Cali the Jetta

Dylan and I were joined by Scott last night and we went over a created a list of necessary parts. Having the new motor, the junkyard ABA, and the 1.8 all present made it easier to make the list. So I began ordering up the parts. Turns out Autohaus AZ was the cheapest on a majority of the parts, and very close on the other ones. So I ordered up a bunch of stuff up. A list is below… I also grabbed an EIP Tuning solid front mount for $50. Still more to get though… Also I got an underdrive crank pulley off ebay…
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Not that I have done anything with it aside from put it on the stand, the new engine is here…

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So I got a little propane torch to get the wax off and MAN was that nice. So much easier than scraping it off that I will never do it that way again.

This was the before, as you may remember:

This is what it looks like today:

You can see progress is happening. We need to drop the front beam to make life easier. But it is coming along really nicely. I am happy.

The rest of the pics are here

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So I had Al @ CPT order me up my short block. There was a little confusion on the price in the catalog, but it is looking like $1,400 shipped for the short block, assembled, with a warranty (of some kind). Still a better decision then me doing the work myself. I could have done the work myself and saved about $300, but I am not sure that I am a good candidate for that quite yet. Dylan and I were thinking perhaps we would tear down the motor that was in Cali before as a learned exercise. I would rather screw up that motor than my daily driver motor. And then I can honestly reset the odometer to ‘0′ and smile, knowing it should last a while. So that is ordered and should be here soon.

I also began cleaning the engine bay out and it is actually come along quite nicely. I have found VERY little rust, and the dirt and oil actually appeared to have kept the paint in decent shape. For some reason, VW put wax on the paint in a number of places. This wax, after 20 years, has begun to deteriorate, so I am removing it. It was under the areas that held the airbox and the battery. Since those won’t be there really, (battery in the trunk and the airbox replaced with a cone filter for now and eventually the individual throttle bodies) I don’t feel I need the wax.

So I hope to get a bunch more cleaned next wednesday, and I will hopefully remember to grab some pictures too.

I am excited to get the motor in. That will be a big step.

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Wasn’t that hard, but man is it dirty in there. We will be replacing nearly everything you see there, so cleaning it won’t be a big deal per se, it should clean up very nicely. Perhaps a new coat of paint in there. Now I gotta get some money together and order up the block…

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