Black Mk1 GTI 1600 to 16v KR

Hi all, this is what has become the money vacuum in my life at the minute:





I bought her last August after selling my Grand Cherokee. Had a few Mk1s and Corrados before and got bored of the Jeep so began the hunt for my third Mk1. Saw this one on eBay. I was initially a bit reluctant on this one, being a 1600 and the sellers write up was sketchy at best. I was on the look out for a 16v conversion in black but when I saw how good a condition this one was in, I had to have it.
Towards Christmas time, the car developed an annoying warm start issue not cured by a new accumulator and as there's no ECU port to diagnose faults, it was going to be a case of trial and error with things like metering head, injectors etc so I bought a KR engine already coupled to a 4 branch from this forum.

Out with the old, in with the not as old:


Where I'm at now is I have the block in, engine wired up by an auto electrician. The car has had new braided fuel lines as I snapped my originals attempting the good old bending of the lines as per the conversion guidelines. There's a new clutch in it. The gearbox is the original FD code 1600 GTI box with the 5th ratio swapped from a Mk3 GTI 8v (0.80). I want to maintain as standard a look as possible from the outside so want to keep the original exhaust which will mean reducing the internal diameters (2.5 manifold to 2 inch standard GTI exhaust) but this is subject to change!

The engine doesn't quite run right at the moment. I thought it was to do with lack of exhaust back pressure as there's no system fitted at the moment but been advised that the engine should still run, albeit like a WW2 fighter plane. There's not many a garage I can find that want to take it on. I almost reached breaking point with it recently, as in, cut my losses and sell as is due to the engine now not running right. I have found a garage near Holmfirth - IK Classics & Racing (what a place that is by the way, v.impressive) that are taking it on for me.

Once the cash flow has settled, I have a set of the humble 14 inch BBS RA that will be refurbished to look like this:


Then the project should be complete…..until I want the 2.0 bottom end, Webers, uprated ARBs, Quaife, etc etc….As you do!

Thanks for reading and if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions or advice for me; I'm all ears!

Nice project coming along mate. Good luck with it. Don't worry the itch to get more done to her will come with time

Stick with it buddy. That will be a sweet ride once you are done. And looks like you are doing it right first time. Well done.

If you really are flagging at anytime, go along to a mk1 meet in your area - that should get the mk1 mojo back.

Thanks for the comments, I did have a bit of a wobble last week but I'd definitely regret selling it. It must be the final hurdle now before she's on the road, there can't be much else to go wrong! (Famous last words!)

There will always be something you'll want to change,better,mod on the MK1. Part of the joy of ownership