1983 5 door 1.8t conversion (NOW FOR SALE)

Right though I should finally get my semi project on here for you to see. I wasn't going to do a thread as my project is no where near as complex as some of the others on here and i take my hat off to you all as i found mine very challenging in deed mostly finding parts, travelling and research lot and lots of research lol I have a basic knowledge of mechanics but i have to say these conversion's blow my mine to how people have found way's to make it work i.e modern in to old.

I will give you the out lay of where i am with my build.

First i sold my mk3 vr6 to go find the right mk1 golf that i have wanted for so long and owning many golfs and vw's but was yet to get a mk1.

After waiting and looking around for the right one i found i was warming to a 5 door as every one dose the 3 door gti's and i don't know why
but i have always liked 5 door cars and pretty much most my car's have been 5 doors. So i found my first Mk1 Golf a 5 door 1983 with a hybrid abd and polo GT engine running gsxr600 carbs.

Here she is






The car had pretty much most the body work done so this was perfect for me as i was wanting to do a enginge conversion.

So my idea was to sell the hybrid engine and the interior and pretty much buy my engine and new interior so i set to work and removed the engine first.





The hybrid engine was a cool engine but was never going to be enough for me 1.4 was to low and after owning a vr6 and i also had a modded mk4 golf running 240bhp you could say i was power hungry hence the engine conversion.

So i got the engine out and the mk3 golf leather seats were taken out and sold, so it was time to hunt down my new 1.8 turbo 20v AGU engine as the 20v AGU was my choice of conversion for my mk1.

Found a guy selling the engine on here that came with a 02a gear box to for pretty much the same value i sold the hybrid for so bargain.






Right so engine was sourced i needed to gather clutch,conversion brackets,bigger breaks,slim fan,100mm drives-shaft's,bigger servo and down pipe… I hunted around for these most people buy new for most this stuff but i'm a sucker or a bargain and I'm trying to do this conversion on the cheap but without getting crappy stuff.

Here is few things i found and travelled the country to collect most of the stuff was of members on here, thanks guy's.





Right that should keep you lot busy for a while i will carry on my thread in the next few day, I will tell you what problems I've had, issues with gear box and the fitting of my engine and some other interesting matters lol

Thanks for reading guy's.

were did you get the engine mounts from, i need some. how much were they?

sturen said

were did you get the engine mounts from, i need some. how much were they?

Just caddy mate or crazyQ or Ebay

Right so where was i.. ahhh yes my first encounter of a tt short shifter on a 02a gearbox, I read on here about this so i ordered the parts from vw…


So next step was to fit the shifter to the box, pretty simple you would think, Oh no not for me i set about taking my weight off the shifter on the gearbox selector only to find that the tt wouldn't fit as there is a kind of housing around the weight tip part of the selector rod..




So after finding this out i had to read up on this as i had no clue to what i had to do, after reading up i found out that a 02j selector could fit my box but i had to make sure its the right one as there was two different one's, so nip to my local vw spares and the good old boy down there sorted me one out, i didnt take a picture of this which is not like me lol any way fitted it then i fitted the tt shifter weight..




Right so now it was time to fit the box to the engine didn't have any issues with that as its simple, put the g60 fly and vr6 clutch on the engine then marry the box to the engine .

My next step was to put a cable clutch in as that was my choice of clutch



The top part is the replacement part for the clutch.

Now i put the gearbox mount conversion bracket on this was pretty simple to.




Next it was the engine mount fitting, now this is a little bit more tricky as you had to remove the tensioner and mod the cam tensioner so as to stay tight, few people have different ways off doing this some use the 16v ten or some use a shake proof washer, i chose to mod my own.




Right so thats it time to move the engine mount in the bay of the car so i can fit the engine,as you know with the 1.8 gti mk1s the engine mounts are in the right place but with the small block mk1s they need moving back near the back of the engine bay as like the gti. I didn't take pictures of this as it was a case of dropping the engine in and marking it up so bit fiddly as there is NO room in the bay on the engine mount side.




So after some jiggery the engine was in YAY



Right that will do for now will put more up soon

Looking good mate I'm going down the same route with a AUQ engine and 02j gearbox just painting my gearbox now. Where abouts in the midlands are you I'm in Coventry.

simongolf83 said

Looking good mate I'm going down the same route with a AUQ engine and 02j gearbox just painting my gearbox now. Where abouts in the midlands are you I'm in Coventry.

Cheers, i live in Nunny mate so just down from you.

I know this car 8) That 1.4 ABD/polo GT engine was mine before I sold it to the lad that owned this car.  I loved that engine!


Won't have anything on your new engine though    8)

Phataz1 said

I know this car 8) That 1.4 ABD/polo GT engine was mine before I sold it to the lad that owned this car.  I loved that engine!


Won't have anything on your new engine though    8)

Oh really thats intresting because the lad i brought the car off said he built the engine himself but from other thing i found out he said he had done but hadn't i'm not surprised by this lol, love the way people lie to you to sell a car now day's  :evil:

But on a good note the engine was spot on didn't miss a beat in the winter and when it sat for few weeks started on the button. In some ways wish i keep it but it's not what i wanted in the mk1.

Small world I brought my shell from nuneaton.
Good to see some one near by that's doing the same conversion most people are miles away.

MK1234Golf said

Phataz1 said

I know this car 8) That 1.4 ABD/polo GT engine was mine before I sold it to the lad that owned this car.  I loved that engine!


Won't have anything on your new engine though    8)

Oh really thats intresting because the lad i brought the car off said he built the engine himself but from other thing i found out he said he had done but hadn't i'm not surprised by this lol, love the way people lie to you to sell a car now day's  :evil:

But on a good note the engine was spot on didn't miss a beat in the winter and when it sat for few weeks started on the button. In some ways wish i keep it but it's not what i wanted in the mk1.

He may well have rebuilt it after buying it off me, I don't know…  But I bought the 1.4 bottom end, had the rings replaced, and rebuilt the head and fitted the GT cam myself before I sold it :dontknow: I even had the engine advertised on here!

Yes it was very good! I only sold it as I was putting an original mk1 engine back in mine


Look forward to seeing the new engine fitted in yours! 8)

Phataz1 said

MK1234Golf said

Phataz1 said

I know this car 8) That 1.4 ABD/polo GT engine was mine before I sold it to the lad that owned this car.  I loved that engine!


Won't have anything on your new engine though    8)

Oh really thats intresting because the lad i brought the car off said he built the engine himself but from other thing i found out he said he had done but hadn't i'm not surprised by this lol, love the way people lie to you to sell a car now day's  :evil:

But on a good note the engine was spot on didn't miss a beat in the winter and when it sat for few weeks started on the button. In some ways wish i keep it but it's not what i wanted in the mk1.

He may well have rebuilt it after buying it off me, I don't know…  But I bought the 1.4 bottom end, had the rings replaced, and rebuilt the head and fitted the GT cam myself before I sold it :dontknow: I even had the engine advertised on here!

Yes it was very good! I only sold it as I was putting an original mk1 engine back in mine


Look forward to seeing the new engine fitted in yours! 8)

Nee matter now, Hoping to have it done by end month so i can go AGM so fingers crossed

simongolf83 said

Small world I brought my shell from nuneaton.
Good to see some one near by that's doing the same conversion most people are miles away.

lol really it's not a white shell is it???? Yes mate if you have any probs let me know i will try help out where i can, i got some contacts to for things if you need anything. If you like you can always come take a look to.

No it was a red one brought it two years ago now. Might take you up on coming round as this is my first time doing a golf. So you think you will have it running by the end off the month then. What ecu are you using?

simongolf83 said

No it was a red one brought it two years ago now. Might take you up on coming round as this is my first time doing a golf. So you think you will have it running by the end off the month then. What ecu are you using?

Hope so mate would love it to be done buy the end of the month i'v been waiting on my loom thats whats been holding me back as wiring is not my strong point give me a spanner i'm ok.

Running a AGU engine with the AGU fuel management OEM ecu just had the IMMO removed and had the loom spliced in to the mk1 loom.

Same here with the wiring bit above me I'm getting rubjonny doing my loom. I need to get a ecu the bloke I brought the engine off wanted to much.
I'm not that good with engine work I'm more into the body work apart from welding.

simongolf83 said

Same here with the wiring bit above me I'm getting rubjonny doing my loom. I need to get a ecu the bloke I brought the engine off wanted to much.
I'm not that good with engine work I'm more into the body work apart from welding.

I was going to get rubjonny to do my loom but the 4month waiting list was no good as i wanted to get it sorted for the AGM so i found some one else to do it only took a week ,i was going to try it my self but just couldn't get my head round it lol

I was lucky to get my ecu with the engine and full car loom. when you get your ecu let me know i can give you number to a guy that can remove the immo for £75.

What turbo you running?

Was going to run a ko4  I think. the bloke that owed it before said he had a hybrid turbo on it running 260bhp.
I will let you know when I get a ecu.
Have you got your loom back yet?
I've got a complete loom from a seat Leon.

simongolf83 said

Was going to run a ko4  I think. the bloke that owed it before said he had a hybrid turbo on it running 260bhp.
I will let you know when I get a ecu.
Have you got your loom back yet?
I've got a complete loom from a seat Leon.

Yea had the loom back in a week of sending it.



Pretty much plug and play now

I'm running a k03s on mine for a few months till the car's ran in and all the bit's are ironed out then i will go for a k04 set up, i rebuild k03s n k04s as a side hobby so not a problem with the turbo side of things and my mate maps vag's so he will be doing that. I want to put uprated rod's and run a relentless manifold with the k04 but with 300bhp going to need a LSD fitted so i can put the power down but there lots of monies lol

That looks alot better than mine at the moment got mine in two boxes. :-( don't mind me asking how much was the loom all done? So your the man to come too for a turbo then?

simongolf83 said

That looks alot better than mine at the moment got mine in two boxes. :-( don't mind me asking how much was the loom all done? So your the man to come too for a turbo then?

I'll send you a PM mate. I though with the loom you would need all of it but then i found out all you need it the engine and ecu part of the loom which is the one in this pick and the mk1 loom with the white plug on the end of it.