New Member, long time owner, here's my build

[hifidelity 7]

Hi folks, my frustrating build has lead me here after being a long vortex faithful...

 

I've owned/built many a vw's over the better part of the past 12 years or so, was boost crazed with my G60 for more than half that time period. Now I'm on my 2nd VR6 and it's a 95 GTI.

 

here's a copy/paste from my build thread and follow up posts that I made to it:

 

First Came the CAR:

 

This would be my 2nd MKIII and 2nd VR6 car, I'm taking what I learned about these motors and with this one I decided to take care of the motor before anything else. I tend to drive a lot and very long distances so considering this is going to be my new daily car I need something that can go the distance as well as handle being driven hard without any hick-ups.

 

Complete motor rebuild in progress;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the car itself, well it's not looking too impressive yet but it was purchased from the original owner, stored for the past 12 years and one of the most original/clean/unmolested MK3 examples I had ever seen. Clearly this is the original paint from '95

 

 

 

 

Wossner 83.5mm pistons 11:1 CR

Arrow rods (stock stroke) + ARP bolts

Balanced OE crank w/ polished journals

Ported/Polished head & manifolds + new hardware

Bored block to 3.0 L displacement.

Mild Cams

ARP head bolts

 

I'm looking to get 200whp (hopefully) with emphasis on driveability, I want the powerband to be as low as possible but very reliable. The cams, porting, & larger bore all will yield a mid range powerband.

 

Another thing I forgot to mention is the tranny was also completely rebuilt & a Quaife isntalled as I plan to maybe take the car to Auto-X every now & then.

 

Been busy for the past couple of weeks and hadn't done much on the car, today I found some time to go into the garage & get more work done on the head, all exhaust ports are finished & started working on the intake (I haaaaaaaate the long runners :banghead:) 

  

 

  

 Soon though I will be done, can't wait till the motor is put back together... 

  

 

 

New Calipers arrived, as well as new brake lines, and these big rotors I'm going to try out;

 

 

(left is rear & to the right is front rotor)

 

can you guess what size they are? notice the rear rotor is vented...

 

 

a little bit of progress finally, a lot actually but I don't have pics of everything;

 

I pulled the dash, replaced all the wiring in the engine bay;

 

 

 

Put new R32 bushings in;

 

 

 

 

Also installed new wheel bearings, bought new C/V axles.

 

 

Exhaust needed some love;

 

 

 

 

 

 

and my favorite part, the motor is finished, head is put together;

 

 

 

Block completely assembled with the shiny parts inside lubed & ready to rock.

 

 

Next I'm working on finding the last few pieces for this thing to run, funny how bits & pieces disappear when parts sit in boxes for too long (not while I had it).

I'm going to have to visit the junk yard for a lower rad support, upper rad support, bumper core since all those parts were cut out already for intercooler.

 

Ummm what else, oh I have to finish cleaning up the wiring in the engine bay, bolt everything together and go from there.

 

 

Car's finished, since the last update it's all been put back together, interior reassembled, stereo/alarm, etc, etc. all finished I just need to break it in.

 

Couple of weird issues;

 

There is a black thick gauge wire coming out of the firewall and under battery tray, it looks like it should go to positive terminal because it's long but then I'm not sure, did 95 GTIs have a black wire on the positive terminal of the battery?

 

Turn signal flashes all 4 sides no matter which direction it's signalled.

 

reverse lights stay on when key is on.

 

So yeah, weird electrical gremlins is what's holding me back now, about to go pull my cluster & bezel out :banghead: so I can double check alarm wiring. Any insight is helpful

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

 

Well that was a nice rewind to April 2013, now back to the present;

 

Car's done and all the electrical bugs were worked out (maybe) and it finally fired up for the first time yesterday, it ran for a whopping 5 minutes then shut off, doesn't start anymore which now is making me extremely nervous but looking over on the bright side, the engine turns freely so there are no signs of anything going wrong internally other than my paranoia.

 

Now I need to figure out why it won't fire up anymore and go from there

 

Oh yah, my name's Fidel.

Edited March 9, 2015 by hifidelity

[bennyk 1,238]

Hi and welcome to the club! Not to sure about that vortex, all I ever saw on there was bicthing and arguments! That engine build looks impressive! Fancy popping over here to build mine!!

[hifidelity 7]

Hi, and thanks for the welcome. I consider myself to be more the "oldschool" type of watercooled VW enthusiast which is what and who gave the vortex it's fame, without going into detailed bashing haha unfortunately as it stands currently you are much better off getting advice on your "stance" and doing ungodly things like notching the frame so the car is "slammed" etc. rather than some constructive critical input to technical obstacles like the ones I've come across, my assumption is that all the "oldschool" gear heads have fled just as I am doing now lol.

 

If you were local I would be more than happy to assist but London might be a little far from California, unfortunately this may be my last VR build, I find myself struggling much more with this one than I have with anything else in the past. As mentioned in my first post I am at a loss currently with the way my build has transpired and having a motor that only ran for 5 minutes, my next plan of attack is to do the following:

 

1. test crank sensor resistance

2. spin motor by hand to listen & feel for anything odd going on isnide

3. test for spakr/fuel

4. try to start it again

 

Now thinking further I believe the cause for the nerves is naturally the fact that the motor died and wouldn't start up. Also I heard an excessive amount of piston slap but of course that is a signature of forged aluminum pistons and they never warmed enough for me to notice a change. Lastly was the assembly, though I absolutely loved assembling this motor (I was certainly a lego child) but what I found frustrating was the offset bore in the face of the cylinder block. The ring compressor can never sit square against the block therefore when inserting the piston & new rings, they naturally will pop out of the ring compressor before going into the block at which stage I used my hands to guide them but the oil scrapers are thin and flimsy as paper which allows them to run into the likelihood of popping out of the groove on their way in. I'll stop there haha, I'm beginning to ramble with my thoughts, I should wait till I have another look before jumping to any conclusions or assuming the worst. 

If this is my last VR build my next shall be either a 1.9L TDI, Turbo G60 or a Disco Potatoed 20v.

 

This is my non-VR6 VW

Edited March 9, 2015 by hifidelity

[B4VR6 193]

Welcome to vr6oc

And good luck with the rebuild.

[Gwr corrado 189]

Welcome to the forum , good write up mate . Any more pics of the wee beastie mate

[hifidelity 7]

thanks guys

 

pardon my stupid question but what's a "wee beastie" ? haha

[daveyboy 897]

A wee beastie translates little beast. Well that's from Scottish lol which I don't think Gwr corrado is lol

[hifidelity 7]

so is the wee beastie, the Corrado, GTI or the girl? haha

[daveyboy 897]

Hmmm pass mate

[Jimjon 28]

"There is a black thick gauge wire coming out of the firewall and under battery tray, it looks like it should go to positive terminal because it's long but then I'm not sure, did 95 GTIs have a black wire on the positive terminal of the battery?"

 

I've just come to putting my corrado back together and did find a thick black wire that goes to the battery positive terminal, i was sure they were all red but apparently not.  Its 1995 VR6

[hifidelity 7]

mmmm 95 corrado, that's a unicorn here in the states 

 

That wire was sorted out, my new problem is no spark, I have a new car but can't get spark 

I posted about it here:
http://www.vr6oc.com/forum/topic/46232-help-understanding-why-new-motor-does-not-want-to-run/

 

I have tested everything and it should work but it does not. I have been working approximately 60 hrs/week lately and have had no time to touch the car but as soon as I get a break I will be swapping coil pack, cleaning round connector on the engine, and I have no idea what else to do to get the car to work