Project Sabine

[daveyg]

So the last week has seen a bit more progress. The new clutch is fitted and we figured out the starter motor wasnt attached quite as we envisaged, but now that is all reattached with gearbox etc. My engine and gearbox mounts arrived too so these have been fitted. The old engine mounts were extremely worn so these were taken to a presser to be fitted whilst i was at work.



In order to fit the new engine mount i had to either ditch the cambelt cover or modify it to fit. I decided on the latter and have cut this down to the appropriate size. I also stripped the bushes off the wishbone and anti roll bar. The old ones were fairly resistant to coming off but got there in the end. Will look to give these a lick of paint before refitting them to the car




Also shifted my ATS type 5's this week, shame to see them go but they wouldnt have fitted over my brakes. Still gives me a bit of a cash injection for braided brake lines and possibly looking at some Porsche tombstones for the interior.

Tonights job is to find out more about the wiring and ECU options. As i dont have a transponder box for the car i may have to get the ECU 'unlocked' More to come soon

[daveyg]

Today was fairly productive, whilst at work my dad kindly made a spacer for the engine mount and fitted that on for me



This then allowed us to offer up the modified cam cover and it fitted pretty snugly allowing just enough room for the bracket.



After work i cracked on with replacing the steering rack mounting bushes for Powerflex items. Surprisingly the old ones werent in too bad a shape but best to do them while i have an empty engine bay





The plan is to offer the new engine up tomorrow night but unfortunately the piano trolley we were planning on using is spoken for....So we are going back a few centuries and gonna use rollers to negotiate it round the garage and under the front!!

[daveyg]

Nearly forgot - The bulkhead has also now been beefed up with some metal plate to ensure there is no more pulling through of the clutch cable, thanks to my neighbour for his welding expertise!



Have ordered some seam sealer to put on and then ready to run some paint over it too.
Looking at getting some paint to do the inlet and rocker cover with too as the previous job is poor and its a bit flaky. May even do some colour coding!

[daveyg]

Tonight saw the attempted engine change, alternator and aux drive belt reattached and ready to go. We negotiated the engine on a sheet of wood on to rollers around the back of the car under the wheelarch and into the bay area. This wasnt too painful


We then attached the crane to the engine and started lifting. Was a tight squeeze and we ended up taking the gearbox mount off to make the job that bit easier. Once the engine was up though we encountered a lot of problems getting the bolt through the o/s engine bracket. Every time the rubbers would foul a little on the bracket so after ages of tilting the engine relifting and dropping it finally went in.


We then got the n/s mount attached and finally the gearbox mount


There is very little clearance on the bodywork, im wondering if others have perhaps modified the bodywork to allow some room for movement?

This was definitely a very satisfying moment all in all. Big thanks to my dad and my neighbour Shaun. Seems like a massive leap forward now it is attached in the bay but ultimately its just the beginning!

Next up is fuel/air/brake lines/wiring etc etc the list is long!!
If anyone has this engine in their Rocco and wouldnt mind emailing me an engine bay pic that would be spot on. Another worry is the distance between the master cylinder and dizzy and also the manifold to bonnet seems like it will be very close

[GTXTRA]

the only bay shots of a famous old GTX -





this car has since been stripped and the engine put into a white scala - owner = AdamG on here or No Rice but not about too much these days.

[daveyg]

My seam sealer finally turned up so have now tidied up primered and sealed the clutch repair panel, this is now waiting to be painted. Have also received my fuel lines and clips etc so hoping to get that all sorted this afternoon. Removed the washer bottle as i wanted to see if the standard air box would fit under the bonnet. I have seen it done but there certainly doesnt look to be enough room in my bay. May look to shave a bit off the bottom of the enclosure. Failing that an aftermarket BMC kit will be going in there.

Also hoping to start on the wiring today which will then just leave me needing to order new rad hose to connect up and then its a case of rebuilding the suspension/steering setup. Still need to do something about an exhaust too, been in contact with a few of the companies on ebay about stainless manifolds and they seem confident it should fit.

Am having trouble removing the track rod ends at the moment as they have fused themselves on, so soaked it in WD40 and had a cuppa whilst i updated the thread. Shame it wont be ready in time for this years national but ill be happy once its done. As this is my daily i really want it back as riding everywhere on my pushbike is starting to get a bit tiring!!

[daveyg]

Today i reattached all the gear linkages back into place. Had to take the gearbox mount off completely as i had stupidly left one of the linkages hanging down the side. So got that sorted first of all and then i cracked on with fitting the polybushes to the wishbones and the anti roll bar.

I also did the bottom ball joints afterwards which were a complete pain. The nuts were never going to undo so it was a case of drilling each one through, hammering the remainder off and then hammering a pin through the middle to poke it out. Took a long time a few drill bits and a bit of swearing when i hammered my thumb but got there in the end

My dad and i have also been looking over the wiring diagrams a lot over the last few days and finally decided to bite the bullet and start stripping down what we dont need off the ABF loom. Its a bit of a task, im just glad he knows about electrics because its way over my head

The only opther progress today was overcoming an issue with the heatshield and the gear linkages. It basically got in the way so i got the angle grinder on it and took the edge off a bit so the linkage has a bit of free room to manouevre

Unfortunately after reattaching it to the block it turns out i didnt quite get my measurements right so this will be coming off again tomorrow for a slight adjustment. More updates in the week

[daveyg]

Took another section off the heatshield again this afternoon after work and reattached, its still fouling though. I am leaning towards binning it and just wrapping the exhaust in heatwrap. I think it may get in the way of the exhaust anyway. Speaking of exhausts ive found a good second hand 4-1 am just awaiting some dimensions to ensure it will fit okay.
Also cracked on with cleaning the hubs up ready for paint.
The one on the bottom is the one that has been done, the one on the top is still covered in crap

After this i thought i would get cracking on replacing the track rod ends. This is where i lost the will to keep going and retired to the house!

The boot is clipped in both ends on the steering rack. The outer clip can simply be opened and pulled off the boot however the inner one has a very nice OEM jubilee clip style thing on it. This must have taken me half an hour to shift grovelling around on the floor with a screwdriver, eventually i loosened it off enough to turn it towards me and then sawed it off with a junior hacksaw


Whilst trying to get this off the thought of why didnt i do this while the engine was out was all i could think of. However it got worse when i was met with the two large flat faces of the track rod end and the holding nut. Need to crack them in opposite directions to loosen it off but with all the linkage and gearbox in the way it proved harder than it should have been. Due to the size it is a case of an adjustable and mole grips. After many failed attempts and a lot of swearing i downed tools and headed for a shower and a beer. I should still be in there now but i have had enough for this evening and am hoping some scirocco repairing fairy will come and sort it out overnight.
Its been one of those things where i have rushed ahead of myself without thinking what i needed to be doing while the engine was still out.

Hopefully tomorrow i will look at it with fresh eyes and make some real progress as i want to start getting the suspension and brakes rebuilt asap

[daveyg]

Tonight i ignored the problem of undoing nuts and grovelling under the car, instead i stayed out of the garage and did a spot of painting. Firstly taped up all the bushes and got the hubs, anti roll bar and the wishbones painted. Quite a quick job but seems to have gone on fairly well. Used a high temp Hammerite matt black.

If VW's made mobiles??


Also gave the manifold a spruce up too as it was flaking and had been scraped in places.


Postman also brought a few goodies air and oil filter plus the inlet manifold gasket.

Unfortunately its the wrong gasket so have ordered another one. As long as this reaches me by the weekend we should be doing a test start to ensure it fires etc on Sat/Sun. Radiator is also back in and we just need to cut down some hose and make new brackets so it sits a bit flusher and gives us a bit more room to play with

[Rusty dan]

I would imagine the DX loom being injection would be fine but be aware not all the connections will be used, you will need the ECU Loom from the 16v Kr set up to compliment also asthis controls your ignition and is a seperate loom from the engine loom.
As you prolly know I have had a lot of running problems with idling especially. I dont run an ISV as I dont have the loom and the VDO box. I dont run the diaphrams or and idle assistants so its a bugger to run from cold. Once warm though she goes alright!

Good luck man, KR Head on an ABF block is the choice most would want... There is something about swapping the exhaust cam for the KR one on ABF too?

Rusty

[daveyg]

Cheers Rusty, the wiring thing is way over my head, that part is firmly in my old mans department!!
So i started a new job today as a trainee motor engineer. Been wanting a change for a while and this is definitely the direction i wanted to go so pretty chuffed to be honest. The hours are slightly later in the day so unfortunately it means less time playing with Sabine in the evenings.

However this may not be such a bad thing as tonight i got home to find that my dad had spent a day in the garage sorting a few things out

ABF Coil in place and earthed

Heater connected up

Radiator hoses modified to fit

Battery in place to test it turns over

and....It did turn over without interfernce from the immobiliser

I then managed to get the track rod off and compare it with the spare i had. Unfortunately it wasnt the same length so have ordered a pair of new ones with boots too.

[b5byt]

Nice work fella,

How come your not using the 02a box ?

[Dom_500]

bloody hell Pete you sure have got some work done. good work, will have to pop round and have a look soon

[daveyg]

Nice work fella,

How come your not using the 02a box ?

I didnt want the effort or converting to hydraulic at this stage. Perhaps in the future it may be done but for the time being for ease of use im sticking with the original

bloody hell Pete you sure have got some work done. good work, will have to pop round and have a look soon

Cheers Dom, im making progress bit by bit. The wiring is tending to be the biggest headache. Ive been chasing Brannan up for his air filter off his car but he is being awfully slow sorting it out!!

We checked to see if we had a spark today and we dont
It could be various things but were not entirely sure.
Im also trying to track down the immob box as we dont know what the immob does. If its just stopping fuel pump we can bypass this but if its something else we could have probs if i cant get hold of it. Failing that will have to try and get it unlocked.

Also today my new track rods and gaitors turned up so got on with those. Then i split my Girling calipers apart and cleaned them up for painting.

Some of the bushes will require replacing

Then did the first coat of paint using my painting tree.


Then retired to watch the GP Qualifying, will get back out there this afternoon as i want to dress the manifold a bit. Hopefully it will turn out okay as long as i keep within the lines. Some careful masking required i think!!

[Dom_500]

your doing well mate. i would imagine with the age of the immob it will be either a single or double circit and i would hazard a guess and say if it is double the other is just a simple perm live ignition. Immob box will more than likely be in the dash somewhere as iirc the wiring seemed to run along the bulk head on the inside.