My Volkswagen MK2 GTI VR6 build (LONG READ)

[bjbarbieri]

I've always wanted to do a build thread, or at least make myself record progress of the work that I do to my cars. So I thought I'd record some history of my experiences with my first Volkswagen.

Growing up, I was always into classic cars, muscle cars, and Jeeps. I learned to wrench on a 1979 Jeep CJ7 which needed everything. Later on, I spent many years playing in bands and so I owned a number of different vans - everything from a Ford Aerostar, to a E350 15 passenger van, and many, many in between. I met my future wife 6 years ago. She had a 2001 BMW 325Ci and made me drive it everywhere when we first started dating. After developing an obsession with BMW's - at one point we had 5 - a 2004 325Ci, a 1974 2002, a 1973 2002, a 1970 2002, and a 1989 535im, I decided to try my luck with a Volkswagen. My wife's cousin had a mk3 Jetta VR6 that didn't look like much, but could spank most high performance cars off the line. I wanted a car that had a VR6 but had more classic styling of an older vehicle so in the summer of 2009 I began my search for a Mk2 GTI VR6.

I sold my 1989 535im (it was approaching 300,000 miles and needed some work to keep it running well) I began my search on VWVortex (at that time, the search function worked) I wasn't able to find many MK2 swaps near Akron, Ohio - at least not any that looked halfway decent. I found a really clean looking MK2, but alas, it was WAAAAAAAAAAy down in Corpus Christi, Texas.

I really didn't feel comfortable trying to fly down there and drive a car that far back. I started getting estimates for shipping a car and found that it was only around 600.00. Heck, I couldn't fly down and drive back for that much! I spoke with the owner, Jonathan Langford, who seemed like a decent guy. He had several hundred posts on his Vortex profile, and seemed knowledgeable on the phone, so I felt there was no real reason to doubt his description of the car. According to him, the car was in excellent condition with no rust, only a few minor chips on the paint, and a tear in the driver's seat, and had emailed a list of things that had been replaced on the car including poly motor mounts, a nice stereo, newer coil pack, and newer water pump. He said that the timing chain had been done about 20,000 miles ago, and that the clutch had only 2000 miles on it, and at the time that was replaced, he installed a lightweight flywheel.

Here is the GTI next to the previous owner's TT.

According to him, the car needed absolutely nothing. It ran and drove great, shifted great, was quick, and handled like it was on rails. He had to sell it because he had too many other cars and a motorcycle, a couple of young kids to take care of, and no extra income for toys.

We agreed on a price which I thought was fair if the car was in the description that it was described to be in. He even came down a few hundred dollars since I was paying to have the car shipped.

While I knew it was risky buying a car sight unseen, the car appeared to be in good enough condition from the pics and the owner's description to warrant a few inevitable repairs. With my wife's blessing, we moved forward with the purchase.

I had no idea what I was about to get myself into......

Shipping the car was a bit of a nightmare in and of itself. The first company I hired made an attempt to pick the car up about 2 days after I gave them a deposit. The previous owner was not available to meet the driver after only receiving an hour's notice, so the car was not picked up that day. Three weeks went by and the trucking company had still not made a second attempt to pick the car up. I demanded my money back and hired another company that picked the car up the next day. It was in Akron 2 or 3 days later. The car started up on the truck, and I pulled it into my driveway. It sounded a little loud, but without knowing much about VR's or Mk2's, I really didn't know what to look for at that point.

I told Jonathan to get the title notarized and send it with the car. He wasn't able to get that done before the car was picked up and said he would send it the following day. I don't know if he is just a lazy individual, or what, but it took me almost a month to get the title from him. He gave me some song and dance about how his girlfriend mailed it, and it got sent back because there wasn't enough postage, etc, etc. I had to threaten him legally. I called him on a Thursday and said if I didn't have the title by Monday that I would start legal proceedings. Saturday I had the title in my hand. And the kicker is, in Texas, you don't get the title notarized. You just need a signed bill of sale. UGH!

I started reading build threads on Vortex, and faq's, etc, etc, and started to research the maladies from major to minor of the VR6 motor

Well, found problem number 1. The hood release didn't work and you had to pull the VW emblem off and release the latch manually. Not a big deal, but certainly something worth noting.

Guess I'd better do a little more looking....

Hmmmm......Not quite as clean as I had expected. Especially after the description, and ESPECIALLY after I just spent the last 2 hours looking at the "shaved bays" thread on Vortex.

YIKES, what's this?!?!?!?!?

Looks to me like someone didn't have the wiring harness to the fan properly tied out of the way....snip, snip.... Failed to mention that as well, didn't he? Note the corrosion on the wires. This hadn't happened loading the car onto the car hauler. I started to worry what else I was going to find. Had the car been run for an extended period of time with no cooling fan? Could I expect to find a warped head or blown head gasket?

A quick phone call to the owner was replied with a lame "Oh yeah, I had forgotten that happened. I meant to fix that....the car was shut off right away and not overheated. I didn't drive it after that happened. It's been sitting since then."

Yeah, uh huh....great. We'll see. First I'd better fix those wires. Being that I'm a commercial electrician by trade, repairing splices didn't worry me. I got some shrink tube, solder, and paste, and was able to cut the section of wire out that had welded itself together and still have enough slack to repair the harness. The connector on the fan motor was also loose and he had a series of different wire ties (I'm not kidding) wrapped all around the t-stat housing, and other things to hold the connector onto the fan motor. I wish I had a pic of this too....comedic. That's not how I do things on my cars, so I bought a fan motor from a vortex member, and replaced it in the housing along with a new belt for the auxiliary fan.

Upon further inspection, I found where he had spliced (very ugly to boot) into the fan switch on the radiator itself, and had run 3 wires through the firewall, under the dash, and had them twisted together, not crimped, not under a wire nut, just twisted together bare. I called him to ask what was going on with that, and he replied that he had bypassed the fan control module so that the fans ran all the time because it was very hot in Texas. While this may be true, it looked like a fire waiting to happen, and was quickly done away with by myself.

After repairing the harness to the fan motor, I turned the car on, let it run until the temp gauge was halfway up, or just slightly past, and the fans never came on. I decided to summon the help of an expert. I called Jeff from Global Garage after hearing many good things about him from different forum members. He came out to my house one very cold fall morning to take a look at it. We decided it would be easier for him to diagnose my car with it over at his garage, so I had it towed out to his place. He discovered that when the fan harness was severed, it also took out the fan control module, and was able to source one from a friend for 25.00. A new strip fuse was put in place, and the fan system seemed operational again. I had him look over the car to see if he noticed any red flags. He cleaned up some of the wiring under the dash and helped me learn what some of the things did on the car. At some point, my car must have had a turbo on it because there was an oil return line that was blocked off on the pan, and there was also a behemoth industrial sized relay/solenoid that was bolted to the driver's side kick panel. I need to take a picture of this thing so you guys can see what I'm talking about. It must have been used in place of a fuel pump relay. It had a power wire going to the battery, and 4 terminals off the side, one which had a spade connector crimped onto it and was plugged directly into the front of the fuse block, probably where the fuel pump relay is supposed to go, another wire with a spade terminal plugged into a different slot on the front of the fuse panel, and 2 wires that disappeared up under the dash. Again, another fire waiting to happen.

Anyway, the car was drivable now that the fans were working, so I got to take it out for it's first drive. The car pulled so hard to the right, that when I wanted to make a right hand turn I just let go of the steering wheel. Also the power steering was really inconsistent. One time it would turn quite smoothly, and the next turn it was jerky and awkward. I was finally able to drive it to the DMV, get my out of state inspection, titled in my name, and temp tags. The car would have to pass E-check before I could get my plates transferred over though...

GREAT.....

Texas doesn't have emissions laws. Therefore, my car had a 2.5" techtonics exhaust from the downpipe back....no catalytic converter. Did I mention that it runs a little rich...a lot rich actually, enough to make you dizzy if you drove with the windows up, and probably wasn't going to go over well with the E-check station. In fact, I readied myself to spend the 300 on emissions repairs just to get the waiver. I tried to be slick and take it to be tested to see if they would notice since the car sits so low. They noticed. They said, get a cat put on and come back for a retest. I went to Ritzman muffler in Norton and they put on an aftermarket universal cat for me for about 120.00. Unfortunately, that cost could not be applied to the waiver. I got the car nice and hot, topped it off with 93 octane and headed over to the e-check station. Since the car is an '86 and still has a mk2 cluster (NO CEL) they did the tailpipe sniffer test which is good because if my car had the mk3 cluster, I'm sure the CEL would be on for a number of different things including removed SAI pump, EGR, etc, etc. Somehow the tester was able to keep the car on the rollers despite the massive right side pull, and to my absolute astonishment, the car somehow freaking passed the test. They had to help pick my jaw up off the floor and load it into the car. Finally, I was able to get my plates, and because of the year of the car, and the year or so that the test results are good for, by the time the car is due to be e-checked again, it will be old enough that it will be exempt!!!! Another reason for wanting an older VW.....

Next on my list of items were some snow tires and wheels. The Kumho Ecstas that came on the car didn't fare to well in the Ohio winter weather. That, and I didn't want to ruin my BBS RXIIs with the salt. I bought a set of 16" Montreal IIs off Josh at House of Dub. It's a long story, but I ended up getting a good deal on some used tires, put them on the rims, the fit on the car, but as soon as I drove down the street and started smelling really strong burning rubber, I knew something was amiss. Although the tires visually fit the car, they were rubbing the lower spring perch on the inside edge on the rear tires, and rubbed a 5/8" X 5/8" gap off the inside edge of the rear tires. Well, ruined those in a matter of seconds. Guess I need to get the exact same size tires that are on my BBS rims. Tire rack had some Sumitomo all seasons on clearance for 50.00 each, so I got those and had them put on the rims and they were fine AND for some reason, after I changed wheels and tires, my car stopped pulling hard to the right, so something must have just been stuck and changing wheels fixed it. Even when I put the BBS back on....Do you guys feel sorry for me yet? I haven't even got to the good stuff! Keep reading! Now that I had my plates, snow tires, passed e-check, I should have been good to go for awhile, right?!?!

not really....by the time it was said (and still not done) I wouldn't even end up needing that set of snow tires!

The months have gone by....at this point in the story I've had this car through fall and the first part of winter 2009 and have still barely been able to drive it. I notice that the motor is a bit on the loud side. From my reading, people generally say that VR's are loud motors and run notoriously hot. My motor runs about halfway up, which I consider normal, but is still a little loud for my comfort level. It also didn't seem to have the power that I felt it should have for such a small light car, and had a misfire that would not go away after replacing the plugs, wires, and coil pack on my own. I take the car back over to Jeff (Dubtek) to do some more investigating. We pulled the intake manifold and valve cover off. The lifters all appeared ok, and there didn't seem to be any unusual wear on the cam lobes. We were concerned that perhaps on of the cam gears had jumped a tooth, and perhaps the motor was a little out of time. We decide to try and check the timing. Upon closer inspection, and after removing the upper timing chain cover we are blown away by what we find. At some point, someone had replaced the timing chains, and DID NOT install the plastic upper timing chain guide rail! It wasn't there! Therefore, the chain had a bit of slack in it, and under load would flex back and forth causing the motor to go just slightly out of time. He actually had the guide rail we needed on his shelf and we were able to install the upper guide rail without pulling the motor or lower timing chain cover. We put it all back together and the car seemed to run worse! That didn't make sense! It was missing a crucial piece of mechanical equipment! We did a compression test and found that the number 5 and 6 cylinders only had 40lbs where the other 4 cylinders had about 90. It was some sort of freakish thing, that the lack of timing chain guide rail helped the car run better because of the lack of compression on 2 cylinders....Regardless, it wasn't right, and I wasn't about to continue driving the car in that condition. We used Jeff's super cool Snap On borescope and looked down into the spark plug holes. Looked like some weird wear on one of the pistons, and weren't sure if it was making contact with the valves. We pulled the head off. The car actually had APR head studs although one or two were only hand tight, and whoever installed them lost a couple of the washers and used something they probably got at home depot.... after the head was off, you could really see how shot the number 5 and 6 cylinders were. There was probably an 1/16" gap around the pistons and you could physically rock them back and forth in the bores. tap, tap, tap....The reality of an engine replacement starts to set in as my blood pressure rises.....

Jeff was able to source a used OBD1 VR6 motor for me for 400.00 and went and picked it up. I went over one morning, he already had the old motor stripped down and was putting components on the new motor. I helped him get the new motor in place in most of a morning and he finished it up the next day. I had him look over the engine bay wiring more in depth for any shadyness while he had the car. He found some really crappy work, most of which I'm sure he could repeat more accurately than I could, but someone had tied the positive wire from the eliminated SAI pump in with the ground of the number 2 injector driver at the ECM or something, and the injector driver was fried. The ECM also ended up getting fried, so now I had to get another ECM as well. It's so funny to think back when my car was e-checked....It was basically running on 4 cylinders, and out of those, one of the injectors was not right! I still don't know how it passed. Finally got the car back together after getting the throttle body and dash pot adjusted correctly, and was ready to start driving it right!?!?!?! Left Jeff's house and started driving home, and a few minutes down the road, the car started bucking really violently. I would have my foot on the gas and the throttle would just cut out, like I totally took my foot off the gas pedal, even though I hadn't, and then would kick back in, but really jerky. I limped it home, and swapped out the throttle position switch, thinking maybe the other one was faulty. Reset the ECM by touching the battery cables together, key on for 5 minutes to align the throttle body, and leave for work. (During this entire time period, I was temporarily laid off from job as a commercial electrician, and was working for ECS Tuning as a sales rep from 4-midnight - it was temporary, spare me the flaming)

*I should also note that the OBD port on this car never worked....Another failed mention by the previous owner...so through all of this diagnosing and testing, we were never actually able to communicate with the car. That really made it nice, right?

Anyway, I leave my house to drive the car to work. I'm cruising down 76 west towards Wadsworth. The car is still bucking, barely going up the hills, and running about 3/4 of the way up the temp gauge. I'm sweating profusely, wondering if I'm going to make it to work, and why the heck this car is running so poorly after putting in a different motor. I exit at 57/Wadsworth, and as I'm coasting up the ramp, the car just dies...I mean it just shuts off and dies. I coast to a stop, put my hazards on, and pop the front emblem off to open the hood. Oil is pouring out of my intake which I know can't be good. The car never overheated, and it doesn't really smell funny. I start pulling plugs and they look ok. I try starting the car with the MAF and TPS unplugged, trying to get the car back to stock mode, and it's just cranking...It's not doing anything. I ended up having to call a tow truck and getting it towed about a mile down the street to ECS on Seville Rd. While the tow truck driver was unloading my car, it ended up rolling down the ramp of the truck and nearly ran me over. Luckily it just coasted to a stop and didn't hit anything...We had a good laugh after that. That night, before I left work, I tried again to start the car. It ran for a few minutes and then quit again....I start thinking of possible causes. i'm fairly sure the gas gauge is accurate, but at this point who knows? Maybe the car is out of gas?!?! Stranger things have happened. It's too cold and snowy to do anything that night, so I go back the next day. I brought 5 gallons of gas, changed the plugs, and it started right up. It sounded good idling. I called Jeff to tell him how it sounded. I told him I was going to try and drive it. As soon as I started driving forward, the motor started to sound really weird so I just shut the car off again, and rolled it back into it's parking place. Jeff came out to the parking lot with me the next morning and we started it up. Again, it fired right up, and sounded fine idling. Actually quieter than it ever sounded. We were listening to it idle. We started to hear a faint sound and looked at each other, like "do you hear that?" It wasn't really loud. Just a weird sound, and then all of a sudden, the motor just quit. Not stalled. Quit. Like a man dying his last gasping breath. We couldn't believe it. The crank wouldn't turn, the key wouldn't do anything to the motor. It was just DEAD.

Time to call the tow truck again.

I had the car towed from Wadsworth, back to Stow to Jeff's house.

Shortly after I received a letter from Allstate Motor Club saying that unfortunately, they would not be able to renew my membership due to excessive usage....I thought that's what those clubs were for! What!?!?! 5 tows in a month is too many?!?! Jerks!

Anyway, the guy who sold the motor to Jeff was nice enough to give me my money back for the motor. Perhaps it was sitting too long. It could've had clogged oil gallies, it could have had a seized crank bearing....who knows. All I know is that I needed a THIRD engine by this point. He was able to find one quickly and for the same price as the last one, so I didn't have to spend any more money on a motor. This time around though, I decided to do the timing chains as preventative maintenance and so I'd know when it was done last. I also did new motor mounts and transmission mount. Went over and helped pull the old motor out again, swap components, do the timing chains, and put the motor back in. Once again, put the car back together. Car still has a misfire. Decide to start checking the fuel system. The first thing I did was replace the fuel filter because it was cheap and needed done anyway. I rented a fuel pressure gauge from autozone and hooked it up. Key on pressure seemed right by the bentley manual but running pressure seemed low. At this point, I needed to get the car out of Jeff's hair. He was probably sick of seeing my car in his driveway, and I wasn't sure what to do so I limped the car home once again, and parked it for a couple of months. I got called back to my job as an electrician, so I would have a lot more extra money to try and get this piece of junk sorted out. I decided that I would buy a bentley manual, buy a wiring harness and ECM (since with the replacement of that seemed to be when the bucking started), replace the fuel pump in case mine was going bad, and do a few other things that bothered my meticulous obsessive side. Since spring was approaching, and I was back at work downtown across the street from where my wife works, we are now able to carpool, or I drive my 1970 BMW. I didn't feel the need to get it done and back together as quickly as possible, and wanted to do things the way they should've been done when the car was swapped the first time.

Daily driver:

ANYWAY.....

Here's where we stand as of the last week or two's work. I bought a harness, ECM, and fuse block from a donor car. I started by identifying which connectors would be used on the new harness and removing those circuits one wire at a time from the old harness.

Intake manifold/throttle body off.....Unwrapped the wiring harness to expose miles of spaghetti and hack job workmanship....Also, the power steering and A/C components have been deleted to clean up the engine bay. I never liked the feel of the power steering on this car anyway.

I really wanted to replace the fuel injectors, but new Bosch were 600.00! Since my car's not boosted, I really couldn't buy any of the aftermarket injectors that are cheaper...

I also wanted to replace the radiator that I have in this photo. It's a Corrado radiator I believe, and the 90 degree elbow on the top always leaked coolant a little bit, even after replacing it with a new fitting and o ring. I ended up getting the B3 Passat radiator that Dubtek has in his MK2 Jetta coupe, but didn't realize my car has the Corrado lower radiator support which I believe is higher than the Passat lower radiator support so my radiator would sit too high as it is now. I'm either going to need to get a Passat VR6 lower radiator support, or use the same Corrado radiator with the front crossmember that's in the car now. You gotta love Frankenstein cars!!!!

Does your head hurt yet?

This is after the bulk of the wiring had been removed. The headlight harness and wiring to the windshield wiper motor will stay.

Dirty leaky oil filter housing, and oil cooler. Both will get new O-rings, and a good detailing. Also might as well replace oil cooler hoses while it's off. Lower radiator support needs some attention as well.

Old Injectors

Refurbished Bosch Injectors, cleaned, bench tested, new o-rings and hardware, and a lifetime warranty.

100.00 for a set of 6. Good as new!

Also had the intake manifold polished while I had it off. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I joke that this car might never run right, but it will look darn good sitting in the garage....

Fuel rail with new injectors, o-rings, and clips in place, and new 4 bar fuel pressure regulator.

Cleaned up oil filter housing and oil cooler

Many people would have given up on this car by this point. I think I would've if I didn't have so much money in it at this point!!!! It's in Jeff's top 10 worst cars he's ever worked on. He probably hates me after bringing this car into his life, ha ha. But seriously, at this point it's become a personal goal to get this car sorted out and running properly. I have to laugh about it, or I'll go crazy. I have to thank my wife for her patience as well. I'm lucky she's into cars too, or a case like this could be grounds for divorce! Later this week I plan on laying the donor harness in place and begin the tedious task of fishing everything in where it goes and making it look pretty. My car may not make it on the Vortex "Shaved Bay" Thread, but I'll be happy with it.

I'll continue to post as I progress....I think this is a pretty good start for one night. I'm shocked at all of the details that I remembered. Oh, and I contacted the previous owner several times about what a piece of garbage he is for ripping me off so bad, and asked him to refund me a portion of the money he stole from me. He obviously never returned my calls, emails, or texts. I did hear he was in a motorcycle accident and broke a leg. Don't know if that's karma...But I have a feeling he's in for some bad car karma for awhile. Thanks for reading. I welcome your comments, and always welcome your help!

[roadhog0]

This reminds me of a 1986 Jetta me and a friend worked on. A friend brought us the car with a 1.8 8V motor which was on its last legs and a auto paired to it. Gutless car! So he brings us a 5 speed and 1.8 16v, new harness and says EVERYTHING is there to do the swap.... 200 dollars in junkyard parts later! So we finally get the old motor out and swap all the parts over. Put everything in the car that needs to be there. It takes us 2 months to figure out why it wont start. Get it started and it sounds OK, real smokey. BUT! It threw its timing every other time you shut the car off... The 5 speed on it was also bad which didnt help... So after sitting for another 2 months we talk our friend into calling the junkyard and having them pick it up. Its now sitting in the junkyard, they got their darn parts back!

I think in everyones life time they have a car like this. Good to hear you got yours sorted out though!!

[Jim_75Sahara]

Fascinating tale, Beej. It doesn't make me miss my '81 Rabbit 'S' too much. It had a mysterious past & some nasty surprises of its own. Mary nearly made selling it a precondition to getting married.

[bjbarbieri]

Today kind of sucked...

Originally my car had a Corrado radiator and lower radiator support. The radiator always leaked at the 90 degree plastic elbow on the top, even after replacing the elbow and o-ring with new parts. I decided to order the B3 Passat VR6 radiator where both inlet and outlet are off the side of the tank, and used the part number from Jeff's A2 Jetta VR swap as reference. Upon receiving the radiator, I found not only did the mounting holes not line up with the Corrado lower radiator support, it also sat up way too high. The upper radiator support would not fit, and the hood would not close. Reading through different DIY threads on VR builds, I read several posts saying that you could use the B3 Passat VR lower radiator mount/cross member. You just needed to cut off the tow hooks on the front. I found one for sale on Vortex for 75.00 and received it today. Measured everything up to make sure the mounting holes were the same. The radiator sat in the right place, and It looked like it should work fine and appeared that it would lower the radiator enough that the hood would close with no problems. I removed the old cross member and radiator support, changed motor mounts into the Passat radiator support and went to work with the angle grinder. I cut off the tow hooks and mounted it to the car. The mounting holes all worked fine. It did seem to look a bit low though. The more I looked at it, the more I realized that it was so low in the front, the lower front body panel and lip would not go back on. Not only that, but now the radiator sat about 3 inches BELOW the upper radiator support. Now what I would like to know is why the F**K all these build threads say that you can use a Passat VR lower crossmember and radiator support on an A2 swap. So now I have 2 cross members. One which is too high for my radiator, the other which is too low. Until I am able to see exactly what Jeff has on his car, my options are either to fab up my own radiator mounts with the original A2 cross member, minus the corrado lower radiator support, or use the corrado lower radiator support and buy a corrado radiator, leaving me with a brand new Passat radiator. After today, I'm ready to pull my f**king hair out. On the bright side, I did get all of the wiring harness back into the car, routed nice and clean, and some of it rewrapped. Just need to start hooking it back up to the fuse block.... My back hurts, and my head hurts....I'm driving the 2002 to the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid Ohio tomorrow. I've had enough of this freaking car for one weekend....

[jgerock]

What an unsual tale - many of us have been in your shoes.

I wonder how old that "show" picture with the GTI next to the TT is? The engine bay certainly doesn't look anything like your later pics.

Great job on the investigative work, wiring re-do and injector replacement.

Keep at it and you will know the car inside and out. You have invested lots of time and money, so don't give up now.

ps: Your 2002 looks great and sounds like it is reliable.

[Kidasters]

Your story is horrible. Your tenacity is admirable.

The picture of the wiring nightmare is unbelievable.

I've bought one car, sight unseen (my Mini). It was not as advertised. I will never buy another car sight unseen, unless it is a 507.

Please keep updating this thread.

Ken

[bjbarbieri]

Updates from the last few days work.....Getting VERY close to turning the key.....

First let me post a couple pics of some of the old HACK s**t before it goes in the garbage bin:

"Hey, who needs the factory 42 Pin connector when you have a whole box of BUTT SPLICES!" HACK!

"Texas is hot so I wired the fan to run all the time by splicing all three wires together." F-ING HACK!

this is how car fires start people!!!! these three wires were hacked into, and just twisted together under the dash!

Here's the MAMMOTH fuel pump relay that I mentioned earlier in the build that was screwed to the driver's side kick panel. Note the spade connectors that went into two different relay terminals UNFUSED on the front of the fuse block. AGAIN, this is how fires start people!!!!! HACK!!!!

Why somebody decided to use this instead of the stock fuel pump relay (pictured next to it) I will never understand.

Here's the bay as it sits tonight. Pretty much completely done under the hood other than putting the front core support, headlights, and grill back on.

New Corrado radiator is in place. Everything is plumbed, topped off, tied off, and plugged in. I also replaced the fuel pump as I suspected my old one was going bad.

The only thing left to do is plug everything into the back of the fuse block, tie it all up, pray, and turn the key. I'll hopefully finish it up tomorrow night. I would like to drive it to a local Euro car show that's going on here this weekend. FINGER'S CROSSED!

I know I'm going to have to adjust my shift cable as well, but that's a different story. If I get this car running, I'll worry about shifting it after that.

[Kidasters]

It looks fantastic. Good Luck! Let us know.

Ken

[khale2011]

WOW! It was a long read but it was worth it... so much to learn from...

GREAT JOB! Keep us updated after you turn those key!