Reveal your tweaking tips...

I'm going to try and knock together another guide for setting up your Golf properly. I'll need as much feedback as possible from the people who are really familiar with these cars on what you do to ensure it's running as sweetly as posisble e.g. timing, plug gaps, points gap, valve clearances, mixture adjustment. If you can contribute then please put as much info as possible and I'll add the pics and write it all up

Thanks in advance

James

Hi James and thanks for the current posts in the running gear section that i have made 'sticky' for all to see .
A full service guide would be useful , oil change , plug change , fuel filter , air filter etc etc etc ……
The list you made are service items and something that we don't have at the moment on the site . Be nice for members   :wink:  and user's

Cheers …………

Hi Chudd,

Thanks for that

Wasn't going to do the basics but I've still got some bits to do so I can do guides for:

Gearbox oil change
Engine oil change
Just done plugs but can do them again
Bleeding brake fluid
Rear rebuild (shoes, bearings etc)

Air filter has been changed for K&N so not much use to people but I'll try and put some other bits in



What I was really looking for was tweaking fuelling/timing etc - what do people do? Is anyone on here likely to know?

problem is, you can't really tweek correctly without proper equipment. if it helps, on timing, i run a tad of advance and retard by trial and error until it doesn't pink. on older cars, the book figures do not always seem to give the best results. wear and tear i presume. mines timed just right for super but will pink a bit on regular via this method.

I did a thread on it but its quite verbose:

http://www.vwgolfmk1.o…pic&t=27550&highlight=afr

In summary, you need a wideband lambda, fuel pressure gauge and exhaust gas analyser to do the job. The thread isn't really a "How to", its more of a report of the many changes I made along the way to find out  the effect each change makes. It all relates to a 16V, I suspect if you applied the same for an 8V you might reach another limit or constraint before you achieve the optimal settings.

JSeaman said

 I can do guides for:

Gearbox oil change
Engine oil change
Just done plugs but can do them again
Bleeding brake fluid
Rear rebuild (shoes, bearings etc)

Air filter has been changed for K&N so not much use to people but I'll try and put some other bits in

Thanks will look forward to seeing the posts .

Are you running a tin top GTi or Cabrio Carb ?

Cheers…………

Thanks for the input guys - it's on a cabriolet

Paul - I remember the thread, not wanting to go down the wideband route, just 'normal' tweaking.

Timing - do you guys use the book TDC for unleaded?
Points gap - stick with stock? What is it?
Do you guys tweak the fuelling in any way - mine's running rich by the looks of my plugs

I find the most valuable guides are the ones with car-specific tweaks and you guys will know them better than me so need feedback for the useful stuff

tweaks are kept quite by most performance modders (maybe not so much on here though)

let's just say that performance is reached by reaching for efficiency.
running rich wont improve your performance.
tdc is fine for running on unleaded with a golf as they have hardened valves and seats a bit of advance won't do to much harm on a car with a worn engine. and the advance retard will iron out most kinks at revs
stick the points gap at standard think it's around 0.8 of mm but can't remember off the top of my head. if you wan't a bit more look at electronic ignition that'll help with improvement on economy which is a start.
main improvments are found in cleaning and maintaining at the age of most car's on here.

Sorry for the delay - missed this post

"tweaks are kept quite by most performance modders"
Sorry, not looking for performance mods - I'm referring to bringing back to a stock level

"running rich wont improve your performance"
I know, I need to stop this

"tdc is fine"
Good stuff, that means I can do the timing guide

sotck points - great I'll do that guide too


The only thing I need now is mixture adjustment - how do we achieve this?