those spring clips... Well, he deserves a hand shake, then a smack upside the head. They don't get stuck. This is a plus. But it's nearly impossible to remove/install them in a reasonable manner. I used a jack handle and a hammer.

Finally chiseled the hell out of the two studs that gave me trouble. One is good, one broke inside the head. I'm going to run it with 7. Snaked the manifold out... Reusable. Now, time to pull the intake... Damned header won't fit from the bottom. Le Sigh...

Might as well clean up the PCV tube while I'm in there, right? Gonna do that in the morning...

Walked down to an old Ford 302 and cut half the Y-pipe off, unbolted it from one manifold, and it fits perfectly against my Pace Setter header. It's a little small, I think, but it's at least 2". Anything flows better than the stock "toilet bowl" flange, wherein the manifold has a 2.25" exit, necked into a 1.625" pipewith a crappy weld. Sure, that'll be efficient... *facepalm*

The plan is a ~30" long glass pack in the midsection, into a side exit pipe on the drivers side, turned back toward the tire.

If that's too loud, I'll put a silencer cone in the side exit pipe. I can't imagine it being too loud, though. I've been running an open header for weeks now, leaving at 4am and holding 35mph in 3rd gear up the hill, and nobody's complained yet.

[Christ]

Got the header attached, spent nearly half an hour grinding the intake flange down to make every thing happy. Attached a piece of pipe to the header, then bought some pieces to a adapt it to the stock exhaust for now.

....never finished writing this, installed the couplers and got everything linked together in the exhaust... And now it smokes. *facepalm*

The struts I bought were advertised to fit mk2 and mk3... Not surprisingly, the fronts don't fit correctly. The mounts aren't correct. Hopefully I can get it inspected with worn struts, because it will take days to work this out with the seller.

[Christ]

Got everything worked out, ended up w/ $150 refund. Bought the strut mounts I needed for $40, got the car inspected, $28.

I'll upload a pic either tonite or tomorrow, it's sitting about 5.5 inches off the ground right now. I'll probably lift it up about another inch in the front and 2.5 inches in the rear. It's STIFF. The way I like it.

Apparently, when Wal-Mart did the rear tires, they put them at 35... and lowered the front tires to TWENTY FIVE?!?!?!? What the hell... I guess I start checking before I leave there again... That's just dangerous.

They're all at 50psi now.

Found some rust and random fix-it spots under the car, as well as near the front and rear upper suspension mounts. Unfortunately, this body may not be worth saving if I can get a cleaner one, or swap the motor into something else.

I'm soon going to start working on the other motor, after we get settled in another home. Want to get it rebuilt and lower the compression slightly, and put that TE04H turbo on it, no more than 1 bar boost. At first, probably 3-4 PSI with no intercooler.

Should be getting the full exhaust finished pretty soon, as well. That's going out the passenger side, full 2.25" pipe with 30-36" glass pack straight muffler.

Like I said, if that's too loud, I'll put a silencer in it.

[Christ]

Going to raise it at least an inch in the front, and raise the rear up to 2.5 inches for a slight forward rake, or at least level it.

New suspension is a spine buster lol. If it doesn't soften up a bit as it wears in, I may swap the heavy springs for my Civic drop coils.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Christ

Going to raise it at least an inch in the front, and raise the rear up to 2.5 inches for a slight forward rake, or at least level it.

That's very low as it is now.
I haven't seen too many of them out on the street, sitting that low @ the rear.