Projekt Golf Zwei

[80 Vert]

It arrived!! Took nearly 2 months but the wait is over and curiosity was killing me as that's the very last part left to get working in the original cluster.
I'd left the wiring in place from the last USRT supplied tacho box that didn't do as promised so hooking this up should be a snap, except it wasn't.
This one needs an actual pulse signal it converts so has to run a wire from the ecu but my TSI has no such connection in the ecu as the canbus handles that signal so had to take a signal from one of the coil packs back to the unit, the unit then multiplies this and converts it to a signal the Mk2 tach can read.
This can be used for any engine, being a VR6, V8, 4 cylinder what ever. Very clever thing, set of switches inside the box to tell the unit what output you want.
Got it wired up and started the engine, tacho works......but seemed to be reading low. Letting it warm up the rpms settled and sure enough it was reading half what it should.
Couldn't really see how to get more pulses out of it going by the settings on the back cover so I emailed the company and told them how I'd connected it and what I was doing with it.
Sure enough there's more settings they don't tell you about, in my case because I only have one pulse from one coil pack  I needed different settings.
Mine now multiplies by 16 and divides by 8, job done. Accurate and totally stable.

[le mans]

Result!

[slowburn]

trick

[80 Vert]

By now I'd been driving it quite a bit, making little changes to refine things even more and one thing that became pretty obvious was that I'd over specked the clutch.
The clutch actually came out of the old Vento Coupe's 1.8T that was making 250kw at the wheels so it was a pretty stout unit.
Started looking at heaps of options and more than once I came across posts suggesting a stock VR6 clutch would handle near enough to 300lb/ft of torque and 260+hp once bedded in correctly.
Decided I'd give that a go as they are dirt cheap and offer a nice light pedal. If I decide to go Stg1 at some point that clutch in theory should just be enough to handle it.
FCP Euro was the winner, placed the order and the clutch arrived at my door 6 days later all the way from Connecticut in the U.S, friggen awesome.
Not wanting to mess up the paint in the engine bay wrestling the gearbox out by myself I decided to pull the front off again to make the job easier.

Sat the engine on my engine table which made removing the gearbox fairly easy, clutch off and new Sachs one ready to go in.
In all not too bad, only thing would be no abuse for 800-1000km to break it in properly, that's going to be difficult!!!
All back together the clutch feels amazingly light, must be getting old......
Boy this old bucket has come a long way, all just dirty hard work.

[Agent-H]

that's one sweet looking ride mate!

[80 Vert]

Bit of tidy up time around here, with Project Zwei getting closer to being completed until the exterior paint job happens I sorted through the parts no longer needed to advertise them.
As always though projects like this are never really finished as the next few posts will prove. I had sitting around a 2016 Mk7 GTI I wrecked, as it was fairly well stripped I started thinking about scrapping the body and having the scap man collect it.
That is always a great opportunity to load the body up with all kinds of other junk that is normally difficult to dispose of.
As I started loading the shell I had in my hands the plastic interior sill trims to throw in it, these have a really nice aluminium trim with a red LED strip in them that lights up.
Such a shame to throw away.......hmmm I wonder.
Yup, you guessed it...custom fit them to the Mk2 hooked up to the door contact switch. Took quite a bit of effort but I'm pretty stoked with the results for something that would have been thrown away.

Getting ever closer, until some stupid old fool in a BMW backed in to the right rear side as I was getting out after parking at my upholsterers shop very nearly pinning me between the 2 cars!!! When I say very near, I mean inches!!
I saw him coming as I stood up after getting out and by the time I reacted by shouting and slamming my fist on his boot he slammed in to my car.
Shifted the back of my car over 1/2m, damaged my newly powdercoated wheel and damaged the right rear wheel arch and 1/4 panel.
He was totally deluded and denied causing the damage, lucky for me I had witnesses but he refused to lodge a claim with his insurance company.
Since I wasn't insured yet that became a problem, he was a fairly well known figure around these parts so I started calling him gently reminding him he should do the right thing and he had all sorts of stories like CSI had measured a car like mine and it was impossible his car caused that damage even though he acknowledged he had hit me, not much I could do but remain calm and keep pushing him to do the right thing. More and more a problem of the society we have created, total lack of responsibility.
Eventually after many weeks we got there, he lodged a claim but he still denied responsibility however my letter from the witnesses got his insurance company on my side and claim processed. This damage will be dealt with when it gets painted.
A funny twist in this was the contact person at his insurance company I dealt with was a really nice friend of a friend who remembered my name as I'd done some work on his 70's Toyota Celica over 10 years ago (which he sill owned)

[gti vr6]

Man that sucks that some old coot damaged your car. 

[80 Vert]

Yup was pretty shocked how irresponsible a man in his 70's could be, still that's the way of todays society.
Onwards with little refinements, the column stalks had seen better days with the white markings mostly worn off.
FCP Euro had brand new Meyle ones on sale so a late Saturday evening spending splurge saw those ordered and on their way here, I don't quite know how they manage to ship stuff so cheaply around the world but it works for me.
New stuff is always nice, little details make all the difference.

Column apart and out with the old, you tend to forget how far this thing has come.
In with the new looking much better.