ABF conversion finished - first impressions

It is certainly an 'urgent' engine, but it is a noisy beast. I do regret putting the poly bush engine mount kit on as it makes it all a bit rattly. That will all be coming off at the next opportunity. I'm glad I don't have coilovers. I need it to be a relaxing drive as I'm no youngster…
I got it taxed and insured today, so was driving it a bit this afternoon. Great to be back in it, and the gearbox and shifter is sweet. As the engine has been fully rebuilt I haven't thrashed it yet.
The cable clutch on the 02a is nice and light - much lighter than the 020 original. The revs holding at 2000rpm on the drop takes a bit of getting used to as I haven't driven this engine before.
All in all, it's great

I do have a strange elec problem though. The rev counter, digi clock, and some other bits die when I release the hand brake. It all worked on the first drive. Second drive I get this odd failure and I've only fiddled with the exhaust as I had a blow on a joint. Any ideas???

Thanks

Gave it a bit more right foot today. She just keeps on pulling. Plan to put about 100 miles on it to bed all the bearings in, then nail it  

is it a MFA cluster? if so the dash would have earthed to the head originally. there is a brown/white male spade wire near the fusebox for the dash, then a wire in the engien loom plugs in and runs off to the side of the head. look at the rear corner of the abf head near the dizzy the dash earth ring is around there

Thanks rubjonny
I did find an earth not connected, but it hasn't changed anything.
There are 2 earth rings by the dizzy. One links to pin 25 in the engine loom plug - brown with black stripe.
The other doesn't seem to link anywhere. Lools like a brown wire. Engine starts and runs fine, just done 150 miles.
When i have lights on and handbrake off, mfa, rev counter and dash lights don't work.

First of all congrats on your DIY task of the abf. I wanted the cable shift too but certain parties resisted and insisted I didn't need it…

As for you electrical fault, did you change over to 16v clocks or are you still running the mk1 clocks? 
Is the little handbrake switch earthed ok? I'm asking about the clocks ad I had some 'unexplainable ' issues with my clocks that was resolved by the cleaning and tightening of the connections to the clocks. 
Is it purely a clocks issue or does the fault have any other symptoms? If there's a fault in the wiring, then it is just a methodical process of going through each and every wire until the fault is found.  

Thanks Craigt

I pondered the box change for a while, but concluded that I was more interested in a relaxed top end than blistering off the mark acceleration. It's still damn quick with the DPA 02a in mind, and I haven't given it a thrash yet. Also, my 020 had a bit of a syncro issue that would have needed resloving. I put Audi A3 shifter and tower in ofj 02J box and mounted under the car - fits well and cables perfect length. Shifts perfectly.
Sits at ~3400rpm at 80 mph in 5th.

As for elec fault. Stuck with the Mk1 clocks. I am yet to find all the earthing points. The ones by the fuse box all seem to be ok, but I did have the fuse box out so it is possible something has not gone back quite where it should. Is the another earth rose behind the clocks that I haven't found yet.

I haven't found any other symptoms yet. Does seem hand brake triggered though. Where is the earth for the handbrake switch located?

Many thanks
Huw

huw169 said

Thanks rubjonny
I did find an earth not connected, but it hasn't changed anything.
There are 2 earth rings by the dizzy. One links to pin 25 in the engine loom plug - brown with black stripe.
The other doesn't seem to link anywhere. Lools like a brown wire. Engine starts and runs fine, just done 150 miles.
When i have lights on and handbrake off, mfa, rev counter and dash lights don't work.

In addition to above, The Brown & white earth wire traces back to pin 25 on the engine connector, but then turns into a Brown with black stripe. Is the Lambda earth? I don't have a Brown and white in the engine loom coming to the fuse box. Maybe I cut it out..   However, I do have just a brown wire in the engine loom by the fuse box. This was the one I found not connected, but it doesn't seem to do anything and I can't find where it is linked to. Maybe it is broken somewhere?
I did just cut off my MK3 speedo sensor. Does this earth to the side of the head origianlly as this would explain this rogue earth wire???

As I look at my fuse box, there is a thick loom that goes up to the left into a hole in the the underside of the dash. There is a brown and white wire in this that joins to a solid brown. Both go into a male spade in a white housing. Is this the MFA earth? This is connected to a female earth spade in a white housing so I assume they are meant to go together???

Many thanks

Oh, my earth point on the head is just below the coolant temp sensor under the dizzy. I have the little bracket mounted to the corner of the rocker cover, but there is no way the earth wires will reach that far.

the ring which runs to pin 25 on the round plug is the dash earth yes, it should run up to the fusebox then plug into the male spade you found with a brown and brown/white in it. if unsure, simply earth the male spade and see, if it helps then great leave it at that unless you want to go digging in the loom to try and find out why the engine earth isnt working for you.

the other ring you found could have been for the breather heater which can be binned, its the 2 pin plug with a brow and black wire on the driver side, it should be clipped to an empty plug socket on the plastic breather pipe (we didnt get the heaters in the UK)

or it may be the earth left over for the speedo sensor that you chopped off, but iirc this earths in with the engine sensor earth in the engine harness?

Ahh, great. I'll have a look for the Brown/black one in the engine loom tonight.

The brown & Brown/white spade currently has another earth spade plugged into it. This one runs off behind the carpet trim to the left below the fuse box into a small loom of approx 5 wires. Will clarify tonight. But I'm sure I need to stick it somewhere???

I know the heater plug you are refering to. I'll probe it tonight.
Many thanks.

it may be the earth claw(s) above the fusebox dont have a proper earth, and this is affecting the dash electrics randomly

to start with look at your lighting loom behind fusebox, you should have a fat brown which comes from the battery -ve with a white spade block on the end. you should also see another fat brown wire coming out the back next to it. this spade should go to one of your earth claws, then another wire should go between the claws to ensure they are both earthed. then you should have a fat brown hanging off the white engine loom plug, this should go to the white jumper block above. any other fat browns with black or brown plug housings put into the white jumper, if you run out of room put them to the claws.

for the dash earth male, it shoudl go to the earth on your engien loom, but you coudl just earth it to the claws instead it makes no odds really.  the breather heater can go in the bin, it serves no purpose and the wires to it can crack up behind the engine. if the black wire shorts it will blow the fuse for the isv as they're on the same wire so thats another reason to bin it!

Top advice mate, thanks. All sorted now. Looks like I chopped the brown/black from the engine loom. I seem to have a lot of earth wires…

Discovered an oil leak from the oil filter housing to block gasket. Looks like it's spilt about half a litre of oil under the engine & car looking at the dipstick marks. Stop it rusting…She's back on the axel stands for the engine mount work, fix oil leak and sort out cooling, so wont get to try for a few days.

Many thanks

check the oil pressure switches while you're there, those are a weak spot on mk3 engines i think they went thru a bad batch always splitting on them. mk1/2 ones tend to outlast the car

Cheers, will check those too. Might take the ones off my DX engine.

Last night went well on the car. Stripped out the poly bush kit (for sale now) and put it all back together. What a mission getting the drivers side one out. Had to lower the engine just enought…
This afternoon i'll be mainly doing the oil sealer gasket, pressure switches (dual one arrived) and coolant thermostat.

For oil temp, can I just take the MFA feed to my gauge?

Thanks

yes, you might have to change the sensor depending on the rating of your vdo as some use vw white sender and some need a blue audi one.

also the mk3 mfa sender may not be the right rating for a mk1/2 mfa/vdo gauge, they have a different part number

Good point about the temp sensor. Robbed the one off my DX engine, will see what oil temp gets to on MFA.

I changed my water high temp sensor, but the light is flashing still I know this can also be coolant level, but I don't have one in the car, so it must be a wiring issue, possibly earth. It has worked though. It is just annoying now.

Tested the MFA oil temp and it sits at about 90degC - nice.
Removing the polybush engine mounts has made the world of difference for me. The car is now silky smooth and effortless to drive. As I can now focus on the driving rather than the noise and vibrations it goes REALLY well  
This engine conversion has made an already exceptional little hatch absolutely awesome. I have a grin from ear to ear when I drive it and I haven't even gone past 5000rpm yet….
Amazing!!!

Glad your enjoying the new engine, can't say I've ever know anyone keep engine poly bushes once they fit them to a road car, I think they are for track cars only. 

Lol. I can see that now. They came as part of the full kit so thought i'd give them a go. 
Live and learn 

check for a coolant level relay, if fitted its a 42 or 43 clipped above fusebox. if it is there, remove it to disable the water level warning system

the abf dash temp sensor is the same as mk1 sensor, also same ones used on mk2 16v and early mk2 8v. it should have a black collar on it