WOW! I just realized wrenching on my truck last weekend that my 1988 VW Junka GLi-soon to be, hopefully! -T has been dead as a stone for EXACTLY 1 year... I last werked on it at my old shop, Volkswerks last January, but after being extremely underpaid and overworked (I can be a workaholic at times, but our shop was 98% of the time NEVER slow...so I could've worked 90 hr/wk and still had E36 M3e to do, in January. (I bought the '88 Jetta/Junka GLi w/ "broken in mileage" aka 166k, and my old racing teammate Glenn "Farfhigcuban" Cordova sold it to me, delivered to my doorstep from the Poconos for $500. Luckily, she (her name is Thu Bitch right now...no x g/f's names come to mind, and already used them on motorcycles and my '73 914 2.0) came w/ a brand new 'Beck/Arnley' aka sachs in another box clutch. still had original in it.... I applaud the germans here, but damn them too! "Oooohh....vee can save $0.73/car if vee uze rivetz to hold der ring gear on der differential...WUNDERBAR!!!!" This thing had been making pinion whine since Glenn used to drive into Bridgehampton (R.I.P....now it's F'ING golf course...I HATE golf for this very reason!) in the mornings during summer '99 when I lived in another teammates RV trailer across the main straightaway from the shop... Well, 3 days after I got it insured and began driving it, I jump in it to head home.... Hmmm, feels like the E brake is on, try reverse...same deal....Hmmm, Ted (my [former] boss @ VWerks in Falls Church VA) had told me about the 020's problems, mainly this one...so i thought "wow, I'll bet it's those rivets, my little bro had a 1989 silver GLi just like mine, perfect 1st car, totalled by a girl who was D.W.A. So, he bought a '90 red Gli off the net from NY, basically cause it was red. This car, to make a long story short, was a POS. Already been ragged and prob. owned by 9 different people, the idiot selling it even left the "racing" stickers on it He had to replace his clutch, and shortly afterwards, had to replace his gearbox, among other things... Dumb me, I let my co-worker, Bo Bo Kevin drive it to confirm my assumption....he must've dumped the clutch hard enough for it to move. well, it made a hella racket, and he gave me a ride home 2 drain holes under the diff, another 1/2 hole on the backside, and an 'inspection port' i could almost put my hand thorugh behind the clutch...DOAH!

Now, admittedly, I'm lazy at times, and after managing $30k+ in parts per month and working ~50 hrs/week, sometimes till 9-10pm and staring at rich people's VtroubleU's and 0000's all day long, the last thign i wanted to do was tear into my other 3 gearboxes...

so........................... I've already bought 205/45R16 older model Victoracers on closeout from tire rack and have been eyeing the uber-cheap 16x6.5 Mini knockoff rims ted got from Overland at the same time we got a new TDI head and block for a customer...so we shipped 3 sets of rims for free...$200 for the set, i need to get another job so i can still get em, hopefully 4 the same price!

but, i just got an email and clicked on grm.com and my jaw hit the floor! 63 daze left!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 i STILL have to a) rebuild gearbox- dig through parts bins in sheds, find the 25 pages of ETKA i printed out get part #'s and a few new bearings, etc b) order a spec clutch c) get T3/T4 0.60 A/R turbo rebuilt (kit is only $90, rebalance is like $50-60, so not bad as i got it cheap, and it's PLENTY big... d) get an OBD 1 aba bottom end (factory forged, hoo aaah!) e) build turbo'd intercooled "kit"...shouldn't be hard, i did it several times before with Virginia Tech's Formula SAE car and a CBR600 F2/3, GT15, and TEC II f) prob buy/build a megasquirt g) iron out all the bugs h) Steal a line from a Primus song "Sold enough crystal meth to buy a step-side truck...." i) dig into my stash and smoke some of my profits so I'll have enough energy to get all this E36 M3e done! j) oh yeah, get a job, that's #1 right now k) find time to sleep, clean my room, keep my fat, annoying roommate from bitching about too much poo too much of the time l) oh yeah, i forgot, if time allows, (yeah right!) repaint the right rear quarter and trunk...You see Bo Bo Glenn left her out of gear and the e brake slipped...she rolled down the driveway across the street and hit the neighbor's car!....luckily he was a bodyman in a former life so he grafted a quarter on it and bolted on another trunk

So, what should I do?

my 'oh my god, look @ the clock" reaction now is to replace the 2x4 and motorcycle tie down with a rebuilt transmission, and while i rebuild the gearbox, source an ABA obd 1 bottom end...friend might have one in BFE, md (anyone know how to tell by looking @ the motor whether it's obd 1 or 2? or just the block, is there different casting marks anywhere, the stealership couldn't help me here) get that Spec clutch and sell the beck/arnley clutch kit, get her back on the road, save some $$$$ on gas, have something more fun 2 drive than Sluggo Thu Mule, my '92 xtra cab 4WD yotabanger truck, he's great....just broken in (c'mon, it's a TOYota....163/500k...mark my words, I WILL get 1/2 million on the clock before he's parked 4 good...supra motor later, or '92-93 camry 24v heads + turbo...another project for another year, like my insane 1011 hp 914 V8 (gotta have +10 hp on the $1,600,000 bugatti, and do it for $20-30k!!!!)

if it matters car came sans cat (she's registered below the rappohanock, and VA is kewl with that, thank god no cats needed in blacksburg, etc, and also came w/ a cermaic coated header of some flavour I've also already bought G60 corrado front saucers and still need to get my X boss to give me his '87 0000 5000 quattro turbo front calipers that just HAPPEN to BOLT ON! sorry for the Encyclopedia Schumptanica, but I'm at a loss, and venting (at myself for not getting the ball rolling back down the hill at least 4 months ago...BAARGH!!

Not to be the grammar or puncuation or spelling police but.... Wow son, you need to slow down!

My everything hurts.

What you should do is repost the 7% of that that actually has to do with anything, so that we can possibly have a shot at answering whatever question that was buried in there.

And, maybe stay away from the crystal meth.

This picture still makes more sense than all of your mantic ramblings.

Duke wrote: What you should do is repost the 7% of that that actually has to do with anything, so that we can possibly have a shot at answering whatever question that was buried in there. And, maybe stay away from the crystal meth.

I suggest quite the opposite. Crystal meth is pretty much the only way you're going to get that car ready for the Challenge.......

junkyard trans, no more Red Bull.

Parenthesis.... they're like doors. When you open one, eventually you should probably close it.

Everybody play nice...........

Play nice? Buddy, your on the wrong site.

Just kidding, but we do prefer short - to the point posts.

yep. me too. But I don't want this place to start looking like a lot of other forums these days.

Honestly, I would love to throw out ideas, help, something, but I seriously do not know what was really asked.

I agree w/ slefain...meth IS the only way to get this thing done! I still want to put the gearbox back together, but the T3/T4 will most likely be a bookend till the $2009 challenge, because time is the only thing in the world we have a finite amount of [not to mention I wasted 6+ months of it!]

Yes, I'm bad about writing a mile a minute and not bothering to check grammar, or when I last opened or closed a { [ ( < , etc oops. I think I will draft in ms word, then have a smoke, read over it, take a deep breath, and then re-write a summary of ramblingz...that or just not start another Encyclopedia each time I post! (sorry, but I'm kind of fired up about the WOW, "3 days left till the challenge" as well as getting let go recently so I have to look for another job that'll actually pay me what I'm worth, not to mention be in the same field I have everything but a degree in, aka mechanical engineering.

So, I think I'll prob. do what I planned...weigh the options... a) Smoke LOTS o' meth and get her turbocharged, sequentially injected instead of CIS'd as well as intercooled, trans rebuilt, new stronger clutch installed, repaint her hind quarters, etc

b) Smoke less meth, put the spec clutch in w/ the ABA forged bottom end, my 16v head, but leave the turbo for next year. Rebuild gearbox 1st! (if I do this, more work than A, but no crack addict sidekick needed to help complete build!)

c) Put down the pipe, disallow Red Bull in the fridge, keep motor in car, cheap out and put in brand new clutch I could sell and just rebuild gearbox and clean the crap out of the car...zip tie on chrome hubcaps and other Not So Advanced Auto bling like the MANDATORY "gold plated" double wipers, chrome licesnse plate frames, and neon underbody lights...what else am I forgetting here??? (Sorry, but article on the 24 hrs of Lemons and the pix are inspiring me, that and I didn't get to do it this year because I didn't have time and our team dissolved.)

d) Throw in the towel and start budgeting time for a car that could get in the top 10 for next year. Meanwhile, part out my 914 (~$2000) and finish building my mutant modded ZX7 and sell it ($1500-$2000 depending on how she comes out and the condition of the title)

You have to understand, I've been wanting to do the Challenge since I found my 1st issue of GRM on the bookshelf @ Virginia Tech's bookstore, with the 1999 Challenge and the 12 second soccer mom Mini-Me van!..It gave the magazine more credit for me as both my former boss and teammate @ Hot Shoe got a line in the AARC writeup (Dennis Macchio & Glenn Cordova.) What sucked was that I didn't get to go to the race as I was laid off around then, and that I had mentioned to Ed that we might want to adjust the valves on the 11 race old MWE 2.0 L spare motor. The 2 race old Elite engine from Denny's RF98 Van Diemen grenaded, and then the old red MWE had a valve retainer/rocker arm come loose during the race. Darn it! I should've gone w/ my gut and adjusted the valves before it left PA for GA!)

OK, nuff said, naptime!

Sorry, still another mini-novel, but I thought it was a bit more organized... There, this one isn't a mile long! Gamby, WHY is Michael Jackson looking at me? (at least that pic u posted looks like him?) He's freaking me out! Send him back to the Neverland ranch and lock him in, don't even give him any little boys clothing or ANYTHING!!! Just a glove and a mirror!

Michael? Thats the artist originally known, formally known and currently known as Prince!

Doah...I like classic rock, not either of them...Duh, it is Mr. XY%Z himself. I should watch 9 hrs of MTV so I can see 3 music videos, 1 might be w/ Prince...

Get it running, throw in a cheap clutch, buy a cheap nitrous setup from Summit, trailer to challenge, spray til it blows or you win, one of the two.

Keep it simple.