Mk4 Golf 4Motion - 1.8t Conversion
Discussion
This is a long post – grab a cuppa and strap in 
It appears I’m a glutton for punishment with this platform and engine. I’ve currently got 3 4motion/Quattro projects – this being the most recent.
I had a Mk1 TT project ( Audi TT Thread) that I fell out of love with after something went bang in the engine. I did have a spare engine to put in it but never really liked the impracticality of the TT. Even with 2 half sized humans, real estate in the back was somewhat limited in the so-called “rear seats”.
What I wanted, was the power and the handling of the TT Quattro (the handling is a subjective one in the Mk1 TT’s – some people love it, some hate it) with the practicality of the Golf. Now the only model Golf 4Motion in the UK came equipped with the 2.8 VR6 engine. And, well, I already have one of those ( Mk4 Golf 4Motion thread). They don’t come up often and when they do, they’re invariably not cheap. Converting a ten-a-penny front wheel drive Golf to 4Motion is a massive undertaking, which would essentially require the shell of a 4Motion anyway – so largely pointless.
As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself to me through my mate Craig (Superchickenn on PH) for a 3 door 4Motion about half a mile away from me. Perfect. Even more perfect was the price. £500. Bargain.
It was rough and ready, with an interior straight from an 80s HGV drivers cab, with a tint of nicotine yellow on everything. It was a cross between that plastic 90s computers were made from and the once-white walls of a 70s working men’s club walls.
The issues didn’t stop there. It was misfiring on one cylinder and the fans weren’t kicking in (I’d narrowed this down to a faulty temp sensor). Not that I cared as the engine was no use to me anyway.
Anyway, enough rambling. I got it on the drive and set to work. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Aim of the game is to slot the 1.8t from my old TT into this Grandad, poverty spec Golf 4Motion
The day I picked it up, I’d noticed that it had very rare optional extra Xenon lights. These are worth a few quid so I sold them for 2/3s of the car’s value.
Bodywork wise, it was ok. Apart from the bootlid which looked like it had been taken directly from the Titanic
In the meantime, I set about getting the spare 1.8t ready to for the conversion. I had a bare block on the engine stand and swapped over the K04 turbo from the retired BAM engine, as well as all the ancillaries. This engine had a new head gasket which had done less than 1000 miles, as well as all new gaskets and copper seals. Nonetheless, used all new copper seals this time around also. Deleted the aircon and fitted a shorter belt to suit. Freshened up some of the bracketry with some high quality Allow wheel paint from Home Bargains
Fitted the single mass flywheel conversion from the BAM and gave myself a gentle reminder not to fit the gearbox gasket. Found that out the hard way previously.
For info, the engine I’m putting in is an absolute Frankenstein engine. It’s an AGU bottom end which has the 20mm wrist pins which is the same as the BAM from the TT. However it has slightly higher compression as the AGU was set up for 150hp over the 225hp given to the BAM engine. It then has an AUQ head from a 180bhp Seat Leon FR and a K04 turbo and inlet from the BAM out of the TT. Proper Frankenstein!
I used the entire front suspension setup from the TT. Subframes, lower cast arms and ball joints, hubs, struts (I already had a set of AP Racing Coilovers on the TT), Brakes, top mounts, ARB and quick ratio steering rack. This drops down easily in one unit
Then it was off to the big scrapheap in the sky for the TT – good riddance!
Then the Golf strip down commenced
Old Subframe removed. This will be kept for spares (or sold if someone needs it).
And the big old V6 lump out complete with box and Loom – this was sold to some lovely chap in Ireland to put into a Mk2 Jetta I believe.
It was time to attack the grotty engine bay. Always worthwhile a thorough clean at this stage as I don’t plan on getting back here anytime soon! You can also see the full aircon delete here (the aircon wasn’t
After a quick run over with some degreaser, brush and jetwash it was like new
I gave the brake calipers a rub down and a lick of paint with the only Hammerite I had in the garage. Green
Engine all built up, clutch installed and gearbox mounted. Then it went straight back into the car. I used the gearbox from the TT which mounts up directly to the 4Motion prop shaft (they’re essentially the same cars, mechanically).
I turned my attention to the rear as I was waiting for some parts to arrive. I have a few spare sets of rear control arms for the Quattro/4Mo platform, so set about trying to freshen a set up with what I had in the garage. As you can see, the bushes were shot and the arms were pretty crusty. An hour or so with the wire wheel and a lick of paint later, they’re not so bad. These have a tendency of snapping on this platform, especially on lowered cars. This is mainly due to the bushes seizing which puts stress on the arms when lowered and gives up the ghost on life.
Pictured above is the upper control arms. For the lower arms, to avoid aforementioned snappage, I bought some Silver Projekt adjustable lower arms from a firm in Poland. They’re good pieces of kit at face value – I’ll update the thread if they decide to part ways and put me into a hedge.
I then polybushed the upper arms to match
Back to the front end, I also fitted a Proflex Steering Rack Polybush as the originals can make the steering feel wooly.
Then the subframe and struts could be installed onto the Golf and brakes refitted.
I bought a set of unused HEL braided brake lines and got them fitted to the front. I have rears also, but they’re on the list for another day.
Some nylon braided fuel line replacements also fitted.
Then it was onto the intercoolings. I’d found myself a neat little intercooler second hand for a reasonable price, and ordered a set of genuine universal eBay speshul pipework which was guaranteed not to fit in any way shape or form. Easy, I though, bit of cutting here, bit of beading there. Sorted.
Started the mockup with the slap panel hung on the front purely with hopes and dreams.
I’d seen on the interwebbings and YooToob that you can easily make up a homemade pipe beader from some water pump pliers and an exhaust clamp. How hard can it be? Out came the welder and the tool was forged from the heart of a dying platypus. Looked the part, but was useless. I resorted to a screwdriver and a hammer to punch some beads into the ally pipework – more on that later!
Now, back to the back. Keep up at the back.
I started to get the rear end taken apart ready to fit the coil overs, recently refreshed upper arms and new lower adjustable arms. As you can see it was pretty crusty, but overall not too bad for a 20 year old car. It had a very decent service history with it but not much in the way of taking care of the rear.
I thought it was only stupid Fords that engineered this kind of cockery. Ugh. Subframe bolt out just to get the lower arm bolt out. JUST PUT THE NUT ON THAT END YOU FUMBLING COCK WAFFLES.
I had new spring cups to install from the TT and heard that the originals are inherently b
ds to remove. The rumours were true. It took me an hour to get one side off using a combo attack of hammers, grinders, swearing, bigger hammers, hot things and more swearing. Eventually it was out with just a battle scare to show for itself. Luckily will be covered by the new spring cup (I did give it a wee spray with some red oxide to protect it from rust – but was too annoyed with it to take a picture).
I used the original lower arms to adjust the new lower arms to within a good estimate, accounting for it being lowered. It’ll obviously need a full alignment but this is the best I can do for now. I’ll just crab my way around for a bit until I can get it aligned!
All refitted with coilovers and refreshed upper arms.
Refreshed vs old upper arms.
Nasty old shocks had seen better days. They weren’t leaking though, which is something.
It was very much rinse and repeat the other side. Albeit the spring cup had obviously learned from the demise of its nearest neighbour and didn’t put up much of a fight, fortunately. Maybe it was the utters of “oxy” and “acetylene” I was making under my breath that persuaded it to surrender.
Test fitting the TT Comp alloys with some 20mm spacers and it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. So swapped in some 10mm spacers and the fitment was lovely! So I’ll be running 10mm spacers on the rear, and no spacers on the front.
20mm spacers
10mm spacers
Now for those at the back, we’re back to the front
I’d made some more changes to accommodate the intercooler and mocked up some of the ill-fitting pipework. I needed to use a combination of universal and standard pipework. Mainly because the MAP sensor was fitted to one of the standard hard pipes, and the universal pipes didn’t come with a boss to install it. So it was a bit of a faff
Installed some rivnuts into the crash bar to support the cooler.
Made some precision cuts (ahem) to the radiator support to accommodate.
DEFINITELY didn’t put my sawzaw through the rad!!! Luckily had a spare
Home made bansaw OSHA approved
Started mocking up
Now, before I spent too much time on the intercoolings, hooked up the wiring loom to see if it would fire up. If it did, all well and good and I’d proceed. At this stage, I’m using half the engine harness from the TT and the other half that was standard on the V6 Golf on the assumption it was all the same. Well, you know what the say about Assumptions? They’re the mother of all fk ups.
Inevitably, it wouldn’t start. So I got my hands on the other half of the correct loom from a Skoda Octavia 1.8t with a 150bhp ARZ engine and swapped that in.
Once that was in, I gave it a turn of the key and it fired into life! Now it was time to button it all up! Easy right!
Wrong.
There were a fair few things to sort out. One of which was correcting the wiring loom for the headlights. The Xenons, when fitted from factory, have a 12 pin plug and the standard Halogens have a 10 pin plug. There’re Kufatec adapters for those sensible people who want to upgrade from Halogen to Xenon. But nothing for the apparent psychopaths who want to downgrade. So I found some wiring diagrams used on the forums to upgrade the wiring for Xenons, and worked backwards from there.
All working as they should – albeit a bit bonkeyed!
I then got the intercooler reinstalled and buttoned up, radiators installed and fluids dropped in ready to fire her back up. Although there was a slight mishap with the PAS fluid making a bid for freedom due to a rogue O ring :facepalm: I went on to bleed the brakes and clutch and found that there was a clip missing on the clutch slave cylinder, which dropped most of the fluid. Live and learn eh!
There was an issue where the fans would kick in and the temp gauge started to creep up after idling for a while. A quick scan resulted in the below code “Error in mapped cooling system”.
I swapped out the temp sensor in the rad which yielded no results so then swapped the temp sensor in the thermostat housing which fixed the issue and fans were fanning like a fan thing. Result.
It was then a case of buttoning up the front end, making some pretty significant hacks into the bumper to get the intercooler to fit and she was back on her wheels!
I’ve still got a list of things to tidy up
- Refit wipers
- Replace the Titanic themed bootlid
- Lower the rear end slightly
- Alignment
- Swap the god-awful and filthy seats with something
Congrats if you made it this far and thanks for reading!
It appears I’m a glutton for punishment with this platform and engine. I’ve currently got 3 4motion/Quattro projects – this being the most recent.
I had a Mk1 TT project ( Audi TT Thread) that I fell out of love with after something went bang in the engine. I did have a spare engine to put in it but never really liked the impracticality of the TT. Even with 2 half sized humans, real estate in the back was somewhat limited in the so-called “rear seats”.
What I wanted, was the power and the handling of the TT Quattro (the handling is a subjective one in the Mk1 TT’s – some people love it, some hate it) with the practicality of the Golf. Now the only model Golf 4Motion in the UK came equipped with the 2.8 VR6 engine. And, well, I already have one of those ( Mk4 Golf 4Motion thread). They don’t come up often and when they do, they’re invariably not cheap. Converting a ten-a-penny front wheel drive Golf to 4Motion is a massive undertaking, which would essentially require the shell of a 4Motion anyway – so largely pointless.
As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself to me through my mate Craig (Superchickenn on PH) for a 3 door 4Motion about half a mile away from me. Perfect. Even more perfect was the price. £500. Bargain.
It was rough and ready, with an interior straight from an 80s HGV drivers cab, with a tint of nicotine yellow on everything. It was a cross between that plastic 90s computers were made from and the once-white walls of a 70s working men’s club walls.
The issues didn’t stop there. It was misfiring on one cylinder and the fans weren’t kicking in (I’d narrowed this down to a faulty temp sensor). Not that I cared as the engine was no use to me anyway.
Anyway, enough rambling. I got it on the drive and set to work. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Aim of the game is to slot the 1.8t from my old TT into this Grandad, poverty spec Golf 4Motion
The day I picked it up, I’d noticed that it had very rare optional extra Xenon lights. These are worth a few quid so I sold them for 2/3s of the car’s value.
Bodywork wise, it was ok. Apart from the bootlid which looked like it had been taken directly from the Titanic
In the meantime, I set about getting the spare 1.8t ready to for the conversion. I had a bare block on the engine stand and swapped over the K04 turbo from the retired BAM engine, as well as all the ancillaries. This engine had a new head gasket which had done less than 1000 miles, as well as all new gaskets and copper seals. Nonetheless, used all new copper seals this time around also. Deleted the aircon and fitted a shorter belt to suit. Freshened up some of the bracketry with some high quality Allow wheel paint from Home Bargains
Fitted the single mass flywheel conversion from the BAM and gave myself a gentle reminder not to fit the gearbox gasket. Found that out the hard way previously.
For info, the engine I’m putting in is an absolute Frankenstein engine. It’s an AGU bottom end which has the 20mm wrist pins which is the same as the BAM from the TT. However it has slightly higher compression as the AGU was set up for 150hp over the 225hp given to the BAM engine. It then has an AUQ head from a 180bhp Seat Leon FR and a K04 turbo and inlet from the BAM out of the TT. Proper Frankenstein!
I used the entire front suspension setup from the TT. Subframes, lower cast arms and ball joints, hubs, struts (I already had a set of AP Racing Coilovers on the TT), Brakes, top mounts, ARB and quick ratio steering rack. This drops down easily in one unit
Then it was off to the big scrapheap in the sky for the TT – good riddance!
Then the Golf strip down commenced
Old Subframe removed. This will be kept for spares (or sold if someone needs it).
And the big old V6 lump out complete with box and Loom – this was sold to some lovely chap in Ireland to put into a Mk2 Jetta I believe.
It was time to attack the grotty engine bay. Always worthwhile a thorough clean at this stage as I don’t plan on getting back here anytime soon! You can also see the full aircon delete here (the aircon wasn’t
After a quick run over with some degreaser, brush and jetwash it was like new
I gave the brake calipers a rub down and a lick of paint with the only Hammerite I had in the garage. Green
Engine all built up, clutch installed and gearbox mounted. Then it went straight back into the car. I used the gearbox from the TT which mounts up directly to the 4Motion prop shaft (they’re essentially the same cars, mechanically).
I turned my attention to the rear as I was waiting for some parts to arrive. I have a few spare sets of rear control arms for the Quattro/4Mo platform, so set about trying to freshen a set up with what I had in the garage. As you can see, the bushes were shot and the arms were pretty crusty. An hour or so with the wire wheel and a lick of paint later, they’re not so bad. These have a tendency of snapping on this platform, especially on lowered cars. This is mainly due to the bushes seizing which puts stress on the arms when lowered and gives up the ghost on life.
Pictured above is the upper control arms. For the lower arms, to avoid aforementioned snappage, I bought some Silver Projekt adjustable lower arms from a firm in Poland. They’re good pieces of kit at face value – I’ll update the thread if they decide to part ways and put me into a hedge.
I then polybushed the upper arms to match
Back to the front end, I also fitted a Proflex Steering Rack Polybush as the originals can make the steering feel wooly.
Then the subframe and struts could be installed onto the Golf and brakes refitted.
I bought a set of unused HEL braided brake lines and got them fitted to the front. I have rears also, but they’re on the list for another day.
Some nylon braided fuel line replacements also fitted.
Then it was onto the intercoolings. I’d found myself a neat little intercooler second hand for a reasonable price, and ordered a set of genuine universal eBay speshul pipework which was guaranteed not to fit in any way shape or form. Easy, I though, bit of cutting here, bit of beading there. Sorted.
Started the mockup with the slap panel hung on the front purely with hopes and dreams.
I’d seen on the interwebbings and YooToob that you can easily make up a homemade pipe beader from some water pump pliers and an exhaust clamp. How hard can it be? Out came the welder and the tool was forged from the heart of a dying platypus. Looked the part, but was useless. I resorted to a screwdriver and a hammer to punch some beads into the ally pipework – more on that later!
Now, back to the back. Keep up at the back.
I started to get the rear end taken apart ready to fit the coil overs, recently refreshed upper arms and new lower adjustable arms. As you can see it was pretty crusty, but overall not too bad for a 20 year old car. It had a very decent service history with it but not much in the way of taking care of the rear.
I thought it was only stupid Fords that engineered this kind of cockery. Ugh. Subframe bolt out just to get the lower arm bolt out. JUST PUT THE NUT ON THAT END YOU FUMBLING COCK WAFFLES.
I had new spring cups to install from the TT and heard that the originals are inherently b
ds to remove. The rumours were true. It took me an hour to get one side off using a combo attack of hammers, grinders, swearing, bigger hammers, hot things and more swearing. Eventually it was out with just a battle scare to show for itself. Luckily will be covered by the new spring cup (I did give it a wee spray with some red oxide to protect it from rust – but was too annoyed with it to take a picture). I used the original lower arms to adjust the new lower arms to within a good estimate, accounting for it being lowered. It’ll obviously need a full alignment but this is the best I can do for now. I’ll just crab my way around for a bit until I can get it aligned!
All refitted with coilovers and refreshed upper arms.
Refreshed vs old upper arms.
Nasty old shocks had seen better days. They weren’t leaking though, which is something.
It was very much rinse and repeat the other side. Albeit the spring cup had obviously learned from the demise of its nearest neighbour and didn’t put up much of a fight, fortunately. Maybe it was the utters of “oxy” and “acetylene” I was making under my breath that persuaded it to surrender.
Test fitting the TT Comp alloys with some 20mm spacers and it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. So swapped in some 10mm spacers and the fitment was lovely! So I’ll be running 10mm spacers on the rear, and no spacers on the front.
20mm spacers
10mm spacers
Now for those at the back, we’re back to the front
I’d made some more changes to accommodate the intercooler and mocked up some of the ill-fitting pipework. I needed to use a combination of universal and standard pipework. Mainly because the MAP sensor was fitted to one of the standard hard pipes, and the universal pipes didn’t come with a boss to install it. So it was a bit of a faff
Installed some rivnuts into the crash bar to support the cooler.
Made some precision cuts (ahem) to the radiator support to accommodate.
DEFINITELY didn’t put my sawzaw through the rad!!! Luckily had a spare
Home made bansaw OSHA approved
Started mocking up
Now, before I spent too much time on the intercoolings, hooked up the wiring loom to see if it would fire up. If it did, all well and good and I’d proceed. At this stage, I’m using half the engine harness from the TT and the other half that was standard on the V6 Golf on the assumption it was all the same. Well, you know what the say about Assumptions? They’re the mother of all f
k ups. Inevitably, it wouldn’t start. So I got my hands on the other half of the correct loom from a Skoda Octavia 1.8t with a 150bhp ARZ engine and swapped that in.
Once that was in, I gave it a turn of the key and it fired into life!
Now it was time to button it all up! Easy right! Wrong.
There were a fair few things to sort out. One of which was correcting the wiring loom for the headlights. The Xenons, when fitted from factory, have a 12 pin plug and the standard Halogens have a 10 pin plug. There’re Kufatec adapters for those sensible people who want to upgrade from Halogen to Xenon. But nothing for the apparent psychopaths who want to downgrade. So I found some wiring diagrams used on the forums to upgrade the wiring for Xenons, and worked backwards from there.
All working as they should – albeit a bit bonkeyed!
I then got the intercooler reinstalled and buttoned up, radiators installed and fluids dropped in ready to fire her back up. Although there was a slight mishap with the PAS fluid making a bid for freedom due to a rogue O ring :facepalm: I went on to bleed the brakes and clutch and found that there was a clip missing on the clutch slave cylinder, which dropped most of the fluid. Live and learn eh!
There was an issue where the fans would kick in and the temp gauge started to creep up after idling for a while. A quick scan resulted in the below code “Error in mapped cooling system”.
I swapped out the temp sensor in the rad which yielded no results so then swapped the temp sensor in the thermostat housing which fixed the issue and fans were fanning like a fan thing. Result.
It was then a case of buttoning up the front end, making some pretty significant hacks into the bumper to get the intercooler to fit and she was back on her wheels!
I’ve still got a list of things to tidy up
- Refit wipers
- Replace the Titanic themed bootlid
- Lower the rear end slightly
- Alignment
- Swap the god-awful and filthy seats with something
Congrats if you made it this far and thanks for reading!
Edited by MikeDrop on Tuesday 18th May 08:49
Pixelpeep Z4 said:
bookmarked for when i'm not on the work VPN which blocks access to photo sharing websites 
it does seem pic heavy.,.which i'm looking forward to >
Yeah there's a fair few pics it does seem pic heavy.,.which i'm looking forward to >
J4CKO said:
Good read that, what power you aiming for ?
Thanks! At the moment it's mapped to about 270/280bhp although I haven't had it on the rollers yet. I want reliable power that I can take the kids for a weekend hoon to Brecon without worrying if a rod is going to be fired into Welsh orbit In other news, I got the new (to me) bootlid fitted last night. Luckily, Craig was breaking his old reflex silver PD130 so I pilfered it from that
. Kinda forced my hand when the initial test drive flung open the boot half way down my local bypass :chuckle:. 
Just need to refit the wiper (Craig loves a wiper delete, whereas I hate them).
Initial test drive threw up some issues. It wasn't boosting right at all. Checked a few things over and the N75 routing seemed a little wrong (some genius *ahem* had plumbed it into a van line, rather than a boost source
) so fixed that which didn't solve the issue. However, whilst sat in bed pondering my life choices, I realised I'd still gotten the routing wring. I've mixed up the boost and inlet routing so will fix that on my lunch break today. 
The brakes a re a tiny bit spongy for my liking, so may need an additional bleed or even an ABS bleed through VCDS. I have a traction light on which I think is down to needing to zero in the steering angle sensor after fitting my TT steering wheel, so once that's done I may even find some loose surface and slam the anchors on to trigger the ABS and self bleed it.
It DESPERATELY needs an alignment! The backend is all over the place. So I have it booked into Indigo-GT in Ystrad Mynach for Thursday for a full 4 wheel alignment and to settle the ride height.
But, she runs fine. No leaks, bangs, knocks or smoke which is the main thing. Everything else is just fettling now.
InitialDave said:
Why not just buy an A3 1.8T quattro?
It's a fair question. Easy answer is because this Golf was cheap and convenient to collect. Besides, I prefer the Golf Plus, I already have an A3 Quattro, albeit a PD130 A3 TDI Quattro
MikeDrop said:
Initial test drive threw up some issues. It wasn't boosting right at all. Checked a few things over and the N75 routing seemed a little wrong (some genius *ahem* had plumbed it into a van line, rather than a boost source ) so fixed that which didn't solve the issue. However, whilst sat in bed pondering my life choices, I realised I'd still gotten the routing wring. I've mixed up the boost and inlet routing so will fix that on my lunch break today.
My suspicions were correct and I had these connections mixed up. Quickly swapped them and now it's running spot on - pulls really well so I'm happy ) so fixed that which didn't solve the issue. However, whilst sat in bed pondering my life choices, I realised I'd still gotten the routing wring. I've mixed up the boost and inlet routing so will fix that on my lunch break today. Loved the MX5 - bookmarked. Now, I'll go and read from the top!
ETA - I made some droplink bushes using a tool setup not dissimilar to your bandsaw once... Emphasis on the once.
Like a lathe, but not a lathe. Just add a file to a rapidly spinning PU donut and hope to feck it doesn't kick.
ETA - I made some droplink bushes using a tool setup not dissimilar to your bandsaw once... Emphasis on the once.
Like a lathe, but not a lathe. Just add a file to a rapidly spinning PU donut and hope to feck it doesn't kick.
Edited by Smitters on Tuesday 18th May 15:15
martin mrt said:
Cracking thread, keep the updates coming
Thanks Smitters said:
Loved the MX5 - bookmarked. Now, I'll go and read from the top!
ETA - I made some droplink bushes using a tool setup not dissimilar to your bandsaw once... Emphasis on the once.
Like a lathe, but not a lathe. Just add a file to a rapidly spinning PU donut and hope to feck it doesn't kick.
Thanks! Love that ghetto lathe too! ETA - I made some droplink bushes using a tool setup not dissimilar to your bandsaw once... Emphasis on the once.
Like a lathe, but not a lathe. Just add a file to a rapidly spinning PU donut and hope to feck it doesn't kick.
Edited by Smitters on Tuesday 18th May 15:15
integraf40 said:
Fine work and bookmarked. I bloody love the interchangeability of the MK4 platform.
Thanks! It's brilliant for the likes of me and my mate Craig who own 9 of them between us, we have many spares! I gave the Grandad a good clean yesterday. The seats are ruined, need to get some replacemements. Over time, I'd like to change the cream interior (seats, door cards, dash and other trim) for black trim but I'm in no rush.
It really was filthy. I took hardly any pictures as I was too busy shaking my fist at the weather for lulling me into a false sense of security to get the hoover out and then piss it down with rain!
TT steering wheels really are much nicer than the Golf's.
I need to refit the headlight washer jet caps (probably just sikaflex them back on since I don't use the jets anymore). Speaking of which, I've kept the jets as I'll eventually get around to position them so they spray the intercooler
Funny story - shortly after this pic, I got it in to start it and... click. Hmmm. Try again. Click. s
t. Turns out some bellend didn't bolt the live to the starter motor and it was just swinging in the wind!
Reconnected it loosely to start it and I'll get a spare bolt on it 
Today Craig and I fiddled with the Steering Angle sensor to get everying zeroed up before my alignment tomorrow. I still had an ABS code, which turned out to be a disconnected ABS sensor. Simply plugged it back in and away it went. I love those tricky fixes
My universal washer bottle should be here tomorrow, which should extinguish the low washer warning light. I'll need to modify it to accept the level sensor which shouldn't be too difficult.
Need to clear the airbag warning lights and then I shouldn't have any lights on the dash - a miracle for Mk4 Golf's, apparently!
Having had a PD150 for 6 years I do like the Mk4, I was looking for a diesel 4 motion but couldn't find one I could afford or they had mega mileage at the time.
Is the 4 motion mostly front wheel drive until you lose traction then the rears kick in?
I think the engine swap is excellent and it's also a good read to OP
Is the 4 motion mostly front wheel drive until you lose traction then the rears kick in?
I think the engine swap is excellent and it's also a good read to OP
JakeT said:
Lovely job. I reckon a 4 Motion 1.8T would be pretty handy. My 150BHP early mk4 gti had been ‘superchipped’ yonks ago. Best thing about it? Heated Recaros. 
It's doing well in this beautiful Welsh summer rain we're having! carinaman said:
I like that 4Motion interior and like what you've done with the engine swap.
The interior is in a dire state and is the most basic you can have specced back in the day. Non heated cloth in beige 
Not to my taste, but different strokes for different folks innit Retro_Jim said:
Having had a PD150 for 6 years I do like the Mk4, I was looking for a diesel 4 motion but couldn't find one I could afford or they had mega mileage at the time.
Is the 4 motion mostly front wheel drive until you lose traction then the rears kick in?
I think the engine swap is excellent and it's also a good read to OP
I've had PD engines pretty much constantly for the last 12 years. They're such good engines and I've come to know them pretty well. I wish they sold a Pd130 Mk4 Golf 4Mo in the UKDM but we didn't get one Is the 4 motion mostly front wheel drive until you lose traction then the rears kick in?
I think the engine swap is excellent and it's also a good read to OP
We only had the Audi A3 Pd130 Quattro, which I happen to have too Yes, it's a Haldex system, the same as the TT, A3 Quattros. Clutched rear diff that engages when the front lose traction. It's a marmite all wheel drive system, also known as Faux Wheel Drive amongst the cynical. I've always enjoyed the handling of a Quattro/4Mo system though.
Thanks for the kind words
In other news, Grandad had an alignment today at Indigo-GT Motorsport in Ystrad Mynach - highly recommended!
As with most 20 year old cars, it didn't go without a hitch. The trouble we had was that, although I had fitted adjustable lower camber arms, when dialing in the camber, it was increasing the negative Toe In. There's not a lot of adjustment on the Toe in the rear setup of these cars, maybe 2/3mm at most. When the Camber was set at the desired -1.5deg, the Toe in was at -10deg Toe in
I've done some reading and this looks like a common issues, known as "TT Geometry Lottery" in some parts. That said, the bushes didn't look their best. So We dialled it into some reasonable negative camber (about -1deg either side) and settled on -6deg Toe In for now so it drives straight. I'll then work on refreshing the bushes and we'll take another look.
Needless to say, it's a lot better than when I took it in (below)
- by those numbers, I'm surprised I didn't have to drive it looking out the side window. Absolute banana car geometry 
On the drive home, I had the dreaded, heart-attack-inducing, tear-jerking Oil Pressure warning light of deathly doom. Immediately switched engine off and took a look under the hood. No leaks. Started her back up, no knocks. Hmmm.
Craig was with me and thought that the oil pressure switch connector plug looked a bit weird, so gave it a wiggle. As with 99.99999999999% of all VW Audi connector plugs known to man, it's a little bit worse for wear and wasn't quite seating properly. Gave it a solid push and the warning didn't appear from then. So will look to get a decent new plug and splice it in - it's only one wire so no challenge for my expert soldering skillzzzzzzzz.
Edited by MikeDrop on Thursday 20th May 13:35
Usget said:
Good read and I like how subtle it is, with just the intercooler pipes poking out if you know where to look. Can't say I'm a fan of the massive wheels, but other than that, it's a cool project which will be even better once you get that Wetherspoons spec interior out!
Thanks that's the look I'm aiming for. I may even swap the rear bumper for a non V6 version that doesn't have the cutout for the exhaust tailpipe. Then fit a nice stealthy back box - with a 1.4 badge on the boot Believe it or not, they're only 17s but they do look big in that picture. Possibly because it has a bit of a monster truck stance. I've since lowered it and the proportions look much better. I'll wait for Noah's Arc second coming storm to finish and get some decent pics!
aaron_2000 said:
Awesome build. Didn't fancy fitting the LCR Brembos to it at that power?
They're hard to come buy at a decent price (I think they still go fro about £450 second hand and for that money, I'd look into Porsche 996 setup) and I don't think they fit under 17" wheels. I've never had an issue with the 312mm setup to be honest. I do think the LCR Brembos are slightly overkill for this power. The TT 225s were only fitted with 312mm as standard and it has the same engine as the LCR but is significantly heavier. With some decent pads, the 312mm are just fine IMHO
That said, if some came up a decent price, I wouldn't say no
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