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Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:46 pm
by dozzum
So I'm finally starting a 20v turbo conversion.
Here's a few photos of the cars life so far.
First is how it was found in a barn near Gloucester and then the previous owner bought it and had it resprayed.
The original engine was replaced by the previous owner with another DX but that engine died a month after I bought it giving me the perfect excuse to start this project.




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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:01 am
by dozzum
I'd already removed a few injection parts, coolant pipes and ignition parts etc which were sold at the Nationals.
So tonight I managed to make a start and removed the bumper and headlights.
I'll be stripping the bay out completely as I want to give it a good clean up so I can decide whether to resprayed it or just touch up and rough bits.
I'm trying to be organised as I go along and label and bag everything up as I go along, we'll see how long that lasts.



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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:22 am
by essextom
Need any help then let me know mate. It's not too hard though, you should be all good.
Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:48 pm
by Chris M GT
Good luck with the project mate, have a real soft spot for non kitted models :)
Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:53 pm
by dozzum
Cheers guys.
I'm sure I'll have lots of questions when it comes to putting it all back together [emoji23]
Not much more to see yet but think I've got everything disconnected from above and removed everything I can for now.
Hopefully get the driveshafts, gear linkage and exhaust off tomorrow and she's good to drop.
Hopefully have an empty bay soon.
Then the fun of cleaning it all up begins.
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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 9:02 pm
by dozzum
That's an awful quality picture.
This one's slightly better.
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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2017 8:26 pm
by dozzum
Ok so got the linkage disconnected, exhaust and removed both driveshafts.
Lowered the engine as slowly as I could with a couple of jack's and some wood.
Didn't come out as nicely and smoothly as I'd hoped but only caught a bit on the front cross member, should be easy enough to sort


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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:42 am
by BlackGTX
Take a good look at ants 20vt scala build, lots of useful info there
Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 9:08 am
by dozzum
Yeh I've been reading through that and looking at Henry's Facebook photo album from when he did his.
Lots of knowledge in the group now when it comes to these conversions.
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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 5:08 pm
by dozzum
Been a while since I updated this.
Not much progress to show as I ended up getting sent to the Caribbean for a month....
Got the Scirocco engine bay cleaned up with a pressure washer and some degreaser before I went away and started stripping the Golf engine.
Since getting back I've finished disconnecting the engine and removed loads of the emmision guff that I won't be using.
Now all hooked up to the crane and ready to go but ran out of time before work.

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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 6:19 pm
by BlackGTX
Make sure you get the front engine mount for the conversion or itll be rocking back and forward
Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:21 am
by scrappy1382
as above, speaking from experience too
Re: RE: Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 8:09 pm
by dozzum
scrappy1382 wrote:as above, speaking from experience too
I didn't know you could fit it without a front mount?
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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:51 pm
by dozzum
Another long overdue update.
So got the engine out, separated the gearbox which has been sent to GasnGears to have a Quaife fitted.
Removed the clutch and flywheel and started removing everything else from the engine ready to clean it up and paint it.
The bottom aux belt pulley belts were an arse to remove, 3 started to slip but luckily still came out and the last one stripped completely.
After hammering various different sizes of torx, splines etc into the head in a vain attempt to remove it I was about to admit defeat and drill the head off.
After a bit of moral support and encouragement from Tom via messenger I dug out my welder and tried welding a nut into it, this didn't really work as I couldn't get it to form a weld inside the nut and anything outside would just get in the way of the socket fitting on.
I then managed to weld a bolt onto the end of it pretty well but the bolt then sheared off, at least my weld proved to be strong [emoji23].
So I had to drill out the welded on bolt and weld a bigger bolt on which did the trick, not the prettiest weld in the world and I definitely didn't have the settings right but I was happy with my first ever attempt at this.




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Re: Mars Red GTI 20v turbo
Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 12:07 am
by dozzum
I bought myself an early Christmas present at the NEC and now my car is on a set of mobile axle stands giving me loads more room in the garage where ever I need it.
I removed the brake linkage bar to refurb it and found it had a big bend in the rod....
I had been considering ways to do away with the bar but was reluctant to go servo less and also put off by the price of bias boxes having only really seen the crazy quiff ones that didn't involve cutting up the car too much.
Having found someone that can make a bias box mounted to the steering column for a very reasonable price I decided to go for it, stripped out the column and sent it off along with all the pedals as it will be getting a hydraulic clutch and the drive by wire sensor for the throttle.
If anybody else needs it doing its £275 and the guys name is Martyn Phillips. (That's the price including the hydraulic clutch conversion and dbw but no master cylinders included)
I'm hoping that I can get a good pedal feel without servos having been assured by people much more knowledgeable than me that it's all about cylinder ratios.
And to be honestly anything has to feel better than that bendy linkage soaking up all the force your trying to put down.



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