So my friend bought a 16v Scirocco......

He just got out of the Army. Owns an 08 GTI which will be tied up in shipping. He's got decent knowledge of cars, but wants to start doing HPDEs and AutoX with me. Figured it was best to buy a cheap car to wad up into a corner, rather than one he was still paying on.

Found this 87 'Rocco on Craigslist for $2000. Needed brakes, had about 150k on it. Interior claimed to be "mint". It's 4 hours away. I have a vacation home around an hour away form there.

Go up on Friday night, and drive to pick her up on Saturday morning. Get there, hood is rusted. Needs replacement. Fenders are dented to E36 M3, luckily they are cheap. Minor rust on hatch and under rear fender flare. Nothing structural, all can be fixed with ease.

Brakes were completely gone, reverse-lockout gone, gearbox shifts like complete garbage, needs bushings or motor mounts or both. Tires, however, new Kuhmo Ecstas..

Took it for a test drive, motor pull strong to redline, doesn't smoke, has a rough idle.

Offer $1600 cash, including a new Bentley Manual. Drive her back an hour to the garage with no brakes and not being able to reliably shift into 1st. Commence tune-up and new brakes.

PO converted to lug studs, did not have the key for locking wheel nuts. No tire shop open @ 4:00 on a Saturday. Luckily they were just parts-store specials. Lug studs also seized into rear rotor. Having to track down 8 Lug Bolts in Rural Michigan on a Sunday morning. Good luck. Also didn't have anyone to press races into the rotors. Have to go back in two weekends and finish up the rears.

Here's a pic to make this more interesting:

The e-brake Mechanism for the rear calipers are seized. I don't see rebuild parts available, and ones from Advance are $80 each. Is there a more Grassroots solution? Also, we need to order up some new studs from Apex Competition, any idea on length?

Luckily the shifter rebuild kit is fairly inexpensive, is there anything else to keep in mind? I figured fixing the lockout and replacing all bushings with poly/delrin units. Same goes for Motor mounts.

The CIS-E fuel system is an absolute cluster berkeley. The car has a vacuum leak from somewhere and will not idle. It requires me to keep it at about 1/2 throttle. Would it be alright to just buy new Vac line and loop any hoses related to the intake (other than power brakes) and cap off/plug the rest?

As far as that goes, Megasquirt is a possibility really soon. Should just need a FPR, Injectors, Fuel Rail, and lines. Is there a rail I can source from a Junkyard, rather than going with a pricey billet one? From my limited research it seems as though converting to MS on one of these is pretty straightforward.

Anything else to look out for?

Bless his heart son, if he bought that tell him to listen closely, voices will start speaking soon.

For all that is holy change the timing belt! Half the 16v's ended up in the wrecker yards because of fubared heads from the 30k timing belt intervals. Unless you watch the PO do it, do it yourself. It's the easiest VW Timing belt to do.

CIS works well if you can get it sorted, but will never have the flexibility of Megasqirt. Try the "if it looks like a vacuum line, replace it" ideology, most grassroots way of getting it to idle.

Replacement calipers weren't that costly, especially if you use germanautoparts.com I used them for years, great pricing, good quality parts and service.

Poly bushings tend to be a bit much for these cars. Techtonics tuning makes very good "race rubber" mounts. For the suspension it can be counter productive on something like the control arms.

VWVortex is generally a wasteland, but the Scirocco for is one of the few places that's quite civil, very helpful and lots of tech notes.

Ordered up shifter linkage rebuild and new, functional door handles. Pics to come soon.

Anyone know what is the proper rear length for lug studs on a 16v? Common sense tells me that stock lug bolts are 40mm, so I'm looking for a 45mm stud.

Timing belt has been noted and is on the shortlist after it runs and drives. Thank you for that.

I have nothing to add other than it looks pretty nice! Good luck with it.

There's one a few streets over, rare enough around these parts to turn heads and they're cool looking.

Check the air boots from the fuel distributor to the throttle body. The little accordion one tends to split on the bottom where you can't see it...

I have VW GTI 16v parts available, in Michigan. If I can be of assistance please let me know.

As it turns out, the intake was not properly seated on the metering bowl? (bowl between the TB and air box, no idea on proper terminology). Also, she suffered a few electrical fires. Turns out the PO installed a E36 M3e radio and just taped everything together with blue masking tape. Wires were cut and heatshrank. We fabbed a small delete plate out of Painted plastic for now.

Also, the ignition and/or turn signal switches began smoking and were causing a short which would randomly kill the car. New ones are on their way.

The best thing, however, is she is definitely going EFI. I scored an Electromotive ITB setup for my 98 Neon ACR. I don't really want to mess with a TEC-2 and most likely am picking up an AEM unit. However, the TEC-2 is perfect for the 'Rocco. The parts should arrive next week and we will begin piecing the rest of the conversion together.

Rear calipers and timing set will be ordered this week. The calipers are dead, and the pistons will not retract back into the caliper. This doesn't help at all when the piston tools from Advance will not fit the right caliper, and the left caliper is seized! That's right, these rear calipers have different pistons per side and are completely different than those illustrated in the Bentley manual. At least this way the e-brake can be hooked back up.

The shifter bushings have all been replaced and the reverse lockout is about 10% away from being repaired (just need to not be lazy).

One weird thing however. I have not been around to notice it, but the engine seems to have developed a lifter tick after the oil change. My buddy seafoamed the car, we replaced the plugs with fresh Champions and M1 15w-50 and an M1 filter. Oil comes up to temp normally and pressure remains ok, but she seems a bit "noiser" after the oil change.

Also, I will get with you RE: the 16v parts. Where are you located exactly? I know he has a list of things he needs, but I am unsure as to what they are at this exact moment.

We're located in Wyandotte.

A great design that SHOULD be in their current lineup in the US.

Lifter ticking is a warning built in to let you know the engine us running. seriously if it's a light tick, especially from cylinder 1, I've had them on both my 16v's. As long as you're running 20w50 oil it shouldn't be anything to fret over.

If it gets louder, then start looking into it further.

Neckromacr wrote: Lifter ticking is a warning built in to let you know the engine us running. seriously if it's a light tick, especially from cylinder 1, I've had them on both my 16v's. As long as you're running 20w50 oil it shouldn't be anything to fret over. If it gets louder, then start looking into it further.

Well, per recommendations on some forums, it's 15W-50 M1. I don't really think that it will make a difference between 20W-50.

It's no louder than either of my neons, which were also well into the 150k mark on original valvetrain.

Goal is to make the Solo School (and pass tech) May 18 with Detroit Region SCCA. I need to get the new Tires and new Aeroquip Fuel Line on the ACR as well. TEC-2 will get wired in after all parts are compliled.

Friend had some un-expected repairs com up on both his MKV and the Rocco.

Rocco shifter linkage is totally re-built. Next, we need to tackle the entire rear brakes. I'm bidding on a Matco bubble flare kit and we're going to re-do everything with ni-copp. Entire parking brake setup is trash. The arm won't ratchet, cables are frozen, and calipers are dead.

In other news, we have the TEC-2 finally de-neon'd and am beginning to lay things out for the Rocco. We're picking up a S10 coil pack setup to fire everything, unless the JY has a VW with COPs. In the coming weeks, we'll be selling off all CIS-related parts to fund the Motorcycle ITBs.

We also found a fist-sized rust hole under the left-rear flare which has been fixed with bondo. Do we remove the 16v ground effects and fill the holes, or make it all work?

We also traced the electric problem to a short in radio wiring and ignition switch. Radio wires have been cut, and heat-shrinked. Ignition and turn signal switches have been replaced for a princely sum of $30. I guess some parts for this car are affordable.

Anyone have 16v or even MKIV rear calipers?

Holy crap, I would've walked away from that mess for that price. Was this the one listed on Xceedspeed?

My buddy's little brother picked up a MINT one(minus a dented fender) that has had zero issues and came with a set of wheels... for $800. I want it so bad.

sorry to hear about the purchase price...

aside from that, keep the 16V kit on it.

Fun cars that draw lots of looks and thumbs up. I had a blast with an '86 16V for a summer a couple years ago.

I love roc's. sweet car. also, this thread needs more pics! otherwise, party on

Will get pics when there's something worth taking pics of. Although, they do make the thread much more interesting. Hopefully I will have actual progress pics soon.

And yes, he paid too much for it. Pickings are slim in this area. He was expecting a DD-able car, albeit a beater, for this price. His money, not mine. To be honest, I think everything water-cooled VW is overpriced. Structurally, however, the vehicle is quite sound.

It did get quite a few thumbs up whilst parked, err broken down, at the Advance in Big Rapids. Not sure if it was on Xceed, but it was on Craigslist. Car was located in Muskegon.

Little update from the unfortunate owner of said rocco: we found a sadly well taken care of mk1 cabby at the pickapart. After not too long i managed to snag the shift bearing which was still mint enough to have the factory green paint on the lockout spring. Paid a whopping 3 dollars for that and a center console that will at very worst give me a radio delete plate with 3 gauge holes. The calipers will be bought soon after i get back from a month of army stuff in august. As much as this car is a real pain in the rump being with all the corrosion from 25 years of michigan-ing, i cant wait to ride around with the same s*** eating grin my mkv gives me when i unleash it. Given the fact that i there is an unknown quantity of miles on this motor, i'm on the prowl for a 9a or aba block. Any clues towards whereabouts of a cheapie of either would be appreciated.

Oh, and there will be more pics me promises.

You know there is a special vw tool to retract the rear caliper pistons right?

Negative. The rear calipers have two different pistons anyway. Used the parts-store rental tool in order to retract as outlined in the Bentley manual, no dice.

Regardless, the e-brakes are frozen. No amount of PB Blaster was able to save them. The hard line for the RR caliper also leaks. A spool of Ni-Copp line and two new calipers should suffice.

Mazda787b wrote: Negative. The rear calipers have two different pistons anyway. Used the parts-store rental tool in order to retract as outlined in the Bentley manual, no dice. Regardless, the e-brakes are frozen. No amount of PB Blaster was able to save them. The hard line for the RR caliper also leaks. A spool of Ni-Copp line and two new calipers should suffice.

AH ok, sounds like they are pretty nasty lol. I just was referring to the pistons having to turn as you push them in rather than just pushing in like most normal cars do.

Yeah, I figured the setup was similar to Mustang rear calipers after looking at how the parking brake works.

It will have all new brakes, other than Master Cylinder. Should be solid in that regard.

I can't wait to get it going again, such a fun car.

Another update from the owner: 4 calipers, all 6 hoses and hard lines going all the way to the new master cylinder that was 16 bucks on rockauto. also installed is a wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to replace the rotten oem ones.

car is roadworthy.

i've put about 30-50 miles on it in the past 2 days grinning the whole time.

power steering is out. i think its the pump. i'll tackle it when i do the timing belt. pump is less than 100 bucks

MoRocco wrote: Another update from the owner: 4 calipers, all 6 hoses and hard lines going all the way to the new master cylinder that was 16 bucks on rockauto. also installed is a wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to replace the rotten oem ones. car is roadworthy. i've put about 30-50 miles on it in the past 2 days grinning the whole time. power steering is out. i think its the pump. i'll tackle it when i do the timing belt. pump is less than 100 bucks

It also gets a lot of dirty looks for no reason whatsoever and spins 1-3rd when the ground is damp.