84 mk2 polo.

[isnowi]

i know this is the wrong section, but the polo section needed some old school love so here is the build up of my old mk2, unfortunately i no longer have it, but i still like to look at it.


Anyway on with the story..... I bought for the princely sum of not very much, a 1984 vw Polo coupe 1300cc of tyre frying fury. When i bought it the windscreen had been smashed by some little wuckfits that had no appreciation of how difficult it would be to get a new one....

I imported a new screen from 'ze fatherland' and had that fitted up and the car wof'ed on the road for around $600 all up. Not bad i thought, and for 2 weeks i drove it around and had a lot of fun, then, some more wuckfits again decided to liberate it of its windscreen and drivers door glass, and the OEM+ VDO gauges i had fitted, and they tried to wrench my sparco wheel that suffered a little bit of a bend but not much more.

Thoroughly disheartened i put the car into dry storage and forgot about it, until earlier this year when, just for a lark i decided to see what new glass was worth through the stealership. To my (and the technician serving me's) surprise the front screen through the dealer cost less than 6 months rego delivered from germany via airfreight The side window however was nearly twice the price.

Windscreen number 2 unfortunately never made it past singapore before being turned into glass confetti, so i had to wait another 2 weeks and was beginning to wonder if perhaps this little car ws just not supposed to have windows.....

Windscreen number 3 arrived in one peice and was promptly installed into the car without any further glitches. I then set about undoing all the bad that sitting for nearly four years had caused... Tyres were split, cambelt looked pretty suss, carb was well nasty, and it smelled nasty....

I picked up a set of pirelli p slots (oem on mk2 golf's) and set about polishing them up in preparation for some new tyres, a set of 165-60/14 were duly purchased (wish i had gone for something else now).

This pretty much brings me up to around 1 month ago, where i managed to find an electronic ignition set up from a seat Ibiza (similar motor ) and had some more evil thoughts about putting the GSXR750 carbs, i have had for a while, to good use.

It's now running (a little roughly) on them and is awaiting some new brake calipers and pads so that i can have a go at tuning it a bit, but it is already well lairy compared to how it was with the old single throat DD pooburg carb that it left wolfsburg with.

Anywho pictures, and a little vid of the induction growl (and waterpump whine to boot)







YouTube - polo on bike carbs

Small update, have fitted choke cable, thanks to a triumph 2000tc, fitted a new, comically oversized, gear knob. Tidied up the throttle cable. Thats about it really, Have a new set of shockers coming courtesy of TM, just need to sort some new springs for the front and probably chop a couple of coils from the rear and it'll be a little bit littler in stance.

[isnowi]

Small update, new (old) brakes arrived, new rotors sorted, new front shocks shortened by 25mm, need to sort some springs still, going to find the dimensions of some aftermarket ones in the UK and get some matched or made.

New rotors are the same diameter as old, but vented sos shouldn't fade as quickly.

Old caliper, pads are around the size of a matchbox add to that the lack of power assistance and they were quite entertaining.

New caliper ,as fitted to MK2 GTi's and similar.

Old monroe shock (massive heat marks on the piston) vs NOS Gabriel shortened 25mm ( i will put something better in when i sort some springs.)


I cut 2 coils off the std springs and managed to lower the car by an enormous 6mm Not even picworthy...

Well it settled a little and is now down around 20mm, looks a little better, will have to do for the time being.

In other news it goes in for a WOF on thursday, hopefully the list isn't too long. Also found out that it doesn't like 91, coughs splutters and stalls all over the show. Swapped to a bigger OMP steering wheel, think i might sell the Nardi one, it's all of 300mm diameter, just a little too small for this one i think.

Made a blinging oil catch tank, cost a grand total of around $16 and looks like it's worth at least $20 :mrgreen:



WOF .... fail

Needs a new passenger seatbelt, wheel bearing play fixed, and rear brakes adjusting, not too bad for 6 years with no wof.

Should be wofed before xmas..

woohoo, now fully street legal.

More pics of mildly improved ride height when it stops raining...


Well i've been driving it as much as possible, been fiddling with the carbs to get it running better, now does around 20 MPG whereas before it was more like 10 MPG. Is running considerably better too (except for idle, just does not want to idle well.

Have made a new manifold up for it, thanks to Slayer00 cutting me a sweet flange, came out real nice and was super quick and a good price, well recommended.
I was too excited to take pictures of the flange before welding, but you get the idea.

Close up of my welding, need a new torch so that i can do it in one pass, hell, need a new welder too with HF start, and foot control, would make the welds much neater.



Waiting on a new waterpump to arrive from Pomgolia, managed to buy it when the NZD was worth something, then i'll pull the head portmatch the new IM, do the headgasket, give the cooling system a good flush out, pull the gearbox, check that the clutch will handle some track abuse and then clean it all up and put it all back together with new gaskets and fluids.

[isnowi]

DOH!



Just what i need, linings where scooped out from around the starter motor and swept up with a dustpan. I'm geussing the release bearing was in the wrong spot as the linings on the pressure plate side are still relatively decent.

The new (slightly) lowness. Plenty high enough to not arouse too much interest, but heaps stiffer thanks to honda civic rear shocks and springs.


May pick up some lowered springs to bring it down further, just don't know how to get the front to match cheaply, at the current height it sits pretty much level, bump steer is virtually non existant despite it riding about 80mm lower than it's factory height. it is very stiff now and doesn't get a lot of body roll, i suspect that the rear end will skip at the limit.

A shot of the engine as it appeared at trackday 09. not much has changed yet, going to look at sorting a set of extractors, and a new pipe too.

Also found that audi 5 pots of the same era use the same size valve springs, but stiffer and double, which will allow a few more revs once the exhaust is done, it really needs a new cam to make the most of the work so far, might see what i can find next year.

In its intended habitat:

[isnowi]

The last pictures i took of it before it went to a new home










Cheers, Dan

[GoLfMan]

dude top notch!

interested in what was involved in the bike carb thing. Ive got a set sitting in my bedroom and want to chuck them on the mk1. What was needed?

[isnowi]

All that was needed was the carbs, a manifold, and whole heap of patience...

I made the first manifold out of exhaust tubing, because i wasn't even sure how well it would run, after i got it running on that manifold i tore the head down and gave it a fairly major tickle, lots of port matching, and smoothing of the valve pockets, decoking, i never got around to putting double valve springs in, or to building a new exhaust manifold, but the work i did do made a pretty major difference. The thing with CV bike carbs is that they are almost infinitely adjustable, mine had a 36mm throat, and ran beautifully from about 3/4 to full throttle, part throttle was another story though, the throats on mine were 36mm, (don't compare them to car carbs, because they are a different kettle of fish) which was too big. I reckon a set of 34's would have kept the gas velocity up enough to generate sufficient vacuum to have a reasonable idle and part throttle operation.

Given the opportunity to do it again i would have spent more on carbs ( i payed NZ$50 for mine and spent around another $50 on parts to patch them up) i would also have done the exhaust manifold and recurved the dizzy so as not to need the vacuum advance function.

Cheers, Dan

[GoLfMan]

i like it!
Got a set of CBR600 carbs. Will have to TIG up a manifold for myself!
I like what you did with the Vacuum lines. Top notch!

[gldgti]

that. is. waaaay. cool.

Shame you let it go (for me), I'd have loved to watch it do great things at the track

Good work!

[Water Boy]

Nice work mate!

Whats your new rig?

[isnowi]

I have a lifted subaru brumby with ej22 in it, the missus car is a mk4 golf wagon, 1.8t. also have a e36 318is bmw at the moment that we are trying to get rid of.