[vwb5t]

found this rare gem 15 minutes from my house on Craigslist. after a quick spin and some negotiation it was on the trailer and heading home. it was finally time to dig in and get this thing suited for daily duties. wanted to give it lots of love so i wont have to touch it maintenance wise for a long time

the victim on the operating table

massive pile of parts.

quick run down, timing belt, engine/tranny mounts, new bigger brakes, control arms, cooling system parts, belts, sensors, filters, dipstick, just about everything that leaks, cracks, or makes noise is getting replaced.

more disassembly and cleaning of the firewall and other various oil and dirty spots

aluminum coolant flange and new sensor

upgraded DV

silicone turbo inlet

external oil cooler to rid myself of the stocker, already had the cooler so might as well use it.

and back together, waiting on a breather hose i broke to come in should be tomorrow then i can finish assembly, fill it with fluids and see how she runs. this was all engine work this time, brakes and control arms will be next week

then it needs to be registered, go through emissions, then i can move onto the fun stuff to make it a more enjoyable daily.

 

[kutcht1]

Looks like a nice clean car. I have only seen one of those on CL in about the last year, nice find on a rare version.
TomK

 

[patrickmccaherty]

That is how a car should be gone through. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Electron Man]

Get some Adel or other clamps for those oil cooler lines. I ran a 10-row Serck cooler on the AEB 5 yrs back and had to pull it back off due to the rubber lines getting abraded through due to movement. Not to mention the additional work required to change all the oil (at O/Cs) when running a true oil cooler versus the stock oil/coolant heat exchanger.

Kinda blows that you can't delete SAI, but CT emissions inspections are what they are...

Nice antique fire hydrant, btw.

Looks good so far.

 

[Lesty]

Nice find! It took me a couple of months to find my 1.8t 5 speed 4motion. Seems like your car was already in pretty good shape when you bought it.

Kinda blows that you can't delete SAI, but CT emissions inspections are what they are...

I thought CT allowed you to pass emissions with one readiness monitor "not ready". At least I hope so since I have to delete my SAI as part of the AEB head swap....

 

[vwb5t]

Get some Adel or other clamps for those oil cooler lines. I ran a 10-row Serck cooler on the AEB 5 yrs back and had to pull it back off due to the rubber lines getting abraded through due to movement. Not to mention the additional work required to change all the oil (at O/Cs) when running a true oil cooler versus the stock oil/coolant heat exchanger.

Kinda blows that you can't delete SAI, but CT emissions inspections are what they are...

Nice antique fire hydrant, btw.

Looks good so far.

i have other clamps for the lines, but its been on 3 different cars like it is now and doesn't have any signs of chaffing but i will keep an eye on them. As for changing all the oil its not that hard to do i usually mount the cooler up high beind the grill and then you just have to undo the lines by the filter and most of the oil comes out.

Nice find! It took me a couple of months to find my 1.8t 5 speed 4motion. Seems like your car was already in pretty good shape when you bought it.


I thought CT allowed you to pass emissions with one readiness monitor "not ready". At least I hope so since I have to delete my SAI as part of the AEB head swap....

you can have 1 not ready in CT, i only left the SAIP on for now since i need to hit emissions before i register it so i wanna make sure i pass with ease since i will be bringing it on a trailer cause i dont wanna pay for temp plates and go to the ungodly CT DMV twice.

 

[vwb5t]

all done with the engine work, and doesnt look half bad.

front end back on, it fires and runs nice no issues. just need to put some coolant in it and make sure there are no leaks build a mount for the oil cooler and this phase it done. next is build an exhaust, control arms, brakes, suspension, wheels, tires, and wash the pig and its ready for daily duties.

 

[kutcht1]

Damn, that's fast. I think I have to many projects other than vehicles since it is nice out now. Need to get back to doing some wrenching as I am jealous.
TomK

 

[GLX_Wagon]

Looks great, nice work. Did you do anything with the PCV system? I think the reinforced silicone kit is still my favorite thing I've done on my AWM. Also, what's your plan for the exhaust? I've been toying with ideas now that I seem to have removed all my gremlins.

 

[vwb5t]

i ended up just cleaning up and simplifying the PCV, got rid of the line to the valve cover, the suction jet pump, lots of random vac lines but kept the purge, leak detection, and SAIP for now. will toss the SAIP at some point as i have a tune that codes it out waiting to go in the car. the rest was just a clean up using a mix of new and old stock parts, a parts washer to clean the hardlines out and some silicone line. i couldnt justify the cost of the silicone kit given how much else i spent on parts for the car cause at some point i will probably install a catch can and lose most of the rest of the PCV at that point as well.

as for the exhaust, going to build a downpipe off the stock cat and then v-band the rest together and use a vibrant resonator and a y pipe to still have dual exhaust out the rear. not sure on mufflers or tips yet, probably vibrant.

 

[GLX_Wagon]

Solid reasoning. I just got rid of my SAIP yesterday because it was so loud and threw codes all the time anyway. Really opens up a lot of room having all that stuff out of there. How many miles does yours have?

 

[smac4th]

I almost deleted mine when I was installing my fmic. Ended up relocating it and just that alone opened up some room

 

[vwb5t]

all done and driving.

drives decent for a stock suspension car, but that will change soon.

added a thor plate as well since it was laying around the parts bin.

also added some extra horsies to it, launch control on stock suspension and shot stock tires is hilarious.

drained the tranny fluid and rear end to swap those out with fresh stuff.

and that pretty much wraps up the first stage of this project, waiting on one more item to start on the next phase.

 

[vwb5t]

Nice find! It took me a couple of months to find my 1.8t 5 speed 4motion. Seems like your car was already in pretty good shape when you bought it.



I thought CT allowed you to pass emissions with one readiness monitor "not ready". At least I hope so since I have to delete my SAI as part of the AEB head swap....

ended up going to emissions the other day with the tuned ECU in, it has all the emissions deleted and SAIP as well. passed with no issues so you should be fine when its time for yours.

 

[Electron Man]

Take a look at the small rectangular grid area, for intake air flow, to the left (in photo below) of the hood release lever. On my Sept. 03 build Passat, that entire grid area is ****ing closed off! As in molded blind...as in no intake air is gettin' through here. :grrr:

Damn month-to-month VW parts variation... :banghead: Thanks for posting close up shots of your daily.
:beer:

 

[vwb5t]

Take a look at the small rectangular grid area, for intake air flow, to the left (in photo below) of the hood release lever. On my Sept. 03 build Passat, that entire grid area is ****ing closed off! As in molded blind...as in no intake air is gettin' through here. :grrr:

Damn month-to-month VW parts variation... :banghead: Thanks for posting close up shots of your daily.
:beer:

grill has been changed out to a badgeless style one so it is different than the stocker. the stock one was blocked off like yours is.

 

[VAGguy]

grill has been changed out to a badgeless style one so it is different than the stocker. the stock one was blocked off like yours is.

As is my early 04. Only the V6 had openings there iirc.

Matt, are all crankcase vapors now coming from the breather tube under the intake since you swapped the VC?

 

[vwb5t]

yes they are, just like on the earlier 1.8t engines.

 

[vwb5t]

started working on the suspension and brakes, had a few issues but nothing a BFH and a sawzall couldnt handle

just noticed the broken coil in the background, that's from the rear spring

also broke a bolt, hopefully i can drill it out if not i think i have spare hats just have to find them.

i went into it knowing the pinch bolt wasnt budging and i hate dealing with them also the stock knuckles were horribly rusted and just looked awful, so found a really good set for cheap on ebay from a cali junkyard.

 

[GermanGuy]

You need the stock springs? I think I still have my stock suspension (same model as you) in a corner in the shed , had around 78k on it when I switched to H & R and Koni sports in 2012.