Dylan and I always comment on these rims… and we saw a set this evening and I was looking into them… anyone know of any pics of them on a jetta? They are kinda small at 14×5, and I am certainly not going to try to find a play to widen them (HA!)… but they are cool and with some spacers, some polishing, and some custom color matched paint, they could be pretty dope for a show set…
So my old roommate Nate called me up the other week and said he was at a junk yard and there was a GLI with the Recaro interior, did I want it? Of course! So he pulled them out and brought them into town for me, dropped them off tonight…
For $75 I got a set of VERY nice Trophy Recaros. Sure there are 2 minor cigarette burns in the cushions, but the bolsters are in pretty good shape and the stitching is intact nearly everywhere…
I need to grab some pics of them. But I was very happy. Combined with my Trophy door cards, all I need is a back seat and I have a complete interior. I am stoked.
So the plan was …
I had a 2.0 ABA block out of a 95 Golf. Engine blocks were on sale at the junkyard in Indiana, and this block was pulled from a red automatic car with unknown mileage. It is dirty but appears to be ok. So I was planning on stripping the block, sending it out to be machined, bores cleaned, etc, likely to the tune of $200-$300. Then I was going to rebuild the short block myself. This would have entailed a rebuild kit, and the cheapest rebuild kit I could find was $550 with pistons. So say with shipping and tax, we are looking at nearly $900 (high end) for the bottom end. And that is just parts, not the installation and build up, that I WOULD have to do myself. While that would be a great learning experience, it would take alot of time, which is something I don’t have a lot of right now.
So I was poking around and found an ill running 96 Jetta 2.0 that was for sale for $400. Sure the car has a pile of problems, but the thought was we could pull the motor/wiring and install it in Cali and it would be in need of some work, but it would be easier, and in the interest of time, quicker.
In all of this thinking, I called up my mechanic, Al at Chicago Performance and Tuning, and asked him his thoughts on the topic. He knows how to rebuild a motor, and he has a rough idea of what I can (and can’t) do mechanically. So we chatted about it and he point out that I can buy a new short block, with new VW parts, professionally assembled, etc. This would cost me $800 roughly, say $900 with shipping. So for roughly the same amount of money, I get a professionally build bottom end with new parts, and I don’t have to measure clearances to stupid numbers with tools I don’t have.
So… I get that block, I pull out the 8v counter flow head I already have on top of that, add megasquirt for the ECU and wiring harness… and boom. Done.
So… block…$900 shipped. Megasquirt with wiring harness shipped…$350 … I am sure that I will need some random parts. I have the oil pan, waterpump, and alternator from the old engine. I may be swapping the distributor with another VW guy for a nice 4 window distributor. I am sure there are other things that I haven’t thought of, but I will. A few gasket kits, etc, I should be ok.
So with that, I would have a virtually new motor. And it would be about $1,500 for a brand new, essentially zero mile engine (the head has some miles on it). And it should be decently fast.
I am excited… now I need to get some money together for it…
Now that the holidays are over… I am hoping to have some time to get the motor done… we shall see.. I need to get on it…
but meanwhile, I found a video, the source of which I need to learn more about… that is my current audible inspiration…
it is 13.4mb, but worth a listen… check it out
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