My 2L 16V ABF Bike Carb ( ZX9R ) Conversion MK1 Golf

Well im going to try to put every bit of detail in the conversion here for anyone that wants to do it in the future… as much detail as i can give i will do

Parts needed:
ZX9R bike carbs
R1 fuel pump
M10 x 85mm bolts x 2
M10 x 25mm bolts x 2
Various M6 nuts
Various M8 nuts
Various M10 nuts
19mm x 60mm hose joiners x 2
Hose clips 30 - 40mm x 10 (Give or take)
Hose clips 16 - 27mm x 15 (Give or take)
Various heater hoses details given below
Stainless inlet flange at 8mm or greater thick
46mm OD stainless pipe x 500mm length
4 x 1/8NPT take off nipples
1 x 1/8NPT take off nipple + Adapter for vacuum hose to brake servo
KR Distributor
KR ECU - TCI and loom
ABF distributor CAP
MK1 GTi king HT lead
2m length of fuel resistant hose
Fuel line clips to suit fuel line OD
Accelerator cable fitting detailed below
Choke cable (if not fitted)
Top fill radiator
stainless pipe to suit radiator hose ID x 1m

Pics of the car before the conversion:



















Engine on its way out:

Bolts to get the engine out

6 x M10 nuts on the exhaust manifold - dowpipe flange
driver side engine mount bolt (M10)
Passenger side engine mount bolt (M10)
Front engine mount bolts (M10 x 2)
Remove starter motor for easier removal
Rear engine mount bolts (M10 x 3 on the inner side of the gearbox)
1 x M12 nut on the underside of the rear engine mount
2 x M10 nuts on the rear engine mount support arm (easier to remove now, as it makes it easier to put the engine back in)





Photo for reference:



The photo above shows the wiring for the coil on the original engine



Shows the wiring diagram for fitting the mk2 golf KR ECU, with original mk1 wiring for the coil etc

Almost out:



Cleaning the engine bay:



At home for the night:



The ZX9R Bike carbs:



Explanation of the ZX9R carbs



Red= Choke, I used a 2m bike brake cable to connect this for now
Blue= Throttle position adjustments which sorted my engine idling at 5000revs
Green= Idle speed control, just wind it up or down easy peasy
All the extra hoses you can see in the pic I'm lead to believe are for coolant, except the ones at the top, which are breathers.



The main jet circled in red. To remove it, hold the base with an 8mm spanner and undo the jet with a flat screwdriver, simple! I didn't touch the rest of the jets so the plate can now be put back on

Next set the mixture (green circle). Screw that screw all the way in and 3 turns back out, I was told 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 from different sources so I went for 3 which seems to do the job.

Yellow circle is pilot jet, blue is starter jet. You don't need to worry about these.

Jet size used on my 2l 16v ABF conversion is 180 main jets available from http://www.allensperformance.co.uk

Inlet manifold being made:

The flange was laser cut in 5mm thick stainless 304 grade. 5mm is too thin and warped a fair bit when welded so go for at least 8mm thick 304 stainless when getting a flange made

the tubing is 46mm OD stainless with a 1mm wall thickness readily available. The ends that fit on the flange were crushed in a vice to give the oval shape required for the inlet ports

The flange cost in the region of 50 pounds to have made, supplying the drawing for the flange to the cutters

The stainless pipe for 1m cost 10 pounds

Having the manifold welded together was done for me at 40 pounds, but prices for the welding fluctuated from 40 - 110 pounds





Jig to get the angles right on the runners



I found it easiest to make a jig to get the angles exactly the same for the end 2 runners as these had to be tapered slightly to fit the carbs





And finally all tacked up:





New engine:

MK3 golf 1997 2L 16V ABF engine



Inlet manifold all made up with hoses and joiners complete:

fuel resistant hose and clips available from http://www.auto-performance.co.uk/







Adapter to suit car throttle cable, with adjustment



available from http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/control-cables-277-c.asp

R1 Fuel pump with built in regulator:

motorbike fuel pump used to provide a 3bar fuel supply to the carbs



Also have the Tee for the fuel line, and the fuel lines themselves

Engine is all spangly now, all cleaned up and degreased which took a very long time, but well worth it.

oh and yes i do realise the rocker cover isnt done, but thats going to get powder coated along with a few more bits

Source the driver engine mount from a MK1 golf GTi DX engine, and bolt this to the ABF engine as shown below











Also had to fabricate an alternator mounting bracket



and tensioning mechanism



Apparently the alternator will foul the bike carbs if its left in its original position so i fabricated a mounting bracket to mount it on. It also clears that area up from the nasty bracketry that was there before. Very simple to do with some lengths of steel…

And all the mounting points etc cleaned up and painted



For this conversion i will be using the original GTi gearbox and so the mounts for the box remain the same. These have been fully stripped back and coated

Engine bay painting

All the rust has been removed, and all the sealer around the struts removed. All holes have been bunged and every pipe / wire covered with masking tape to avoid overspray

Before:





Primer:





Few more pretty things arrived
Had a fair few bits powder coated gloss black, including all the brake system, rocker cover, and brackets

The main Brake bracket looks amazing, like new, and im really pleased with how the rocker cover came out

Rocker cover:

avergae powder coating costs for a rocker cover i would expect to be around 15 pounds including a full sand blasting.



Brake bracket:



Also made the vacuum nipples fit for the advance on the ecu:

Vacuum nipples are available from

Hoselines ltd
Unit 25 Wharncliffe Business Park
Longfield Road Carlton
Barnsley
S71 3HT (Road Map)
Tel: 01226 240838
Fax: 01226 204315

I took a vac feed from each runner to give the ecu a steady vac supply

the nipples come with a 1/8 NPT thread, requiring a 9mm hole drilling in the runner and then tapping the hole…





got the brake servo vacuum pipe attached now, so i can have assisted braking



Also available from hoselines, uses the same size tap with an adapter to fit the larger pipe. This is the same size fitting as the one on the brake servo.

Engine bay fully painted, and brake lines coloured also



fuel pump mounted:

Mounting bracket is simply a 52mm exhaust clamp.
Be careful not to tighten it too tight as you could break the pump itself







and the state of play where i left it for the night



Engine and gearbox all painted and ready to go in

The engine is fitted with a KR distributor as mentioned at the start of the thread. an ABF distributor cap is fitted to give clearance on the master cylinder and reservoir





Engine finally in and mounted on 2 mounts…

driver and passenger engine mounts use an M10 x 85mm bolt to secure them into place









Fuel line fitted. Use fuel resistant hose available from http://www.pirtek.co.uk/
fuel line clips available from http://www.auto-performance.co.uk/



Brake system fully fitted



Couple of pipe adapters to join the ABF heater hoses to the standard MK1 bits

These are 19mm hose joiners which slot neatly into the ABF coolant hoses and are tight but fit in the original MK1 heater hoses.

As you can see the original metal pipe that travels round the side of the engine has been removed and replaced with a 19mm water hose. This eliminates the extra take off used for the expansion tank as i will be using a top fill radiator

Hose clips used are 16-27mm clips i used around 12 of these in total on top of the extra ones used to replace the standard water pipe clips available from http://www.auto-performance.co.uk/

available from http://www.pirtek.co.uk/





All the coolant hoses are made and fastened together

The coolant hoses are a combination of the original MK1 GTi hoses, the ABF hoses and those from a Honda Accord. The top hose from a honda accord has the 30 degree bend needed for the top hose on the ABF engine, and also an appropriately shaped hose for the lower radiator hose, as the hose needs to clear the front engine mount.

below is a photo of the original Accord hoses:



The hose on the left, i used the bit at the top of the picture as the bottom radiator hose.

the lower part of the right hose was used for the 30 degree bend to get the top radiator pipe to travel parrallel to the radiator itself

Radiator is taken from a MK1 golf with top fill

Stainless pipe is used to extend the hoses to fit with 30-40mm hose clips to secure. I used 8 of these for the water pipes to the radiator available from http://www.auto-performance.co.uk/



Strut brace refitted, badgeless grill fitted with headlights, carbs bolted on, acc cable joined, acc belt fitted, more wiring done and bits and bobs here and there



Todays progress





Coolant hoses joined to original MK1 hoses



90 degress, to delete expansion tank take off



KR dizzy with ABF distributor cap for clearance on the brake reservoir



Clearance



Honda Accord coolant hoses





Brake servo vac line





Carbs all fixed up



Photos with the new grill and bonnet back on again



and one of the interior



and the car idling and back together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lmc0lxCvBw

Well i built the conversion downpipe and adapted the existing system to fit today and it fits spot on no rattles, exhaust note is awesome so a very pleasing few hours

Pics of the downpipe:



lugs cut off the old flange and pipes cut too. Over sized pipes welded to the bottom of the flange at an angle to suit the existing system…



Because i moved the whole system backwards to fit the flange, i had to take a bit of length out of the centre section, fairly easy to do with a piece of over sized tubing to slot over the front pipe



some photos of the ibiza and the gold whilst jump starting







and a video more for the sound than anything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r1upyWF3v0

Nice work.

Be doing this soon with a KR and cbr 1000 carbs.

Nice thread, just the way it should be...full of detail and good photos, be sure to record the startup and first run...with a link to watch...fantastic work

awesome thread, well illustrated and presented, can see your a man that likes perfection, im sure this will show in the finished project to , nice one well done fella :wink:  :clap:

Fantastic thread dude, this is what im after, thanks for taking the time and effort to do this thread, must of taken as long as the build its self !!!!

Did you find it east to source the engine in the first place ???

first start video

MK1 Golf 2L 16V ABF ZX9R Bike carbs conversion - YouTube

No downpipe

fantastic dude, waiting for the first run now :mrgreen:

Very nice excellent install detail

Baz

Thanks for all the comments

andy77 said

Did you find it east to source the engine in the first place ???

Engine was easy enough to find, just finding one at the right price with low milage was the issue.
I stumbled across this one, with all lady ownership, 68k miles on it and the guy even delivered it to me for just over 200 quid. didnt think that was bad at all, and that was including all pipes anciliaries etc…

very noice  mate


is the engine a straight bolt in ?


tommy

in theory yes…
but in reality far, far from it.

good fun to do though

good work mate 8)

Great thread.
How will the performance compare to injection?

CrazyNick said

Great thread.
How will the performance compare to injection?

Interested in that answer too!!

Brilliant thread mate!!!

we shall see in the next week or so should be able to drive it next time im down

there shall be many a video appearing from its first drive

exellant work !!

is it possible to run from a 1.3 carbed fuel tank red top pump and filter king regulator to bring to 3 bar or would it have to be gti spec tank first??

cant wait to see vid of first drive

i wouldnt bother personally mate... just a bike fuel pump will do the same job for a fraction of the price, but yes either pump will be able to use the 1.3 tank and lines etc

thats great news .,

will be following this.,

quick update on the first page…

and the car idling and back together

MK1 Golf 2l 16V ZX9R bike carbs idle - YouTube

nice,cant wait to do mine!!

any vids of it on the move yet??