FINALLY: It runs, it drives, I'm home (long!!!)

[scirocco16v88@hotmail.com (Tobias ><)]

After 3 weeks and more than 80 hours wrenching I've finally got the beast 
sitting back in the carport - and it drove there under its own power.

First things first - I'll say it again like I always do, without the help of 
listers stuff like this wouldn't be possible!! I divided the text into 
sections if you wanna skip anything ---> Thanks / Things dealt with / 
remaining issuses / impressions

--------------

Biggest thanks go out to Jeff (and his wife who was nice enough to put up 
with my car in her driveway) for offering up his driveway for me to wrench 
in, and his newly acquired MKI as temp transportation while I sorted out a 
motor and parts. Without him I'd be still be sitting here in desperation. 
Really can't put into words what that kind of help means!

Jason, for picking up the new motor and for lending me his garage the next 
weekend to pull the transmission out again (more on that further down), 
putting up with me until I got the car running and rolling. Again I'd be out 
serious cash if this had to have gone to a shop.

Raffi, who came by numerous times ... went out of his way and stayed late to 
get the key components into place. Don't hesitate to ask for help!

Randy and Mark - thanks for lending a hand, without it the car would have 
probably not made it out of Jeff's driveway on Monday. I could still use 
that axle Randy ;-)

--------------

Obviously few swaps ever go 100% the first time, so we had plenty of little 
issues that slowed us down:

Forgeting parts, pinning the passenger side axle under the motor when we 
dropped it in, motormount getting caught when solving the axle issue, t-belt 
being off a few teeth, gear linkage installed wrong so only 2nd was there. 
Getting stuck with a A3 8v clutch disk and sticking it in a 2h ... sh*t 
grinds!! Having to take tranny back out again - 1 hour just to pull the 
tranny itself (don't ask, it was hell enough holding it up for that long 
while getting it unhooked), CV being at more than 20 degrees .. bearings 
fall out and the wheel is binding, undoing evertything on the pass side to 
get the axle down to rebuild the cv .. only to put it backwards so it won't 
swivel and not find out until I have it all installed, just to pull it all 
again and do it over. Argh! Anyone tell me I can't do a swap in a weekend 
---- I'll drive my newly running car to your place and smack you upside the 
head. I don't wanna hear it ;-)

--------------

Apart from some adjustments there are two issues currently unresolved. One 
was that the t-belt was off a couple teeth and could have possibly caused 
interference, though the motor was only ideling. I still have to check the 
compression to be sure I don't have more headaches.

While driving home I came across a new noise. Description: Throttle 
dependant. While getting on the gas softly everything is butter. Step on the 
gas a little harder and theres a tweetering sound from up front. Going down 
the freeway and giving more to 3/4 throttle the car sounded more like an 
aircooled bug than a 2l 16v. It had a destinct "plattering" sound common to 
the aircooled motors.

Where could that be from? It's not as noticable in first gear, but all 
throughout the remaining gears the sound is the same according to how you 
step on the gas. Car idles smooth - now that it's been run it's showing a 
little flutter in the idle once it's warm (isn't this common for most 
people? dang, the one thing my 1.8 16v didn't do, the idle was rock solid)

Still running a little warm, probably some air stuck somewhere. Needle sits 
with the trailing edge just past the LED with the heater selector at half 
warm. We ditched the AC condensor so airflow should be better to the 
radiator - collant is a good mixture of about 60/40 with Water Wetter, low 
t-stats in pump and radiator, and two holes in pump t-stat to aid the 
burping of the system. Anything else I can do here?

--------------

Aside from some adjustments to really get the motor running at 100% I'm very 
happy with what I got in there now. A motor with 1/3 the mileage sounds and 
acts quite different, and much better to say the least. The full TT system 
sounds good -16v street header cat back borla - I'm hoping the resonators 
will break in more so I get a bit more tone (still a little quiet for me), 
or the mid one is getting replaced by straight pipe. The rebuilt tranny, now 
with the proper disk is smooth as silk. The .75 5th gear is going to take 
some getting used to .... I see it more like a 4 speed with a gas saver gear 
at the end, since it's really no good for anything but cruising (5th that 
is). Will have to wait to see what the tranny and Quaife can really do when 
I get the core support stabalized.

All in all things are looking up and I'm starting to like the car again. 
Many thanks to all the rest of ya who answered questions and offered help 
... it's really close to being done. Key is the car is home and now longer 
has to be towed around.

Time for me to take a really long shower ... my skin is the color of grease, 
and believe me I already scrubbed numerous times. You might say I have a 
grease tan on my arms. And I smell like tranny fluid (which I now vote as 
the most putrid smell man ever invented!!) Some pics of the work, the 
destruction, and the finished product will be up shortly.

T

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