My Boosted Mk1 Rabbit

[BoostedRabbit]

Hey guys I'm new to this site. Just wanted to make my own member journal/build thread. I shared my rabbit in my intro thread, but figured I'll post more specific details of my progress here.

It's a mk1 1984 VW Rabbit GTI. I bought it in Baltimore 2 years ago for $700. That dude had bought it a few months before that for his nephew, who decided he didn't want it. He found it in a barn in New Jersey with 130,XXX miles on it. The last inspection sticker on it was from 1998.
When I bought her:

First thing I did was lower it: (I mean it's a dub, right?)



replaced with:

tinted corners, tails:



Stock springs lasted ~8 months til I came up with the money for coils


One of my favorite pics:

Then I went with wheel studs, had my machine shop make me spacers and got a set of Rotas:








Well, its the end of my shift at work so that's all I have time to post right now, but I assure you there's much more to come. I'll post later tonight. Thanks for looking

[Ender81]

Nice bunny sir.

[Rally Sport]

Looks good! it'd be cool if you matched the wheel lip to the red in the front fascia or painted that blue, i like that color blue alot.

[tooslow1]

Nice car!! Track-r's need to stay on honda's tho

[02vwgolf]

great looking rabbit, love the cargo basket on top and personally i like the wheels... i might go with a white lip to match the car. Nice car all around though! any serious rust like most of these get?

[BoostedRabbit]

Originally Posted by Ender81

Nice bunny sir.

thank you, sir!

Originally Posted by Rally Sport

Looks good! it'd be cool if you matched the wheel lip to the red in the front fascia or painted that blue, i like that color blue alot.

great minds think alike take a look at my next post...

Originally Posted by tooslow1

Nice car!! Track-r's need to stay on honda's tho

thanks! Some may also make the comment that BBS's need to stay on dubs... to each his own

Originally Posted by 02vwgolf

great looking rabbit, love the cargo basket on top and personally i like the wheels... i might go with a white lip to match the car. Nice car all around though! any serious rust like most of these get?

thanks for the comment dude I am absolutely in love with oldskool roof racks haha. and no, not really I'm not sure how my little bunny managed to survive with such little rust. I've got some in the typical spot, under the rear bumper on the passenger side, but nothing a 3"x3" sheet of sheetmetal won't fix. Also, a little around the doorhandles and I just developed a little surface rust on the center of the roof right above the windshield, but definitely nothing big. I have plans for body work, but still getting my powertrain 100% first.

[BoostedRabbit]

Okay, just got out of a night class! Time to finish up and bring you guys up to date. I go to Drexel University for Mechanical Engineering. I had an internship at Volvo Powertrain in Hagerstown, MD last summer (the big turbo diesel Volvo and Mack Trucks). I was pretty much alone down there and bored so one of the mechanics was nice enough to let me use his garage for the entire summer! Another coworker sold me this for $1100:

Which quickly became this:


I parted it out and definitely made more than my original investment back, even keeping the 1.8T AEB 20v motor.


Then came time to tear into the Rabbit.
Original JH solid lifter 8v 1.8L CIS motor:



After some Purple Power and a thorough power washing:

primer:

and paint:

It turned out better than I expected. It was a quick job because I was on a strict time limit. I started in July and had to be done by September to move back home!
In order to fit the front motor mount, I had to switch to a mk3 oil filter housing, which points straight down instead of to the side like the original Passat housing. Also, the TDI mk3 already had an oil feed line to the turbo from the housing, so it was a perfect candidate.

No Power steering needed in this 1800lb car! and A/C is a luxury that my bay has no room for. Therefore, some brackets needed to be modified:

I also only wanted to run one Serpentine belt and get rid of all v-belts. The vr6 is the only water pump pulley that runs a serp belt from a vw, so vr6 h2O pump pulley it was!


Lucky for me, Volkswagen used basically the same block for most of their 4 cylinder engines from the late 70's all the way up to the late 90's. My early 1.8T AEB block was essentially the same as my 1.8 JH block. therefore, although the Passat didn't use the same mounts as the rabbit, the holes in the block were still there. They just need some rethreading

The motor sat Longitudinal in the passt, but I needed it to sit transverse, so I needed to make some other custom fabrications as well. Timing belt cover:

with rabbit motor mount installed. this motor mount is from an HD kit. You can also see taht I used a 16v tensioner, since the rabbit mount took up the space from the passat's auto-tensioner:

I then took a string and put it around my setup to measure for how long a serp belt I needed:



I also wanted to get rid of all that PCV sh*t. who wants oil in their intake? My intercooler was filled with it. thank you 034 motorsports for an adapter


Next up was the oil pan. Because I went from the motor sitting longitudinal to going transverse, the motor tilts back farther, and the oil sits differently in the pan, so I had to switch to a transverse oil pan and pickup tube setup as well. What's also sweet is they make a really nice baffle/gasket combo for a mk3 pan. I traded the catalytic converter off the passat for an entire mk3 ABA motor from a mk3 GTI. that's where all these mk3 parts are coming from

Also got my machine shop to weld in a bung for the turbo oil return line:

[Chubbbbs]

This is awesome.

[02vwgolf]

WOW awesome about the low, and damn from what i have seen so far you did quite some fabrication to make this car what it is today. major props i bet this thing is a rocket with how lightweight it is

[BoostedRabbit]

Continued
Then I started getting into some problems. I ordered a Sach's power clutch kit and I installed it, bolted up the trans and put it in the car and everything, only for me to be able to pull my clutch lever up all the way. the clutch would never disengage. something was wrong with the PP. but I'd rather not remember that because it was 2 weeks of my life wasted. So isntead, I returned it and went to bahnbrenner and got a SPEC Stg3+ PP and clutch kit.

not only did that suck, but I also tried to rebuild my turbo and when I took it apart I found this:

no good. well, why not upgrade while I'm at it? I didn't want to go BT yet because I didn't have the $$ for it, let alone the software and everything else needed. so instead, I went with a k03-s off of a mk4 gti. slight upgrade, only $130. In my price range. and clocked differently so it made it easier to run boost pipes.
In she goes:



I picked up an evo 8 intercooler off of a friend for $50. it was a steal, so I made it work. I had to move the radiator for it to though.
Bracket made:

more custom fab and ghetto rigging ;)



Had to completely cut all around the rad shroud. slim it down, re-weld the fan mounts back on and use the slimmer Passat fan with my rabbit radiator.

Also, Intake Manifold is from an Audi TT (225hp model), it's the only 1.8t manifold (besides the sharon van) that runs to the drivers side of the engine bay.

Found a bunch of free intercooler piping at Volvo. Mocked it all up myself:

got this purdy little thing in the mail:

mocking:


I want to relocate the battery to the back, but didn't have time to yet


I had a really fun trip to Autozone for coolant hoses
my convo:
AZ: (repeating) "well, what car is it for?"
me: "Trust me, this isn't in your computer, just let me look at the hoses you have."


made my own downpipe. local exhaust shop down there wanted to charge me $300. so I said nooo thankyou. those silver bungs are spark plug non-foulers. They back the sensor out of the stream so that it doesnt throw a code for not having a cat.





I hated wiring. It was literally only like 8-10 wires to splice and connect, but I'd rather do the mechanical side of a swap over electrics any day of the week. Anyways, I went to start it up for the first time and it kept dying out. realized my fuel pump power was connected wrong, so i fixed that and ran it again. It ran, but smoked from leaking oil onto the downpipe. turbo oil feed line fitting didn't quite fit.
This is the point where I had to pack up and head home because my internship was over. within 2 weeks of being home, I had ordered a few new fittings and luckily one of them fit. It was a tight squeeze between the manifold and the turbo, but I made it work.


Then, I ran her for an amazing half hour. was almost back home when i heard a weird noise and realized I was leaking oil EVERYWHERE. really badly.
typical. fix one problem, get another. great.

the car then sat for a few months because I didnt have time to work on it while i was in school. I ended up figuring out that I had spun an intermediate shaft bearing because I found it in pieces in my oil pan.




I ordered a new bearing and was lucky enough to be able to use the same intermediate shaft plate as the mk3 ABA I still had lying around. That motor was well worth the catalytic converter I traded for it.

Anyways remember how I always fix one problem and get another? well, somewhere along the line while re-timing it, a valve managed to get bent (how, I have no idea, but it happened). after replacing the intermediate shaft seal and bearing, i tried to start it and it wouldnt idle. electronics were all fine but i was misfiring like crazy in cylinders 3 and 4. I pulled the head to see what was up and found bent valves.


Well, it was cheaper for me to find a used head on craigslist than to get my head rebuilt, so i found a good one on Craigslist and the guy was really cool. ended up letting me borrow a tool to use for my Eurospec non-stretch head bolts. and gave me the bottom end of the 1.8T that I got the head off of for free. Now I've got an extra 1.8T laying around. I'll eventually build the head with bent valves and put some nice internals and cams in it.
that episode was a few short months ago.

Kimberton Car show next to my pops' Fury III

next to dumple's Redline:


2 weeks ago I replaced a bunch of ish.
-all 8 injector seals, new outer tie rod ends, camber bolt kits, installed a lower Scirocco K bar, fixed my oil return line, new oil and filter, etc.
Oh, and I'm chipped on a United Motorsports tune. Tune advertises 19 psi, with my huge front mount I should see around 17. I only actually see 10 peak and ~-17 @ idle. I also run really rich, so I'm pretty sure I've got a boost leak somewhere. I'm going to smoke test the boost pipes tomorrow to see where it's leaking from and hopefully I'll solve my issues
pic at mk1madness this year:


Even though I think I have a boost leak she's still pretty quick. I kept up with a brand new STI today, even around the turns Pretty sure I had him beat, but he was all over the two lanes so I couldnt actually pass him before he turned off
I'm eagerly awaiting the full 17psi. and a new long-ratio trans. 4500 rpm @ 75mph gets old reallly quickly. I probably top out (6500rpm) around 110 mph, which is when it just starts to get fun on the highway I've got the new trans, just need to find time to build it and install it.
Well, thanks for watching guys! You are now up to date and I'll post all my new progress here. I hope you enjoy it!

[BoostedRabbit]

Originally Posted by Chubbbbs

This is awesome.

I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for the kind words.

Originally Posted by 02vwgolf

WOW awesome about the low, and damn from what i have seen so far you did quite some fabrication to make this car what it is today. major props i bet this thing is a rocket with how lightweight it is

thanks for the props!! I want to go lower, but can't until i get different wheels. If i go any lower right now, I rub like a mofo around turns, and I love the turns too much to sacrifice it for being lower. The power to weight ratio of this thing is like a corvette
02 golf huh? I'm gonna have to check out your threads for sure!

[Honduh]

Very nice build! Love rabbits.

[02vwgolf]

haha i meant to say low rust guess i never finished my sentence... trust me i have learned from experience if your already rubbing dont go too much lower, suddenly the car seems to get slower and more stuff starts to break(oil pans, axles, etc.) haha unfortunately i learned the hard way

[Rally Sport]

Originally Posted by BoostedRabbit

great minds think alike take a look at my next post...

first of all, that's epic . Second of all, i'm studying mechanical engineering at temple!

[BoostedRabbit]

Originally Posted by Rally Sport

first of all, that's epic . Second of all, i'm studying mechanical engineering at temple!

hahaha no way!! That's so cool. We should hit up the bars in center city sometime.

[BoostedRabbit]

So I messed with some lines today and put on a new electronic boost controller. I'm now holding 20 psi... I can't believe how much of a difference it is. It pulls like a mother****er. I need some cooling mods asap.

[02vwgolf]

damn if i hadn't just sold my meth kit i would have hooked you up with it...makes a big cooling difference you should look into one

[BoostedRabbit]

Originally Posted by 02vwgolf

damn if i hadn't just sold my meth kit i would have hooked you up with it...makes a big cooling difference you should look into one

thanks for the suggestion, I've always been curious about those, I'll def look into it.

I need a side mount oil cooler bad. This pos stock little guy isn't doin much.
Any suggestions on where to get a kit or one of those sandwich plates from?