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98 1.8t ricecar

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18t ricecar
6K views 58 replies 15 participants last post by  younggunner 
#1 ·
I have recently bought a 98 1.8t with over heating issues and from what i have reserched its the water pump, the guy i got it from took it to a "import" shop and they told him the head gasket is out. 1. the shop is no longer open 2. no water in the oil. im going to say the water pump. ill be replacing the pump/therm/coolent this weekend. I figure for 500 its a hell of a deal and i figured why not make it bigger better and go choo.chooo more! so i looked in to some parts and found a stroking kit to make it an 2.0 but it was a good chunk of money and dont jettas have 2.0 with the same block. what stops me from getting a jetta crank shaft and pistons save money. and does any one know of a good chip for like 400 or so? and injectors? im thinking about getting all the parts together anf to the little things during the summer and then manifolds/heads/turbo/bottom end during the winter. after that im not sure go race honda civics after that.
 
#2 ·
Slow down there!

Here's the "upgrades" most people make, in order of priority and bang for your buck:

- A copy of the factory service manual.
- $400+ "emergency fund" for repairs; this is a 16-year-old car using European parts
- A chip
- Suspension upgrades

After that, there are a lot of options; a "big turbo" kit might be next, and only then would you need an injector (or FPR) upgrade. You could go with an FMIC to lower intake temperatures, drop in a clutch kit and get rid of the DMF, lots of different options. Changes to the base reciprocating unit (i.e. mucking about with the cranks and pistons) are quite rare. (I don't remember anybody ever stroking out their 1.8T here.) Not saying it can't be done, just that there are lots up upgrades you could probably do before than that will get you more bang for your buck.

Remember that in the end, you aren't going to end up with a car that is going to beat an equivalent riced-out Civic; the car is simply too large and too heavy. You certainly can get a car that will perform and handle very well for it's size (because the B5 1.8T is an excellent platform to start from) you still have some basic physics to contend with.

P.S. Don't even think about mentioning a "cold air intake" or it will not end well... use some Google-fu and search the board archives to find out why.
 
#3 ·
Head gasket doesn't allways mean coolant in the oil . It could leak into the combustion chamber. The cats these days burn so hot you wouldn't smell it either. Repeated overheating will definitely warp an aluminum head. Do you see a puddle on the ground between the two front tires when u park it ? Stroking a motor .2 CCs isn't going to net much gain with out other serious upgrades .
 
#4 ·
Your 1998 has an AEB engine built on the 058 block, not an 06A block like later models have. The later design has a chain driven oil pump. The 058 block has an intermediate shaft driving the oil pump. That shaft makes stroking tricky due to clearance problems. Double check that stroking kit you found and see if it can be used on an 058 block. I think an 058 can be stroked but it requires extra work to get the parts to clear.

If you're going to build a 400 hp 2.0 engine, forget stock connecting rods. The accepted consensus limit for the 1.8t is around 300 hp for the stock rods. If you're planning on 400 hp, you'll need rods that can handle it.

You'll never flow 400 hp worth of air through the stock K03 turbo or the typical first upgrade K04 turbo. To see that much airflow you'll need to step up to a big turbo somewhere in the GT28 or GT30 size.

As long as you're wrenching into the front for the water pump, if the timing belt system is due, tackle that at the same time.

There are a couple performance tuned AEB engine computers in the classified section right now. A stage one tune will plug and play with your engine as it exists from the factory and bring you from 150 hp up to almost 200 hp. There is also a K04 tune that requires a different turbo and a few supporting mods and could bring you to roughly 230 hp.

Is this new car an automatic or manual? For any serious power you'll want to run a manual. The W8 Passat with just under 300 hp factory (and a good deal of torque) likes to eat torque converters. For 400 hp you'll want a clutch rated to handle it.

400 hp through an open differential front wheel drive, pulling a 3200 lb car is a recipe for wheel-spin. Getting that power to the ground will be a big part of the build. Quaife makes a torque biasing differential for the 012 transmission but it's not a cheap part. I'm running one and guess what happens when you have enough power to light up both front tires in a turn? The car stops turning and plows straight ahead. :icon_eek:
 
#5 ·
i didng see any puddles, i know stroking it isnt going to show much gain but it was something i seeen and had to ask...... i understand the its old you cant dump parts on it and pry itll work, im working on the basic thing right now and down the line beef it up. up to this point the newest car/truck have owned was a 75..... i do got to ask if i take the exhaust manifold off and turn over the motor water should spit out coolent if the headgasket was out... hell even take the plugs out it should. shouldnt it?
 
#9 ·
The difference between the FWD and AWD is more then just bolting up a different rear end and drive shaft. If it were that do-able, you'd see many threads on the conversion. The two versions of the car have two different rear floor pans. I read about a FWD to AWD conversion and it required sectioning in a nice size chunk from an AWD donor car. The practical way to get AWD is to start off with an AWD chassis. Can a conversion be done? Yes, but you could also convert to an amphibian-car or tracked snomobile car if you want to dump enough money into it.

How a blown head gasket or cracked or warped head displays symptoms is dependent on where the failure occurs. Sometimes coolant escapes into a combustion chamber. Sometimes into the crank case. Sometimes the cooling system remains intact. A compression test or leak-down test could help show what's gone wrong. If you pull all the plugs and turn the engine over and see a spray of coolant, you've got a breach between the cooling system and combustion chambers. If the oil looks like a milk shake, you've got coolant entering the crank case. If the water pump failed and the OP continued to drive it while it overheated, that could cause a head gasket failure or head failure. At this point we don't know if we're dealing with more then one problem.
 
#15 ·
What did I tell you about mentioning an intake? :lol: You aren't exactly the first person in 16 years of B5-dom to think of a heat-wrap for their "cold air intake"...

Nobody, and I mean nobody, that I remember has been able to post a single dyno graph showing a significant performance improvement over the stock intake. The main problem:

You already have a "Cold Air Intake". (In fact, I haven't personally seen a single car, ever, where the stock intake drew from anywhere but the exterior of the car.) Your proverbial "Cone on a Pipe" is a "Warm Air Intake" as it draws air that's already traveled through the radiator and A/C condenser. No heat wrap or insulation is going to fix that. Unless, of course, you also build ducting to avoid this... oh, wait a minute, that's what the stock intake does! I suppose it's possible to construct a "free-er flowing" aftermarket intake, but the stock intake is not, in fact, a bottleneck, so you still don't see a performance improvement!

When making any mod, ask yourself, "Why wasn't this stock"? If a "cone on a pipe" stuck under the hood was an improvement over a conventional airbox, why did VW (and, for that matter, every single carmaker I'm aware of) go with a "duct-to-an-airbox" (usually, if not always, to a panel filter)?

If doing something to your intake will help you sleep better at night, search for the "COAM" here, do that (it's cheap!) and move on to more fruitful mods.
 
#16 ·
You seem awful ambitious, and I like that. But also listen to what some of these people are saying. They are very knowledgeable on the B5 Passat and will help steer you way from wasting money and keeping your car on the road. I don't post much, but I sure do read the advise daily.
 
#19 ·
if the butt dyno agrees, the there is nothing to complain.
Making dyno runs before and after an intake would make it a waste of money though.
As much as people like to disagree, I have yet to see somebody prove on both a V6 and a 1.8t Passat that a properly set up intake does not do jack.

And don't you guys link me to that bloody youtube video lol - the more other things you have done air-flow-wise, the more you will theoretically benefit from a proper intake.

But from what I have seen and heard, at the end of the day a well designed intake set up wont give you any more than single digit HP gains.
Those "extra %20 HP gain" claims are all humbuck.
But hey! It is worth the sound. :)
 
#27 · (Edited)
Get the car running and up to date on maintenance before worrying how to install a CAI or do a AWD conversion.

Bubbling coolant tank could be overheating depending on how long you drove it or engine compression leaking into the cooling system.

An easy check for this is to seal a rubber shop glove on the coolant bowl and run the engine a bit, you should get consistent puffs into it but it shouldn't blow up.
 
#29 ·
update: i flushed the cooling system and refilled it and ran it for 45mins with it running at 200F noproblem. noticed the intercooler was held on with a rope.... (fml) and decided to make it right and when i pulled it off about a pint of oil fell out... i know its running a little hot and at idle it varies about 50-75 rpm. could the oil cause it to overheat and idle funny?
 
#32 ·
I flushed the cooling system and refilled it and ran it for 45mins with it running at 200F no problem.
200F is too hot. It should warm up to 190F and stay there solid as a rock no matter what. What percentage of water to antifreeze did you put in? You should use a 50/50 mixture. Too much water and the mixture won't have a high enough boiling point. Too much antifreeze and the mixture won't carry enough heat (thus reducing the capability of the system).

The idle rpm is computer controlled/stabilized. If it's wavering by 50~75 rpm, something is wrong. You might have a problem with accurate fueling or the ignition system. It could also be as simple as a carboned up throttle body. Scan for codes to see if that gives us some clues to work with.
 
#30 ·
I rather think the oil is a symptom rather than a cause. A very small bit of oil in there is normal but a pint could indicate your turbocharger oil seals are shot. And a bad turbocharger can cause all kinds of trouble.

Rope? This is turning into a poster child for a pre-purchase inspection.
 
#33 ·
...but I took off the bumper cover and then saw the rope. You couldn't see it from under the hood.
I'd do a boost-leak test to see if the intake path is intact. If the previous owner hit a parking block or curb or something hard enough to break the intercooler mounts, the thing might not hold air pressure any longer. Any leak in the intake path will cause all sorts of problems.

You don't need much to do a boost leak test. If you have (or can borrow) a compressor, you can put the rest of the tool together with parts from Home Depot.

boost leak tester - Google Search
 
#34 ·
update: replaced turbo, waterpump, thermasta, all gaskets and did a boost leak test found one little pin hole and just JB welded it. runs like a raped ape now but the secondary fan isnt kicking in, any idea on the fuses are for that? or should i just wire it to a switch?
 
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