Unplug the MAF and see how it acts. They are programmed to run a higher idle if it is unplugged. You'll get some wicked rev hang, but it should help you rule it out.
Unplug the MAF and see how it acts. They are programmed to run a higher idle if it is unplugged. You'll get some wicked rev hang, but it should help you rule it out.
In reply to JohnInKansas :
If it's scrap, use scrap prices. If they're cutoffs from new steel you've saved, use new prices.
John, I found the old video that I made when offering the car for sale. It includes the inventory of junk that came along with it and could be handy for figuring trades, self-trades, and recoup in case you don't have a good list still. Yes, most of it is junk, but a large amount of junk. Even the engine stand that came with the bad engine. It adds up. I can put it back on YouTube or share it privately if you want it.
In reply to AAZCD-PorscheHoarder-Jon (Occasional Forum Supporter) :
"A large amount of junk" is accurate.
I think I remember seeing the video in your sale ad, is it still available at the link there?
In reply to JohnInKansas :
At some point between then and now I totally deleted everything I had on YouTube (which is part of Google and therefore evil). After a while I figured out that it is still the easiest video hosting site to embed videos from and free, so I started putting videos back up. I'll upload it again tomorrow and post the link.
Uploading right now... Here's the link: https://youtu.be/xTGywIgCX_I
In reply to AAZCD-PorscheHoarder-Jon (Occasional Forum Supporter) :
Awesome.
How did that little Honda work out, by the way? I caved to the dirtbike itch yesterday, two old Yamaha smokers followed me home. You know, in case you got another almost running beater you want to trade. 
Well, signed the GTI up for a Track Night in America in late July, so now I guess I have 7 weeks to get it inspected, titled, taxed, and tagged, and install seats, harnesses/harness bar, tires, and turn signals, and shake it down enough to not completely embarrass myself at the racetrack. Not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining 6 weeks between now and then...
We call this a "forcing function".
75% of a set of sticker Nittos, a pair of new 5 points, a full complement of harness hardware, and a legal title and tag.
Need to get in touch with the tire seller tomorrow and figure out where the last 25% is. Little brother collected some raw steel bits that will turn into mounting points for the seat sliders and a harness bar/rear strut brace. Goal is to be driving it to work in 10 days or so.
In reply to JohnInKansas :
Looking good, but I'm wanting a whole car picture when you get it on the street. I've ordered tires a few times and the FedEx delivery missed unloading one and found it on the truck later. You'd think they would understand Four make sense, not Three. Anyway, two days later the fourth arrived.
Dear Old Mom decided this weekend is the weekend she wants to move out of the big house and into our house, and vice versa, so not much going to happen with the car this weekend. If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
Tire #4 should be delivered this afternoon, so I *might* be able to get tires mounted, if the local tire shop is open Saturday of Ind Day weekend.
Hatch struts came in, but upon closer inspection, we're missing a mounting stud on one side, so the one strut that was already installed was trying to do the job of two. It acts like it still works, so need to find a stud (maybe in the bucket-o-hardware) and put one of the new struts on and we should be in business.
New door handles are coming from Latvia, so they'll be here when they get here. Really just need the gaskets for the driver's door and the hatch latch.
Brother is bringing steel this weekend, so hope to get the seats and belts in next week and start shaking it down.
This is fine.
I'm learning that part of the joy of the ancestral home is the nearly perpetual visitors. Nobody stays long, but it's a revolving door. We haven't put up an "under new management" sign, but if we thought that would actually help, we might.
Not much got done with the car, as a result of the move and the holiday and the revolving door. Got the wheels off Friday evening and was all set to take them to the local shop Saturday morning, but they were closed until today, so put the wheels back on and drove the car over to the new house and took the wheels back off again. Took the wheels and tires in today first thing and they already had a line, so they'll be ready for pickup tomorrow sometime.
Little bro came through yesterday with a couple pieces of new-new steel (some of which I may use, if I can't come up with a salvaged steel solution), and had the super-clutch idea of stealing the hood support struts and ball stud from the wrecked CoPart Subaru I bought as a donor for the Beetle a couple years ago and haven't got around to tearing apart yet. Everything fits perfectly, just need to figure what a reasonable value is for used hatch struts and hardware. So at least now the hatch will stand open without a broomhandle, even if the exterior latch button is still inop.
Started fooling with seat mounts today, decided I'd better patch a couple of minor holes in the floor before I start welding additional seat support in. Discovered that the closer I look, the rustier the floor pans get. Had just committed to charging ahead with patching the right way rather than just fretting about how many (admittedly almost entirely cosmetic) holes I was finding when the next round of uninvited company showed up, and we just got the next round after that out the door, so maybe I can get the rest of the holes wire brushed and prepped for cutting out the bad/welding in the good before I lose all my light.
In the meantime, I received a surprise Grassroots MYG package (at least, that's what I propose we call it; the mid-way partner game to the New Year Game) from the car's previous mechanic.
And the haul:
As it happens, that's more or less the thought for "livery", although we'll probably stick with the white as a base with some color or color gradient yet to be determined for the "VW swoosh" vinyl decals. The requisite missing socket is present and accounted for, along with a pair of matching BMW dustcaps (might fit the Mini phone dials that are at the tire shop, will have to check when I pick them up tomorrow), a couple of VW badges, a roll of gold pinstripe tape (!!!), an Oh Really?? beverage jacket, and a lovely handwritten congratulation card from AAZCD Himself. Thanks, Jon, promise to have the old witch ready for her track date in two weeks, with the aforementioned full-length action shots if I can find a photographer. And since we're going to get such an early start to shakedown this year, we might as well just commit to making the trek to Florida this year (maybe slightly later than we initially intended, think we may have missed the Radwood year by one or two... or three).
New boot goofin.
Wife picked them up this afternoon and I got them bolted on while I was waiting on the dogs to finish eating dinner.
More progress on seats and floor patching closer to the weekend; miserably hot here, still trying to move into an old house with no air conditioning, and working 10+ hour days has been killing my time and motivation to work on the car after hours. Soon.
Did some wire brushing on rust spots and started welding on a few of the smaller holes today. Good reminder about how much I don't like welding on thin old steel.
One way or another, I need to be able to start shaking her down next week. If that means all of the holes in the floor don't get sealed up with metal, so be it. I have some time between the July track night and the Challenge to get loose ends like that tied off. If worst comes to worst, I can seal them back up with seam sealer or the like.
Do something, every day.
So I say that, and then immediately don't do anything with the car Friday.
I made up for it today.
Some raw materials for the next couple days:
A piece of recycled baler sheet metal the father in law was throwing away, and a weight bench the wife found on the curb in town a year or two ago.
Patches patches patches.
And here's where we stand after a long morning's work.
Red are patched. Blue need to be patched. All will need seam sealer or some such to make them fully water tight.
Started taking the bench apart, yielded this:
Plan is to split the square tube in half to give myself two 1" x 2" x 12 gauge channels, contour them to fit the floorpans crossways, weld in captive hardware for seat and belt mounting, and weld the channels to the floors. Then everything gets some seam sealer and some paint.
Back at it in the morning, hope to have seats in tomorrow night, belts by Monday evening.
We'll call yesterday's efforts a "glorified art project".
Locate seat fore and aft.
Make cardboard templates of the profile of the floor. (Fortunately, VW was kind enough to make the floor pans symmetrical, so flipping the templates over fits the passenger side)
Split the square tube from the weight bench.
Make a little pile out of the scraps.
Forget to take pictures of the intermediate steps.
Voila.
Seat mounts have captive nuts for harness mounting and captive bolts for seat sliders and fit the contour of the floor. Stitch welded in. Harness bar is the only new steel on the project so far, 37" of 1" DOM. End bits are halves of a metal ring that held together a hub for a wooden wagon wheel, got a whole stack of them in my scrap pile.
Need to move two bolts holding the seat to the sliders, replace a short section of plastic fuel return line that I tried to melt in half, and rig some front turn signals. Mounting the passenger seat should be *relatively* quick and easy, but shakedown should start tonight.
Today was a miserable bastard. Hot and almost no wind this morning. Got the seat bolts done after errands this morning, then had to shift gears to mowing/weed eating. Got the door handles and hatch lock in the mail (I fixed the door handles the other day for free-fiddy, we'll see if it holds up), so I charged into the hatch lock. It fought me the whole way. Ultimately reshaped the linkage that was in the car and got the old latch to work as intended, so that was several weeks if waiting and several hours of fiddling wasted (or maybe well-spent...). Cut out the offending plastic fuel line, salvaged the hose clamps that were already on it, and whacked in a short piece of fuel line I pulled out of the bus when I deleted the diesel heat system. Down off of jackstands, check lugnut torque, and went for a wee drive around the neighborhood.
Tach works. Temp works. Fuel does not. Speedo moves, but not accurately. Still bogs a little at about 20-30% throttle. Not 100% sure we're firing strong on all 6. But good lord does it move. And it makes lovely noises. And it'll make tire smoke.
We're getting close.
Glad to see this moving again! I'd do some sketchy E36 M3 for a clean mk2 or mk3 right about now.
Something, every day.
All I got to today was the speedometer. Read a how-to on changing the motors that run the speedo and tach in the Mk3 cluster, which included the last step "reclock your needles as necessary by winding them counterclockwise back to zero". Sure as E36M3, we're reading about 20mph below the zero mark, which jives with what the old butt dyno was telling me yesterday. Pull the dash apart, pull the cluster, disassemble the cluster, reclock, reassemble, reinstall, works perfect. Now just need to figure out the fuel gauge. Probably either wiring or a bad sender unit.
And I put the rear door cards back in. Because that was infinitely important to making it drivable.
Also, stopped and checked out the burnout spot from yesterday. Looks like a one wheel peel. Maybe down the road we'll get a LSD, just probably not on the Challenge budget.
Holy crap, new batteries are expensive. I may shop around for a scratch-and-dent at the Interstate store, may be a little more cost effective.
Put a new set of wipers on last night.
More shakedown this evening.
Interstate came through with a lightly damaged battery for under $100 after core, which isn't quite half what the FLAPS wanted for a new battery, but almost.
Cancel the FLAPS battery and get my money back on the way home this afternoon, see if I can figure out a tie down.
Ive been buying the bottom of the barrel Walmart batteries lately. $50, and easy.
If the budget gets real tight, or if we get to the point where we're out of reliability/durability problems and want to throw money at making it faster, I may very well look at a Walmart battery to shave some extra dollars into existence. For now, this gets me closer to legal for the track.
Stock battery tie down was a small plate with a hole in it that gets bolted to the car and pinches the flange of the battery. Threaded hole is still there, need to dig through the parts bin and see if one came with the car in the spares.
Vacuumed up the detritus that blew out of the dash and the leftover metal fragments from mounting the seat, took all the loose crap out of the passenger floor pan, and gave the old girl a wash. Fair few greasy smudge marks that I need to go back and hit with a bit stronger degreaser than dish soap, and there are a LOT more scratches, chips, and developing rust spots than I remembered. Amazing what a few months of grime will cover up.
Good from far, far from good.
May have to tear out and restretch a section of barbed wire fence this weekend, and cut down and haul off a couple of big dead elms, so I'm hoping I will still have some time/energy/motivation to get battery tie down and turn signals sorted out by the end of the weekend.
Last night - fiddled with the gauge cluster again, got the tach to work again. Rigged a turn signal for the passenger front (driver front had a socket and bulb that came with the car), just need a bulb now. Dug through the spare parts bin that AAZCD sent, lo and behold, a battery tie down.
I could kiss you for keeping so much of the bits and pieces for this car in one place and sending them with the car, Jon. You're the best.
Re-centered the steering wheel. Went and filled up with gas to get a baseline fuel economy.
Started to work this morning, made it about 15 miles from the house and it was running progressively rougher, so I turned around and went home. Will have to look at the plugs this evening, but I suspect it's real rich. Idle is fine, there's a spot at low-load/maintenance throttle that is fine, but in between and above the maintenance position, it sounds and feels like we're down a cylinder. Rear bumper was a little sooty when I washed the car the other day. Not sure if I ought to be looking at MAF or O2 or vacuum leaks or what.
It has run fairly well for about 75 miles or so; worst case, I can tow it to the track Thursday and clean/replace spark plugs between runs.
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