1979 Mars Red Series 1 GTI

You will mark I promise, can't imagine its going to be on the road this year, it probibly would be if I was living in Durham.  As you can see I decided to just put my head in for repair so I don't need one off you but I do need a load of other bits an peices so I will be up next time im home to see you!

The head will be ready on thursday! woop

Russ any chance you can you pick it up friday dude?

probably not will be at work all day will have to be monday i'm afraid…

well its finished on thursday but im sure they can wait until monday! they have my card details

Did you leave your phone number? im sure they will call you.  Cheers again for sorting this out Russ

Just read through all your thread matey, looking good, shame about all the engine trouble, but i can see you are getting there! Russ is a top bloke like, helped me out alot too! If you really need it for the weekend i can pick it up for ya on Sat? Nee worries if not, just let me know dude.

P.S, if you had mentioned that injector removal tool to me i could have made you one at work in about an hour! Lol, not to worry though

Will be keeping an eye on this like, you'll have to pop up for another visit matey, i'll not be half asleep this time though! If you ever need a hand with the car then just give me a shout!

Yes I am a top bloke …..

And with that in mind I have collected Lee's head from the engine builders (cleasby's) which ended up getting quite a bit of work done to it….



and here it is….



now all wrapped up in a bin bag waiting for lee to collect it. Lee you need to order a gasket set and some exhaust manifold studs and nuts. Have you been home since I took the head off?

Hello mate

No I still havent been home man. been nearly a month now :-(

Things are going to be moving slowly the way things are, I just can't get the time at the mo

OK

Bit of a thread revival.  I finally got to go home after 6 long weeks of working away.  I have collected the head from my good mate Russ - cheers for storing it dude.  I have also got both sets of clocks with me so I can make 1 good set out of the two.

I need to order a head gasket set, some head bolts and some exhaust studs/nuts - does anyone know where the best place to order the studs? is it a VW job?

Actually is THIS what I need?

just get a length os allthread and cut your own studs out of that, or 8 bolts and cut the heads off

Good to see this mate and 1 thats sort of local to me !! I've just got back into mine so should have it done for the summer hopefully, I got my studs and the copper nuts from vw they were about 80p each if that.

The ones on the link are stainless tho so I'd prefere them if they are the right thing? The VW ones were really badly corroded so stainless would be better. I can't be chewed cutting heads off bolts!

Where abouts are you then woodsy? Stockton isn't too far away from me!

I'm in norton mate it's just outside of stockton you ? mine were pretty nasty but the new 1 s are alot more substantial when you get them and the originals lasted this long so cant see me changing them again

I live near Bishop Auckland mate.

I bought those SS exhaust studs and they are here now, they look mint as well, really well made.

Next is

Cambelt and tensioner, head gasket set and headbolts and a set of injector seals and seats and ill be able to screw her together again.

Right then ive finally got round to sorting out these S1 clocks………

Basically the clocks that came on the car were good but the PCB on the back was shagged, that couple with the fact that it actually had the wrong PCB on it by the looks of it made me go in search of another set of clocks to replace them with or cannibalise to make 1 good set.  After about 2 months of searching I found some guy who had litterally just listed a set of the Champagne coloured ones on here and I bit his hand off for full asking price strait away as i was getting desperate.  So basically I ended up with 2 sets of clocks, one GTI black and one Champagne.

Luckily the Champagne set came with loads of little bits I needed for the Black set as well



Look at the difference on the PCB's



So I set about stripping the Black set, they were minging and there was something rattling inside them



This was the cause of the rattling, loads of bits of plastic - however I could not see anything snapped in there (I have a feeling someone has been at these recently and maybe stripped good stuff of for himself and left this car with the crap bits



Here is the difference in the PCB's, the original one had burnt tracks, the voltage stabiliser had been soldered back on, the part for the loom plug to attach to was cheadered and it didn't even fit correctly being the wrong one



As I was cleaning everything up I noticed the rev counter on the champagne one had a fuel low LED as well as the gauge so I have used that one instead as its an extra feature, plus the PCB has the wiring for it so I thought why not!  Here is the back of the GTI clocks now with its new circuitry



And here is the front, nice and clean (its a shame there is screwdriver marks on there but I can live with that for now)



Much, much better if I do say so myself!  As a bonus the GTI speedo is at 000000 miles so I can easily keep track of how many miles I will have covered from ownership (I dont care about resale as its not going anywhere!)

Oh and here is the SS exhaust mani studs for my nice new head! they are a good bit of kit and I got them from these guys  www.volksbolts.com



Cheers!

I got on a bit of a roll today.

First I went and got the daily MOT'd - only needed a tyre so thats done for the year thank god.  Tax due at the end of the month….

Anyways after the MOT I went down the motorfactors and ordered some bits and bobs for the 3pm delivery.  While I was waiting I decided to sort out a bit of the rust in the engine bay, I wasn't looking for anything mint, I just needed to get rid of the rust and get some paint on there for now.

I had previously put some of that rust converter on there which has helped keep some of it at bay



Then after a couple of coats of primer and paint, its not ment to look mint, more functional until I can get it into the bodyshop



Anyways later on I went down and collected my bits, A head gasket set, cambelt and headbolts.  I removed the old headgasket, well what I could as some of it was congealed to the block.    I removed the rest with a razor blade in one of those holders to keep it square.  It looks like this car was taken off the road with head gasket failure, in fact some of the coolant galleries had been blocked by the gasket as it was the wrong one so it looks like it overheated and then died.

Cleaned up gasket surface



I managed to get the crankshaft V-belt pulley, water pump and lower cambelt cover off and whipped the old timing belt off.

I took the old studs off and fitted my new SS ones



Then I offered up the new gasket and guess what - it doesn't fit.  It looks like the wrong one….



look at the hole at the bottom near cylinder 2…

So that was the end of todays play.  I intended to get the engine bolted down and timed up so I could finish off tomorrow.  Ill be off to GSF tomorrow to see if I can get a head gasket.

End of play

Right today I have rang around all the various part suppliers near me and I cannot get hold of a gasket so I have been set back considerably.  I was fully intending to have this screwed back together and maybe running by today so to say im annoyed is an understatement!

I have removed the dash today for better access to the loom. (crap pic I know)



I have also attacked the back panel to see what all the mad smooth lines are about and there is about 5mm of filler all over it.  Im going to have to bare metal the back panel at least, maybe more as im a bit shocked about all the little patches of rust here and there, and there is LOADS of seam sealer and filler all over the car.

New plan

Get it running so I can drive it out of my garage and then I can bare metal what needs to be done for the bodyshop to take over.  Then I can pull the engine and wiring out and send it to the shop while I tidy up the block and work through the wiring loom properly sorting out all the bits and bobs.

Hey there,
Nice project!
I've got the exact same problem with my front panel, how have you/are you fixing it?
Keep it up!
Cheers,
Alex

Im going to chop the front panel off completely and buy a new one from BBT! I have had one before off them and I have to say the fitment was excellent mate.  Im also going to be buying a pair of new genuine wings and a new genuine bonnet if I can get hold of one.  It should be pretty spot on after that!

Thanks for the nice comments

Right I have some news - after the gasket fiasco I have been talking with the legend that is Rubjohnny about different things.  It turns out that I have a 1.6 GTI lump fitted which believe it or not im over the moon with! Im so glad its not a 1.8, Ive had a 1.8 16v and a 2.0 16v fitted in my last mk1 so ive done the lightning quick mk1 thing.  Im looking forward to experiencing the original unmolested GTI engine.

So now I know I have a EG engine I have ordered some more bits over the last few days….

From BBT

1.6 GTI Head gasket
water pipe flange gasket
other bits ive forgot about

From VW

Water pump o ring seal
Crank V pulley bolts
Waterpump pulley bolts

From VW classic parts

4 Injector inserts - £30!!!!!!! (I was shocked too)

All I need now is injector rubber washers and im set for next time im home I think, I should be able to get it running…..

I got the rubber seals in my gasket set Lee. Were the injector inserts in stock been meaning to go into lookers in the boro as 2 of mine are abit worse for wear

woody83 said

I got the rubber seals in my gasket set Lee. Were the injector inserts in stock been meaning to go into lookers in the boro as 2 of mine are abit worse for wear

Oh thats good mate, I might have them in mine then….  Ill have to check.

The injector inserts……

For 1.8 heads yes they are in stock and available from VW but for 1.6 Heads no they are no longer available - obsolete since 04/2009 so I had to order mine from VW classic parts through BBT which cost me £30 including the carriage….